WRESTLINGVOICE: Interview With Christopher Daniels: ROH, TNA Release, WWF Career

In this exclusive interview Christopher Daniels talks to Wrestling Voice writers Duane Doogan & Luke Barry about ROH’s upcoming schedule, his TNA release, the unlikely inspiration for his Fallen Angel gimmick, Curry Man, Suicide, his WWF career, WCW and much more.

To listen to the interview click here to download to iTunes so you can listen on the go and on demand. Alternatively you can read the full interview below.

Duane Doogan: “Hello and welcome to another edition of The Wrestling Voice on iTunes and WrestlingVoice.net, I’m Duane Doogan…”

Luke Barry: “…and I’m Luke Barry”

DD: “…and we’re joined today by a man who has wrestled the world over and is considered one of the best in ring workers in the business, ladies and gentlemen The Fallen Angel, Christopher Daniels, Chris, thanks for coming on the show”

Christopher Daniels: “Hey, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.”

DD: “Alright, well our first question as always; were you a fan of the business growing up?”

CD: “Oh absolutely, I grew up in North Carolina… the stuff that I watched as a kid was Mid-Atlantic, the whole NWA and the very beginnings of WCW, so I grew up watching guys like the Four Horsemen, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Road Warriors, Magnum TA was a big favorite of mine as a kid before he had his accident… yeah I grew up watching that stuff and the NWA to me, was professional wrestling, I wasn’t even introduced to things like the World Wrestling Federation or even the AWA until cable became a standard in the households of America but before that it was all NWA stuff and that’s what I grew up watching.”

LB: “That’s cool and how did you actually first get involved in Pro Wrestling?”

CD: “Well, I got my degree in theatre, I graduated college hoping to be an actor and so after I graduated I moved to Chicago to sort of break into the theatre scene out there and I’d always joked with, well at the time she was my girlfriend, she’s now my wife, but I joked around and I said ‘well, maybe if this acting thing doesn’t work out maybe I can be a pro wrestler’, and I sort of said that tongue in cheek, I had no idea what it took to do any of that I was just as fan though, oh I’d love to try it, and so she found a school in Chicago called Windy City Pro Wrestling and she made an appointment for me and I went in and spoke to Sam DeCero who was the owner and provider and I came out of there think, I’ll give this a shot and if I fail at it at least I can say I tried at it, and I did not fail, I went in and excelled at it and started wrestling 3 months after I started training and the rest is somewhat history.”

DD: “What year would that have been when you started wrestling?”

CD: “I started training in January in 1993 and my first match was in April of that same year.”

DD: “You were a member of the Funkin’ Dojo in 1998 and during this time wrestled several televised and dark matches for the then WWF, how did this come about and what exactly was your relationship with the WWF?”

CD: “Well, my friend from Windy City [Pro Wrestling], his name was Kevin Quinn, had met Victor Quinones when he was in Puerto Rico, and so through him I knew Victor and I decided to go to WWF television taping in Phoenix and Victor set up a Shotgun Saturday Night match between me and Taka Michinoku and that match sort of got me on the map with the WWF guys, they offered me a spot in one of the Funkin’ Dojo’s, which was basically a try out camp when that was going on, when they had those dojo’s at Titan Towers and Dory Funk [Jr] was running them it was sort of a tryout camp, so I went and I did that camp with guys like Kurt Angle and Test and Steve Williams, Tiger Ali Singh, Steve Corino, I went through that Dojo and on occasion did dark matches, I on occasion did televised matches for WWF and sort of kept in touch throughout my career and tried to get in, and just something never clicked, I guess they never saw anything in me that they wanted to put any effort into so I never really had any long term relationship with them other than the occasional dark match.”

LB: “Something I was always wondering, what was the inspiration behind The Fallen Angel gimmick?”

