Bryan Danielson appeared on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani yesterday and was asked about the recent WWE releases.
Danielson said he doesn’t want to talk about the subject much because his father-in-law, John Laurinaitis, is the head of talent relations at WWE and he’s the one who gets the unfortunate job to inform those who get cut.
However, the former WWE champion proposed that WWE talent should have the option to give a 90-day notice as well and the deals should not be that much one-sided.
Danielson said that the company right now can cut you and put you on a 90-day no-compete, meaning that during those 90 days, those released cannot work but they will still get paid their regular WWE salary. But those who want to leave WWE have no option to do the same and give the company their own 90-day notice.
He noted that WWE signed a lot of talent to big contracts to keep them from going to AEW but after they realized AEW cannot sign everyone, they started letting people go.
“So now, the people who have too many high-end contracts, if they feel like they’re getting paid more than they should be getting paid, then they will let them go,” he said. “But you offered them a contract to be with you for three years or whatever. If you overpaid them, that’s your bad.”
Danielson also said that WWE is a very profitable company and doesn’t feel it’s okay to cut people and blame it on cost-cutting.
Helwani talked to Danielson for just over 30 minutes and his appearance comes at the start of the show. You can see the full interview below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdmPp9LmLug?start=445&feature=oembed