Le Phallen Angel a été interviewé par Raj Giri pour Wrestling Inc. Comme à son habitude, Raj Giri nous l'a proposé en différente partie. Voici la compilation de trois parties. Je ne vous proposerai pas de traduction tant le travail est important:
I recently spoke with TNA Superstar Christopher Daniels. In the first part of the interview below, Daniels discussed breaking into the business, working for the WWF and WCW, growing up as a wrestling fan, his most serious injury and much more. Make sure to check back tomorrow for the second part of our interview, where Daniels discussed working for ROH, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk's WWE success, starting with TNA, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff joining TNA, Vince Russo's criticism of him, his TNA departure in 2010 and much more.
In the second part of the interview below, Daniels discussed working for ROH, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk's WWE success, starting with TNA, Sting, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff joining TNA, Vince Russo's criticism of him, his TNA departure in 2010 and much more.
In the third and final part of the interview below, Daniels discussed AJ Styles leaving TNA, if the TNA sale rumors affected morale, being paired with Kazarian, Impact going back to Orlando, Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan leaving, tonight's Genesis event and much more.
You can follow him on Twitter @facdaniels.
Wrestling Inc: Did you grow up as a wrestling fan?
Christopher Daniels: Yeah. I grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina where Fort Bragg is, basically where the Mid Atlantic territories were sort of based out of the Carolinas. So I grew up watching guys like Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors. I got a chance to watch all those guys live. Magnum T.A. and the Rock 'n' Roll Express, the Midnight Express. But yeah, man. My dad took me there, to the Cumberland County Arena, to watch it as a kid and I just stuck with it I guess.
Wrestling Inc: Were you primarily an NWA fan growing up?
Daniels: Yeah I was. I was born in the seventies, so I was watching that stuff, but I wasn't watching closely. But right when I started paying attention to the wrestling rather than just watching it as background noise… cable started coming around too then, so like just as I was watching NWA and getting into all that stuff, all of a sudden I had access to World Class on ESPN and AWA and Mid South and even Tuesday Night Titans on the USA Network. Once cable started coming around, I had a lot of access to a lot of different wrestling, but primarily, the Mid Atlantic stuff is what I sort of fell in love with.
Wrestling Inc: Who were some of your favorites during that era?
Daniels: Definitely Magnum T.A. was my first favorite, and then I really enjoyed the Road Warriors and Sting was definitely a big favorite once he joined into the NWA.
Wrestling Inc: Were you pretty much a wrestling fan the whole time until once you got started?
Daniels: Pretty much. I didn't follow it that much in college. I watched it. I didn't get a chance to go to wrestling as often. I guess there was a period of time that I wasn't the rabid fan that I was as a kid, but I still watched it intermittently and still kept up with it.
Wrestling Inc: What made you decide to get into the business?
Daniels: I graduated college, my degree is in theatre, so I went to Chicago and tried to get into the theatre scene up there, but it was real hard to break in and find paying work. It was real easy to find acting gigs, but I couldn't afford to do it for free and there wasn't a whole lot of stuff that I was really paying, basically waiting tables and trying to catch a break. I made a joke to my wife that if this acting thing doesn't work out I can always be a pro wrestler, as a joke. She found out about a school that was about thirty minutes from where we lived, and she made the appointment for me. I went in and met the guy, this was Windy City Pro Wrestling, it was in the south side of Chicago, and the guy's name was Sam DeCero. I met him and came out of the building with this look on my face like I was hypnotized or something. I decided to give it a shot. The acting thing wasn't going very well for me. I was doing a lot of children's theatre and stuff like that. I decided to sort of take a break and give wrestling a try just to say I did it, just to say it was something new or something to try out. I ended up taking to it sort of quickly, I guess. Being a fan as a kid made it easy to go through the training in terms of learning how to do stuff. So I went into training in January of 93, and I had my first match in April of 93. Once I started wrestling matches in front of people, that was when I started learning everything. Basically, you learn everything on the job. Wrestling in front of people, that's where you learn the majority of your stuff. I just sort of took to it pretty quickly and started wrestling right away.
Wrestling Inc: When you started in 93, that period from ' 93 to late '95 was kind of a dark period of wrestling. It was starting to go down in popularity a lot, and there were a lot of these ridiculous gimmicks and not so much in the way of good matches and things like that. What were your thoughts on the industry during that time?