CD: “The Fallen Angel was a name that I came up with just I was a good guy and became a bad guy and that was sort of the influence of that but then once I saw Dustin Runnels do the Goldust character I was really impressed on how that character and his take on sexuality, sort of, touched everyone across the board, no matter where you’re from or what you’re background was, everyone has a strong opinion about their own sexuality and so they reacted accordingly to what Dustin was doing so I looked at that and thought what other topics does everybody have a strong reaction to and the answer I came up with was religion so I came up with this idea of someone with a God complex, someone who thought he was God and I sort of tinkered with it over the years in places like Ring Of Honor, places like TNA and I had different levels of success with it, I was just very lucky to have a gimmick like that and very lucky to have that opportunity.”

LB: “Another gimmick that you went with was The Curry Man gimmick, which couldn’t have been further from the Fallen Angel gimmick, what was the decision to portray such different gimmick, sometimes simultaneously?”

CD: “Well I went to Michinoku Pro in the Spring of ’99 and I did a tour for them as myself and the next tour they did was a masked man tour where they would do a tournament with all these masked characters, and some of these characters were guys like Tiger Mask who was established and others were created specifically for that tournament and one of those was Curry Man, and they offered that role to me based on what they saw in my skills as myself so when I first started doing that character I wasn’t sure what they wanted, a comedy character, a serious character, and over the course of the tournament I got a strong reaction from the fans and the other characters that were created for the tournament sort of faded out they kept bring me back to do Curry Man and I decided to have fun with the character so that's where the whole idea of the dancing, and the funny hats and the things I would do in the ring [came from], just that outlandish character came to life from me trying to have fun with it.”

DD: “In 2001 you wrestled on Nitro and following that tryout you were offered a 90-day contract but following that tryout WCW was then bought out by VInce McMahon, did the WWF approach you at all or was the buyout before the contracts were signed?”

CD: “When the contracts were bought out they basically took a list of all the people that were under contract and they either said yes or no to signing them over to the WWF, and I was one of those they said no to, at the time it was just a development contract and I didn’t really know what the decision behind not signing it over was maybe the sheer numbers, there was a good number of people brought over, I must not of fit into their plans at that point so I can’t really comment on what was the final decision as to why but that’s what happened, I just found out I wasn’t part of that buyout and I was released.”

LB: “You are probably best known for your time in TNA and more specifically being one of the men who revolutionized the X Division, what are some of your personal highlights from your 8 years with the company?”

CD: “Pretty much anything I did with AJ [Styles] & [Samoa] Joe, it’s the stuff that still people talk about in terms of when they think of TNA what matches they think of, the first thee-way between me, AJ & Joe at Unbreakable, people still comment on that match and that says a lot to me about not just the fans and what they looked at and what they thought what TNA meant but what we put into the ring that day and I was also very proud of the stuff I did with Elix Skipper in Triple X, you know I wish we’d had a little more to do as a tag team, especially when Low-Ki was there, I thought the three of us as a team had a lot of potential, I think just scheduling kept it from growing into what it could have been, but those things and I look back at my time in TNA fondly, I was proud of all the stuff I ever did and the guys there are still my friends and I still support them.”

DD: “In 2009 you were asked to play yet another character, filling in for Kaz playing Suicide, how do you feel about basically standing in knowing that Kaz would resume to role upon his return from injury?”

CD: “I was fine with it, it was an opportunity to be a team player and help the company out, I knew that it was going to be a short time of me under the hood but you know I just wanted to help out and help my friend, it was unfortunate he got injured doing what he was doing and I just wanted to help out and be that team player and sort of get that character of the ground and when Kaz took that he back he sort of made the character his own and I had fun doing something different and I felt it showed my versatility as a performer to go out there and do something completely different character, different from Christopher Daniels, different from Curry Man and a lot of people still aren’t sure where Christopher Daniels ended and Kaz started and that to me says a lot about me and Kazarian about how we are as characters and how we are as performers.”

LB: “And just sticking with TNA for one more question, earlier this year on iMPACT! you cut a promo stating you intended to reignite the flame of the X Division yet less than a month later you were released from your contract was this a mutual release or was it a one party decision?”

