Daniel Garcia on Viewing Sports Entertainment & Wrestling as Different Things

– During a recent interview with Bleacher Report’s Chris Mueller, AEW wrestler Daniel Garcia discussed his current storyline with Chris Jericho and Bryan Danielson, along with the feud being about sports entertainment vs. professional wrestling. Below are some highlights:

Garcia on the difference between wrestling and sports entertainment: “I do think that pro wrestling and sports entertainment are different things. I know you’ve heard people even say it on podcasts. You’ve heard Triple H say it on Logan Paul’s podcast that there’s a difference between a sports entertainer and a pro wrestler. And I think I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t any difference. I think that sports entertainment is maybe more challenging than pro wrestling, to me anyway. I never grew up saying I want to be a sports entertainer. When I grew up, I wanted to be a pro wrestler. And then when I went to wrestling school and started to learn different styles of professional wrestling, I really realized what the difference was.”

His thoughts on sports entertainment: “Sports entertainment, people think it’s more consumable to a wide audience. And it’s not. Pro wrestling can garner just as much emotion and as much storytelling as sports entertainment can, if not more. I think sports entertainment can possibly be limiting. Pro Wrestling itself is very different than sports entertainment. I think sports entertainment, if not done perfectly, holds pro wrestling back severely; I think sports entertainment, when it’s great, is amazing. But when it’s bad, it’s bad. It holds pro wrestling back a lot. It can if it’s not done correctly.”