Daniels: I don't know. I was watching then, sort of paying attention, but I don't really look at it… I was sort of a hobby wrestler at that point. I only wrestled like once or twice a month. I don't really remember a lot of wrestling, like my own wrestling, in that period of time. Being in the wrestling school and then wrestling for Windy City after that, I hung out with guys and we tried to send tapes out to places like Memphis and even ECW, but at that point then, I was just look at wrestling as just trying to make my way in. I wasn't really paying attention in terms of like my own stuff, I was just watching… you know, we'd watch the pay per views every month and see what was going on, but in my mind at that point, I was not watching in terms of great matches then. I was just sort of trying to learn and step up.
Wrestling Inc: When you signed the developmental deal with WWF back in the late 90s, what was your reaction to that?
Daniels: It actually wasn't even a developmental deal. It was just an opportunity to go to one of the dojos that Dory Funk Jr. was running. So I really was only just a week in the dojos with guys like Kurt Angle and Steve Corino and Devon Storm, you know, Steve Williams. So I wasn't sure that I'd even made it or not, it was just an opportunity. It was more of like a tryout sort of thing. I was hopeful that something was going to come from it, but it was really just an opportunity to meet guys and it never really transformed into anything bigger than that.
Wrestling Inc: You wrestled for a bit with WWF. What was that experience like during that time?
Daniels: Well, I did a lot of dark matches for them. When they came out to California I made myself available for them. I actually got the opportunity through Jim Cornette and through Victor Quiñones. Victor was the guy who was sort of delegated for all the foreign talent, the Japanese guys and the Mexican guys that WWF brought in for the light heavyweight division they were building. So, the first time I got a chance to work for WWE, they know who I was because my partner from Windy City, Kevin Quinn, he knew Victor from Puerto Rico because we had gone to Puerto Rico in 95 for a period of time and when we were there, Kevin got to know Victor and ended up going to Mexico with him and working under him. So Victor knew who I was, so when he brought Taka, Taka Michinoku, to the WWE, when they came around to Phoenix for matches and they needed a match for Taka, Victor game me the opportunity. So that was how I started getting dark matches and Shotgun Saturday Night matches and stuff like that. I just sort of was working there. It wasn't a matter of hey, this is a tryout, or hey, this is an opportunity for you to keep working here. It was just matches and having good matches. But like the one match that I had with Taka on the television show, it ended up, because of that I ended up getting seen overseas, and because of Jim Cornette and the dojo, I got seen by a lot of promoters on the east coast, and that sort of opened the east coast to me. Being seen overseas got me to England and over to Japan. It started to open up because of that period of time in my life. I started to get more opportunities and I variety of promoters started to book me.
Wrestling Inc: You also had a brief stint in WCW, and that was kind of during their end. Did you feel that they weren't going to be around much longer when you had signed with them?
Daniels: No, I actually, like the first… I actually had two contracts with them. The first time, I got hired by Kevin Sullivan. I had a tryout in Los Angeles that he really liked, and so he hired me. I was finishing up a tour of Japan when Kevin got fired and Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff came back to the company. So it was that night that they did the reset in Denver, Colorado. That was actually supposed to be my first night, but because Vince Russo didn't know who I was and Eric Bischoff didn't know who I was at that moment, they sort of put me on the backburner. So I ended up going into WCW after the fact and was meeting with Vince Russo and talking with him about trying to get some stuff going. But because they had so many guys coming through the Power Plant at that point, I was again sort of put to the backburner. So I was with them for the first time like for eight months. I was traveling on the road with them and doing Nitros and things like that, but not being used at all. Finally they started cutting costs and I was let go because like, I hadn't even, I had wrestled like one time for them on the WorldWide tapings against Chris Candido. The rest of the time I was basically traveling with them and not doing anything. So finally, they let me go. Then a couple months later, Terry Taylor called me and asked me if I was available to do a match on Nitro as a tryout, and that was the match I had with Mike Modest. That ended up being the second contract I had, but that was right around the time when I guess all the things started falling apart, but I wasn't on the road with them at that point, so I had no idea what was going on with them. What happened was at the end of that match, Scott Steiner basically came out and destroyed myself and Mike Modest, and so we were at home selling those injuries when the company was sort of on their last leg. So I didn't know because I wasn't traveling with them. I had no idea behind the scenes what was going on until I was told that WCW had closed and they'd been bought out.
Wrestling Inc: So you didn't legit injure your neck during that period?
