Bryan Danielson has brought back the Yes! chants. The American Dragon trademarked his iconic catchphrase this past July and utilized it on weekly television leading up to his AEW ALL IN: London headlining title bout against Swerve Strickland. Throughout that contest, Wembley Stadium erupted in Yes! chants, both encouraged by the challenger and mocked by the champion. Danielson went on to defeat Strickland and capture the AEW World Championship for the first time, extending his full-time wrestling career by at least a little while longer. Danielson has continued to use the Yes! chants on AEW programming but has not branded the catchphrase on any of his merchandise.
WWE Sent Bryan Danielson Legal Letter Following Yes! Trademark
The American Dragon’s former employer met his Yes! with a No.
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Speaking to Luke James Chats, AEW World Champion Bryan Danielson revealed that WWE sent him a “legal letter” after he applied to trademark Yes! Yes! Yes! in July.
“I applied for it, but then I got, it wasn’t necessarily a cease and desist, but some sort of legal letter from WWE,” Danielson said. “It’s really weird because my manager texted me and said, ‘Hey, this thing is available, do you want to get it?’ I was like, ‘How much does it cost?’ It wasn’t that much. ‘Okay, sure.’ Shortly after that, I got an email from WWE saying, ‘This is infringing on this or that or whatever.’”
Upon his initial AEW signing in Summer 2021, Danielson emphasized that he would be respecting “WWE’s intellectual property” and not partaking in any Yes! chants. He traded in his signature Yes! chants shuffle down the ramp during his entrance for a simple arms extended pose. He would break this unwritten rule on a couple of occasions, notably leading a Yes! chant in the late stage of his AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 bout against Kazuchika Okada. He told ComicBook that that was done out of desperation, as he had broken his arm at that point in the match and felt like he needed to get the crowd back into the match.
Regardless of when and where he’s used the Yes! chant, it has always been just that, a chant.
“I’m like, ‘I’m not trying to sell anybody anything,’” Danielson continued, alluding to the fact that Yes! is nowhere to be found on his merchandise. “‘I just do my thing.’”
Danielson defends the AEW World Championship against Jack Perry at AEW All Out this Saturday, September 7th.
