Christopher Daniels on the Wild Ride of AEW, Teaching Young Talents to Avoid His Mistakes

– The Wrestling Inc. Daily recently interviewed wrestler and AEW star Christopher Daniels, who discussed his historic career, the first two years of AEW being a wild ride, and mentoring young talents and teaching them to avoid his past mistakes. Below are some highlights from WrestlingInc.com.

Christopher Daniels on AEW: “It’s been two years for us. We were there at the beginning. To see us come into this last full year of television for us has been a wild ride to be sure, and the pandemic has sort of steered us in a wacky direction, but the truth is, the fact that we’re still going strong, the fact that our ratings are going so well and fans have expressed a lot of support for our company and for our product, it’s meant a lot to us. It makes us feel good to know that we’re on the strong path right now and all our cylinders are firing, and hopefully, once this pandemic is over and we’re back in front of a live audience around the country, we’re definitely looking forward to bringing the game back in front of fans because that’s really the best way to enjoy this wrestling is in front of the fans. It’s hard to appreciate it until you’re not there. The first couple of months where we were in front of live, full arenas, I miss those days.”

Daniels on the spotlight the tag team division has been given in AEW: “I think it’s awesome. I sort of knew that was the way it was going to be. Having The Young Bucks being EVPs, they were going to focus on the tag team division, and I think in the last couple of months, especially with the arrival of FTR, I have to say, I personally feel like those guys, they’re one of the best teams in the world. Their past match with The Bucks at the last PPV was just amazing, and I think Dax [Harwood] and Cash [Wheeler], they’re great.

“I’m big fans of their work. I’m big fans of their work ethic. That’s just two of the guys. That’s just two of the teams, like you said, in a full roster in addition to me and Frankie, in addition to Jurassic Express, Private Party [and] Best Friends, who I also think are great. It’s just a full boat, and it’s an embarrassment of riches for AEW [and] the tag team division.”

Daniels on helping the talent behind-the-scenes: “I’m one of the guys, in addition to being a wrestler, I’m also one of the guys behind the scenes that’s sort of trying to guide the younger talent, give them the benefit of my experience in television wrestling. There are people like Private Party, and Sonny Kiss and Jurassic Express that I try to give advice to when I can, but I’m just one of the many. There’s a lot of guys behind the scenes, especially guys like Jerry Lynn, Dean Malenko [and] Colt Cabana. These are all guys that are also helping the younger talent sort of come into their own, and so there’s no lack of guys that are trying to help the roster sort of come into their own when it comes to television, when it comes to the wrestling scene. I’m just happy to be a part of that crew. It warms my heart to know that people respect my opinion enough to want my input, to want my opinion on their their work and I try to give the benefit of my experience. I try to build them up, and hopefully, have them avoid the mistakes that I made coming up and just become more well-rounded wrestlers overall.”

Christopher Daniels on a mistake he made earlier in his career: “Honestly, it’s literally just about making stuff important. I go back and watch a lot of the stuff that I did back in the day, and it was a lot of wrestling just to show that I could wrestle. And I realized that sort of stuff is sort of pointless. Not pointless but it’s just a waste. I don’t want these guys — there’s a finite amount of bumps that we can all take as human beings, and I don’t want these guys wasting bumps, and falling down and potentially risking injury just to show that they can do something cool. I try to tell these guys make all these things important. They’re only as important as you make them, and if you act like it’s no big deal, then fans they’re going to act like it’s no big deal as well. The things that you deem important, the fans are going to feel are also important. So I try to express that to them so that they understand the more you make something mean, it’s going to mean that much more to the wrestling fan.”