Daniels: No, I did injure my neck, but that wasn't the injury that I was selling. The gimmick was that this was the Monday after Sid Vicious had broken his leg and so in the match, when Scott Steiner came out and attacked us both, he supposedly broke our legs. So that was the injury that I was selling. I actually did hurt my neck really bad and lost feeling in my arm for about a month and a half, but I continued doing independent shows, like I wrestled like a week later and was still doing independent shows because basically, that was where I was making my money, was on the independents.
Wrestling Inc: Was that the most serious injury you've incurred?
Daniels: Yeah definitely. Yeah that was definitely the one that hurt me the worse. I was wrestling through it and still working through it, but yeah, it was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I was worried that it was going to be a permanent thing, and it slowly but surely sort of wore off. But I still have some damage to, my left arm is still… you know, gets tired quicker. There's still some damage to it, but it's nothing that's really hindered me past that first period.
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Wrestling Inc: You mentioned wrestling all over the world after WCW folded. How valuable do you think that kind of experience is, as far as traveling and working different styles, as opposed to what WWE is moving to now with home growing all of their talent?
Daniels: I think it's invaluable for guys to wrestle a variety of different people only because it gets them more comfortable with themselves. I tell young wrestlers all the time, they need to wrestle as many different people as they can for as many different promotions as they can so that they can get comfortable working with complete strangers for the very first time. A lot of times guys come up from schools and they've wrestled the same people over and over and over and they only get as good as the best person in that pool of people that they're working with. If you can't break out of that pool, if you don't get out of that small system, you're never going to get any better.
I think one of the things the WWE is doing in terms of that, to sort of offset that stagnation, is bring in different trainers, guys that have got that experience, and trying to teach them those different styles in house. Not being part of that, obviously I can't say for sure just because I'm not on the inside. But I know that guys like Norman Smiley, BG James and Billy Gunn and Joey Mercury, all these guys that have done training there, these guys have got experience around the world. So these different trainers, and even guys like William Regal, go in and try and train guys. They've got that experience and they can help these guys sort of learn that style that they have experience in in their careers.
Wrestling Inc: You also worked in ROH for a couple times. You had some great matches with Daniel Bryan, Bryan Danielson at the time, and CM Punk. What was it like working with them at the time? Did you see them going on to have the kind of success that they went on to have in WWE?
Daniels: I always knew that they had the potential for it, it was just a matter of what opportunities were going to come their way. There was a period of time where Bryan wasn't interested in working for the WWE. He just wanted to wrestle, and I guess he thought that the WWE wasn't the best place for him to sort of have the fun in professional wrestling that he wanted to have. I always knew that both of those guys were talented enough and definitely had the drive to be as good as they were. It was really just a matter of having that opportunity afforded to them. It ended up working in their favor and they both, once they were given that opportunity, they both have definitely made the most of those opportunities that were given.
Wrestling Inc: You started with TNA when they first started back in 2002. Around that time there had been a couple of other failed national promotions like XWF that Hulk Hogan was a part of. Did you think that TNA would last as long as it has and burst onto the national scene?
Daniels: Well I definitely hoped that they would have. When we started doing the Wednesday pay per views, there wasn't any outward signs to the guys in the locker room that there were financial troubles. It wasn't until after the fact that we all found out that money wasn't, they weren't making the amount of money that they thought they would. With Panda Energy and Dixie Carter coming along and sort of helping carry the company through those difficult times, we didn't even know about that until after the fact.
But I knew that the Wednesday pay per view, it was a different style. It was a different business model then what I was used to, but I knew I was working regularly and we had an opportunity to sort of make a buzz about the company. That was one of the good things about it, was that there was a lot of hungry people, a lot of guys that had never really had that national spotlight and it was an opportunity to get that spotlight on them.
Wrestling Inc: How would you describe those early years in TNA?
Daniels: I had a great time, man. I think that the one thing, like I said, there were guys that had never really had that opportunity, at the WWE or in WCW, to sort of, get their names known. So we were out there and they just sort of gave us that opportunity, especially with guys in the X Division. They wanted to sort of get that buzz about the company and get the word of mouth going. That was one of the things, man, guys like AJ and Low Ki and Red and Jerry Lynn and me and Elix. We were making, we were sort of the water cooler talk of wrestling. Every Thursday we waited to see if people reacted to what we were doing. We were building good word of mouth about the product.
