Bryan Danielson Reveals What Led Him to Use ‘The Final Countdown’ as His Entrance Theme

Bryan Danielson has been regarded as one of the most remarkable wrestling veterans in the business, who walked into a high-stakes ‘Title vs Career’ match against Swerve Strickland at the 2024 AEW All-In, which took place recently in Wembley Stadium in London.

The interesting part was that The American Dragon entered the match on ‘The Final Countdown’ as part of his entrance. During the media scrum following the 2024 AEW All In pay-per-view event, Danielson discussed his decision to use Europe’s iconic song. Danielson explained that his choice was initially made as a joke.

While travelling frequently to Japan, he stumbled upon a music magazine that listed the “hundred worst songs of all time,” with “The Final Countdown” ranking near the top. This led Danielson to download the song from Napster and eventually decide to use it as his entrance theme, never expecting it to catch on as it did.

Furthermore, Bryan Danielson shared his surprise at how the song became a staple of his entrance in Ring of Honor and expressed amazement that, two decades later, he would be using it in front of tens of thousands of fans. He even joked about the possibility of Europe lowering the licensing fee for the song, given its enduring popularity among wrestling fans.

“I chose it as a joke. I was going to Japan a lot and would pick up music magazines at the airport. They used to have all these lists of best songs or whatever. Well, they had the hundred worst songs of all time. I think number one was ‘Final Countdown.’ I was going through them and, I hate to say this, illegally downloading them on Napster. Like ‘Oh, I love this song! I haven’t heard this song in years!’ or whatever it is. ‘Final Countdown’ was—if it wasn’t number one, it was top 10. I was like, ‘Oh, this would be awesome entrance music.’ I do a lot of things to entertain myself. But I never once thought it would catch on in Ring of Honor. Let alone that 20 years later I would be doing it in front of 50-plus thousand people. So yeah, and with a whole 50,000 people singing along to ‘The Final Countdown.’ I don’t know if anybody’s shown this to Europe—if you could, maybe they might bring down the price. It might get us a couple more buys.”

Moreover, AEW President Tony Khan revealed that the company had locked in a great deal with Europe and hoped that AEW could use more of the song in the future.

“Hopefully, they’ll give me a break, but yeah, we’ve locked in a great deal with Europe and are looking forward to more ‘Final Countdown’ plays. I hope, but that is yet to be seen. It’s been a very fortunate thing that they’ve been willing to work with us because, to Keith’s point and what Brian said, it’s added so much to the presentation. It’s one of the most iconic wrestling themes of all time and one of my favorite moments ever in the business.”

The match amazed the audience at Wembley Stadium as Bryan Danielson fought with every ounce of strength in his body against Swerve Strickland. The ending of the bout saw Bryan tapping out Strickland to become the new AEW World Champion, meaning that his career was still intact, and The American Dragon was now set to begin his reign at the top of the AEW mountain.

Do you want to see Bryan Danielson use the Final Countdown often for special events as part of his entrance? Sound off in the comments!