Former TNA Wrestler Christopher Daniels recently spoke to Lee Sanders of the RCWR Show via a live Skype video interview. Here are some highlights:
On his TNA departure and if he has any bitterness, irritation, frustration: Just disappoint really. I envisioned there be an opportunity for Bad Influence vs the Wolves to happen on television but I found out that really wasn’t in the plans. TNA made the decision of what they thought was best for their product. I don’t necessarily agree with it but in the end it’s their decision and they need to make the decision that they think are best for their business. Whether it’s for financial reasons, creative reasons or a mixture of the two. So disappointment? Yes but not frustration or bitterness. It’s happened before. For every company around has made decisions that have fans scratch their heads on but at the same time those guys have the long term picture in their heads and it may not be clear to the wrestling fans at this point of why they’re doing it but something will come in the future where they will understand and at the same time I’m not dwelling on that decision. I’m looking forward to working in different companies, and the many matchups available for myself and Frankie Kazarian right now in the independent scene. It’ll be interesting to see what we do in the next couple of months.
On fans perception of TNA becoming an unrecognizable product without veterans such as he, Kazarian, AJ Styles, Sting, and how important they are to the growth and success of a promotion: In terms of my presence there you’ll see and feel in the next couple of months cause I won’t be there and you’ll be able to notice before Daniels and after Daniels in that respect. But for people that are saying they’re not going to recognize the talent roster, my retort to that is there’s still going to be guys like James Storm, Ken Anderson, Gunner, Robbie E and Jesse G, people like Gail Kim and the Beautiful People are still there. And then you’re getting this opportunity with guys like Sanada, like Brittney, like Tigre uno, Bram, even Magnus who is still somewhat new to the promotion or at least to the position that he’s in far as being one of the top guys. He’s still a young face and is making strides as a character and as a performer. I think that most wrestling fans will give wrestling an opportunity and it’s up to those people that I just named to give the wrestling fan base reasons to continue to tune in. I neglected to even mention Eric Young who’s their new World champion there. He’s been around for a while, he’s a recognizable face and he’s now the World champion. He’s already got another show in the works for Animal Planet, he’s a very high profile individual and probably a very good choice of World Champion at this point. Now it depends on building up that fan base and getting them use to the idea of Eric Young as champion and those names that I just mentioned to be the benchmark for the company.
On Eric Young’s tenure as champion so far while Impact Wrestling ratings suffer as possibly a result of his title reign: I feel like he sort of got thrown in the deep end. There wasn’t really an opportunity for fans to get behind him, get behind his road as a no. 1 contender. It all happened so quickly. That’s no fault to Eric as it’s the decision the creative team made. Now it’s up to the creative team and the company as a whole to sort of get behind Eric. The creative team has to decide on how to present him as a strong champion and put all their effort behind him or do you go back to Magnus. Are they going to make Eric a transitional champion and put the title on someone else? These are all the questions that have to be answered in the next couple of months. I feel like if he’s given the chance to succeed on his own merit then I believe he can succeed. It’s just a matter of how decisions are made sometimes and like I said you don’t always understand them when their first made but hopefully people can take a step back and sort of look at the grand picture and hopefully things will turn out will for Impact and Eric Young overall.
Why we never saw him as TNA champion and if serious talk over the years saw him close to booked as champion: Not my decision. Those decisions don’t come from us. Any wrestler that has ever been asked why you haven’t been World champion yet the answer is you’re asking the wrong people. When you have your interview with John Gaubrick, Dave Lagana or Matt you can ask them. I think every wrestler in the world has wanted to be World champion at some point and written a scenario where they could be World champion and I’m no exception. I’ve pitched ideas and thought to myself maybe I could do this or that or maybe this would be a good position for me, why they didn’t go that way? In the end it goes back to that broad picture. Creative teams usually have this broad idea and they have certain months and months in advance sort of laid out and their decision making…it’s not up to me to question as I just assume they are just doing what’s best for their business. I thought for a while I was hot enough to do something in that respect but they obviously had a different idea or at least they viewed me in a different light in terms of what I could bring to the table as a character, performer.