Wrestling Inc: Definitely, I feel like the best wrestling in the country on a national level was in TNA at that time. You just saw styles that you didn't see anywhere else. What was your reaction when you heard that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff would be coming in?
Daniels: I thought it was going to be a positive thing. I figured that with their name value, television executives and television companies were going to, sort of, pay more attention to us. This was after the fact where we had already been at Spike for a while. We were hoping to strike while the iron was hot in terms of going to the different time changes and the different formats of our show, whether it was an hour show or a two hour show. We're always trying to build momentum and make those small steps forward. Having Hulk and Eric come in, I thought, was another step forward for us in terms of getting more eyes on our product.
Wrestling Inc: Vince Russo was there during that time. He had criticized you in the past about not working on your character and just working on your in ring. What was his plans for your fallen angel gimmick and I guess, what didn't work out for him?
Daniels: I don't know. I don't know. He brought the stuff to me and I thought I did what he asked me to do, and then the feud with Sting ended before it really started. Like my opinion was that they always had other things for Sting to do rather than concentrate on the feud with me. When I asked him about it, he just said it wasn't working and he never really pointed to what wasn't working and why it wasn't working. He just said, "Oh, you know, this isn't going right. We're going to put you back with Triple X." So I mean, my opinion of Vince is that he never really had an idea of what he wanted with me. He never had a way to sort of, vocalize his intentions. He never gave me good direction in terms of what he wanted to see or what was going wrong.
Every time I would ask him, I would come back from a match or come back from a video or a promo, and ask him was that good? Was that what you wanted? And he goes yep, that was what I wanted. Good job. He would never tell me any direction to go. He never gave me any direction to be different. So when he finally said this isn't working out, it surprised me. I didn't know why it wasn't working. With him being the creative voice and not being able to direct, it sort of made it hard, for me anyway, in my experience with him, it was hard to move forward because I had no idea where he wanted me to go.
Wrestling Inc: It seemed like for a while there they were taking the Fallen Angel character, it seemed kind of limiting, like they didn't know where they wanted to go with it. But you did get to work with Sting. You said that he was one of your favorites growing up. What was that experience like?
Daniels: It was fun, man. Getting a chance to share a locker room with him was great, and then finally getting a chance to actually wrestle with him. It meant a lot to me. I thought it was a sign that the company had… I thought it was definitely a sign that somebody had faith in me as a performer, to go out there with one of their top guys and have a singles match. The past couple years too, tagging with Frankie, I've worked a lot with Sting to the point that Sting has told me we're one of his two favorite guys to work with because we're easy to work with. We got out there and have a good time and put on some good matches with him. To sort of, get that nod of respect from him, it has a lot of merit in my eyes.
Wrestling Inc: What led to your release in 2010 from TNA?
Daniels: I think it was really just a matter of the way my contract was structured. At the time I wasn't quite sure what was going on. I thought that things were going well, but I knew that they weren't using me very often. It was partly creative and partly the structure of my contract. I was on the phone with Dixie after the fact, actually Dixie and Vince Russo, and they were like oh, we're going to bring you right back. We've got this idea, and I think some things happened while I was away that changed the idea. So, what I thought was going to be a couple months ended up being 16 months. It ended up being good for me because I ended up going back to Ring of Honor, having good matches with guys like Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards, and I sort of found myself again, back in the wrestling ring, in terms of going out there and having the confidence to be out there with the top guys and have entertaining matches and quality wrestling.
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Wrestling Inc: When you returned to TNA [in 2010] you were feuding with Fortune, but it feels like it wasn't until you were paired with Bad Influence that your personality came out and people really saw how entertaining you could be. It seems like it's taken a while for a character to come where that could really be shown. Would you agree with that?
Daniels: Well what happened was, Vince Russo was in charge when I came back and I think Vince only ever saw me as AJ Styles' friend, and so that was basically how I was cast when he was there. So I didn't, like I was doing stuff with Fortune against Immortal then, but it was always in a supporting capacity to AJ. Once Vince left and they turned me heel, I decided that I was just going to go out there and have fun and be myself. It wasn't until after he was gone that I had the support from the creative guys, guys like Eric [Bischoff], the creative guys David Lagana and Matt Conway, who are writing, and Jason Hervey, who was one of the backstage producers. It wasn't until then, I started getting feedback from those guys in terms of what they thought worked and what they thought didn't, and I started doing stuff and bouncing ideas off of them, and that's when I started getting more and more opportunities on the microphone.