CD: “No it was a one party decision, I had no idea it was coming, it was a decision that they made and I’m just sort of dealing with it, they wanted to go a different direction and I don’t necessarily agree with that decision but I’m sort of forced to deal with but in them closing the door its opened the door for me to go back to Ring Of Honor and do some fresh matches with some new people and sort of continue my career in a new avenue.”

DD: “When you returned to Ring Of Honor, you came back, you were there at the very beginning, wrestling in the promotions first main event so how did it feel going back to the promotion as one of the founding fathers?”

CD: “Well I thought it was an opportunity not just for me but for the company to freshen up, I felt like being there it lands a credibility to some matches and the opportunity to work with guys, you know Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Tyler Black, guys that I hadn’t had a chance to work with before and also sort of open the door for me to work with guys that I had worked with in the past but hadn’t worked with for a long time guys like Austin Aries or Steve Corino or Kevin Steen and to me I felt like it challenges me to step up, having been there before and having done this for 18 years I still try to pride myself on begin able to keep up with the forefront of professional wrestling and in doing that you have to keep up with the guys on the front line and guys like Davey Richards who many consider to be the best in the world today, for me to get into the ring with him one-on-one I’m looking forward to that and just test my skills and see if I still have what it takes to be considered one of the top guys in the world.”

LB: “And there’s a lot coming in the near future with Ring Of Honor and with Chris Daniels, would you like to tell the Wrestling Voice listeners what they can expect from the two in the near future.”

CD: “Well I can tell you this, this weekend in Dayton, OH, and in Chicago Ridge, IL, two big matches, the two main events of the two shows, the first night myself and Davey Richards are tagging for the first time ever against the Kings of Wrestling for the World Tag Team Titles and then the very next night for the first time ever Christopher Daniels versus Davey Richards one-on-one and these are gonna be big tests for me. I feel like I’ve always excelled as a tag team wrestler I feel like I’ve always understood what it took to be a team player and Davey is the same way, we’ve both been tag team champions in Ring Of Honor with multiple partners so if there are any two guys who can gel despite the fact that we’ve never tagged before it would be me and Davey, so the possibilities of becoming Tag Champions are very high and the next night knowing that we have to face each other for the first time it definitely gets my competitive juices flowing. I look forward to getting in the ring with him and to prove to not only the world but to myself that I still have what it takes to be considered one of the best in the world.”

DD: “Next month, Ring Of Honor have Survival Of The Fittest, do you have any matches scheduled or will that all depend on this weeks events?”

CD: “I haven’t heard one way or the other, but I do know that the next night in Toronto I’ll be challenging Roderick Strong for the Heavyweight Title, it’s my first Heavyweight TItle shot since returning to the company and I hope to go into event with the momentum of this weekend hoping to win both of our matches, if I were to defeat Davey Richards in Chicago Ridge I feel like I would have a ton of momentum heading into a title match with Roderick and I feel like I could come of that match Ring Of Honor Heavyweight Champion.”

LB: “Either way, Chris Daniels versus Roderick Strong is bound to be an amazing match.”

CD: “Absolutely, I think Roderick has stepped up his game, he has been on the forefront of ROH for a long time but now as the Heavyweight Champion he has s tepped up his spot. It comes to him now for his first title defense so he’s going into it with a lot to prove, there’s a lot of difference between winning the championship and retaining the championship. Now it’s a matter of upping the intensity to remain champion. For me, as someone who has been trying for seven years to become ROH Champion, this is a big opportunity for me and I don’t want it to pass me by.”

DD: “Well Chris, best of luck with your matches next week and Toronto next month, Wrestling Voice listeners can catch RIng Of Honor every Monday night on HDnet, Chris, thanks for talking to us.”

CD: “Thank you guys, appreciate it, I’d like to say thanks to all the fans who are listening and reading this, if it wasn’t for their support I wouldn’t be where I am today so I appreciate everything. So thanks guys, take care.”