AEW is growing its brand pretty rapidly, with the promotion gaining popularity by the week given its major unveilings over the past few months. The younger company now has plenty of former WWE names on its roster, including the likes of Big Show, Mark Henry, Christian Cage, Malakai Black and Miro.
Perhaps the biggest name to show up for AEW so far is CM Punk, who debuted at Rampage last month. Sting is also now a huge part of AEW content and it is expected that the likes of Daniel Bryan and Ric Flair could join in time to come. The same applies to Braun Strowman, who was shockingly released by WWE earlier this year.
Two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T sounded off on the trend on a recent episode of his Hall of Fame podcast.
“These guys have every right to actually do it the way they want to do it if they’re not happy. Daniel Bryan has had a great career in WWE. He was making money even on the independent circuit. This guy has put in the work, so I’m not gonna hate," he said in quotes transcribed by EWrestlingNews.com.
"The thing is, WWE shouldn’t hate either. Basketball players go to other teams every year. You saw LeBron James leave Cleveland and say, ‘Man, I’m going to South Beach.’ I understand, and I get it. If I was one of those guys, I might be thinking the same exact thing, just like a Daniel Bryan. He’s been in WWE how long? And the thing is, it’s not like it used to be where back in the day, guys wanted to have a 20-year career in WWE. It was different. It’s a totally different time right now with these young guys and the way they see this business.
"It’s their world right now. I can’t sit here and hate on anything Daniel Bryan is doing. One thing about him in AEW is he’s gonna be able to write his own ticket and have the matches he wants to have. Go out and create the stories he wants to create. That’s what a lot of times these guys are looking for. I always wanted to be able to create and do my own thing as well. I knew I wasn’t gonna be able to do that in WWE. That’s why I got Reality of Wrestling. I was like, I’ll create my own stories and create my own angles.”
On Daniel Bryan
Booker also expressed excitement at potentially seeing Bryan make his AEW debut.
“Hell yeah, I like Daniel Bryan. He’s my guy……let me tell you right now, I don’t want anybody to get it twisted and say, ‘Booker T, he’s not excited about Daniel Bryan coming over.’ Hell yeah, I’m excited, but I wanna see some action, man," he added.
"I want to see some action from CM Punk. I want to see some action from Malakai [Black]. People can be happy all they want, but I want to see some action…..Daniel Bryan does his best work inside the ring. He’s a talker, but he does his best work inside the squared circle.”