Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and AEW.

Bryan Danielson Says He Enjoyed WWE Creative

Most wrestlers who leave WWE tell you how much they hated working under the company's creative confines. Jon Moxley did it; Miro did it; on and on we could go with wrestlers saying they felt unshackled after leaving WWE.

Bryan Danielson isn't most people.

Danielson, who has remained complimentary of his time in WWE since leaving for AEW, says working with writers was a pleasant experience for him, and there were even times it helped him creatively.  

“I love working with the writers. I like collaborating. I had a really good time with that," Danielson said on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast. "Actually, one of my favorite times was as a bad guy in WWE as the ‘Planet’s Champion’, and the writer I worked with was Robert. We had so much fun, and he would present me with a piece of paper. I had a lot more leeway than a lot of people in WWE. I would work with the writer and be like, ‘Hey, what if we say this? What if we say this?’ And Robert was great because he would pull me back from the edge."

AEW, in stark contrast to WWE, tends to allow its wrestlers to cut their own promos with some level of guidance to help move forward the storyline.

It's worth noting that Danielson's experience isn't the one had by most wrestlers in WWE. He had the clout of being a multitime WrestleMania main eventer who was considered the best worker and one of the most over characters on television. That tends to lead to some more leeway in terms of storylines.

Rollins Talks Future, Contractual Status

One person we'll likely never see make the leap from WWE to AEW is Seth Rollins, who has been a company man through and through—sometimes to his own detriment.

That said, he's begun thinking of what his life would look like after wrestling. Rollins said he plans on continuing with WWE through his current contract, which he says runs for three or four more years.

“Now, as a dad, part of me is starting to shift a little bit. I have a couple years left on my contract, I definitely want to see that through," Rollins said on the Broken Skull Sessions. "After that, we’ll see what happens. I don’t know, I wish I had a proper answer because I love it, but life is starting to get a lot bigger when you got a little baby girl and when my contract is up, she’ll be about 3 or 4 and ready to go into school and do stuff. We’ll see. If it all ended tomorrow, I’d be pretty satisfied with the things I’ve accomplished and the contributions I’ve made to the business. I always wanted to leave it better than I found it and I’ve been able to do that in some respects. I’m proud of that.”

Rollins is 35, so he'll be either 38 or 39 by the time his contract runs out. We've seen several wrestlers continue at a high level well into their 40s in the modern era, and Rollins takes excellent care of his body.

It seems possible, if not likely, that Rollins would want to work a more limited schedule when his next contract comes around. Outright retirement doesn't seem like it's in the cards.

WWE Happy With Lynch-Belair Program

Fans may not love it, but WWE is reportedly happy internally with how things have gone in the Becky Lynch-Bianca Belair program.

Fightful Select reported the feud has been well-received backstage, even as fans haven't quite bought in to Lynch as a heel quite yet. Around half of the crowd at Extreme Rules still very much wanted to cheer Lynch, who was arguably the company's most over babyface before going on maternity leave.

Lynch returned as an arrogant heel—much to the chagrin of some fans—and entered into a program with Belair, who stepped into the void at the top of the women's division.

Both women have done excellent work to get this creative over with fans, and Belair is probably the only babyface woman on the roster well-liked enough to make fans boo Lynch. With Sasha Banks now in the mix, it'll be interesting to see how things play out Thursday on SmackDown.

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