Bryan Danielson says he was contacted by Vince McMahon just days prior to AEW All Out in 2021

During an interview with Nick Stav, Bryan Danielson commented on debuting with AEW at the 2021 All Out PPV event along with Adam Cole…

“I hadn’t actually signed my contract until like two or three days before that [All Out]… I wanna say Adam Cole didn’t sign until that day. I think maybe he had agreed to come, but you never know what’s gonna happen. When WWE found out that I hadn’t signed yet, they actually said, ‘Is there anything we can do?’

“I called Vince [McMahon] in early August, because I was going back and forth. I had called Vince because he and I had a really good relationship. I called him in early August and let him know, ‘Okay, I’ve made my decision and I’m gonna do this.’ Then he had called me like one time kind of in the meantime and said like, ‘Hey, what if we offered you this instead?’ That sort of thing… It was maybe five days before the pay-per-view and he called me. And this is what I told him, I said, ‘Sir, I’ve already agreed to this thing and if I was somebody to go back on this, I feel like you have a decent amount of respect for me. Would you still respect me? One of the things that you respect about me is I honour my word.’ But it was a great conversation and he said, ‘Damn it, you’re right.'” (quotes courtesy of Cultaholic.com)