Wrestling Inc: You mentioned Fortune. It seemed like there was something there and it seemed like it ended too quickly. What were your thoughts on that?
Daniels: I was actually fine with when Fortune ended, for me, because I was never really one of the original members, so for me to sort of turn with AJ, that felt fine with me. I think that they saw, especially guys like Bobby [Roode] and James [Storm], I think that they saw an opportunity for those guys to go off on singles careers, and especially in Bobby's case, to actually run as a singles rather than the tag team, which is what they were in Fortune could be. So once they split those guys up, there wasn't really much of a point to keep the other three guys together. And it wasn't until right after that that Frankie and I got together as a tag team. So it ended up working out for everybody, I thought.
Wrestling Inc: As far as you and Frankie, you go way back to UPW. Do you go back further than that, or was that where you guys met?
Daniels: He met me pretty close to when I moved out here to California in '97. He came back from the Massachusetts area. We were working on the independent scene out here. He and I met at Bill Anderson and Jesse Hernandez's The School of Hard Knocks. They had a school in San Bernardino, and so that was where I was driving to train every week to get my ring time in, and he and I met there. It wasn't soon after that that UPW started running and PWG started running, so he and I got to work a lot there. Plus, he started making his name on the east coast. He was doing stuff on the east coast, and that was sort of how he got involved with TNA, and once he was with TNA we started hanging out a lot more often.
Wrestling Inc: Were you guys pretty much tight the whole time? Or did you guys start to get closer once you started to team together?
Daniels: No, we were always close before, especially in TNA. We became close friends right when TNA actually moved from Nashville to Orlando because we were always on the same flights. So we were always hanging out. We ended up, him and myself and AJ and Samoa Joe, we were the four guys that were sort of hanging with each other just because we all got friendly with AJ and then Joe, who was also living in southern California, so the three of us were always on the same flights and we would always hang with AJ. So, that was where we all sort of became close friends.
Wrestling Inc: How did the idea for Bad Influence come about?
Daniels: Frankie and I, right around the end of 2011, we sort of saw the writing on the wall. There wasn't a real big tag team that was going on. They just split up Beer Money and the Motor City Machine Guns were struggling with injuries. So, especially with the way that Bobby and James had gone down, we saw an opportunity to try and be a tag team that they could build up. We were going through periods of time where we saw that there wasn't a big future for us in a singles light. They weren't using either one of us that often one on one. So we decided to pitch our idea to be a tag team, and they came back to us with an idea of going against AJ as the tag team. So while that was going on we just started jelling as a tag team.
Wrestling Inc: I know a lot of fans kind of compare you guys to Edge and Christian with you being… you're really good in the ring, but you can be goofy outside the ring and entertaining in your promos. Do you hear that comparison?
Daniels: I look to those guys, as far as their experience in the ring and what kind of, I guess the image they portrayed as a tag team. Not just that, but being great wrestlers and being entertaining, I think that was the goal. So that's one of the things that Frankie and I are very proud of, is that whether we have to go out on the microphone or we go out and have a wrestling match, we've shown that we can do both equally. There was actually, one of the shows in the past couple months, that was the segment where we did the EGO Hall of Fame, where I thought that we were very entertaining on the microphone and then two segments later Frankie and I had to go out there and wrestle Sting and Magnus in a tag match. I thought that match was actually very strong as well. I think that definitely encapsulated Bad Influence to a T, the ability to go out on the microphone and do an entertaining segment, and ten minutes later come out and wrestle a really good wrestling match. That's us.
Wrestling Inc: What was it like being on the road when Impact went on the road and what are your feelings on returning back to Orlando for the tapings?
Daniels: I thought it was a good for us to move out on the road. There was a feeling of stagnation in the Impact Zone at that point because we were there every week. We had gone live every week for a couple months at that point and I felt like it was getting harder and harder to get a good response out of a live crowd. When we went on the road there was a feeling that we were going to get in front of a bunch of new eyes. There were periods of time with big shows where we were in front of live crowds and people that were really hungry to see the product. So that period of time was really good. But I also know that monetarily, it put a strain on the company. So going back to the Impact Zone, we just recently did the tapings to go through the holidays, I thought those went really well. We came back and we had some good crowds and I feel that the next couple of weeks will show that we had some great stuff happen in the ring. And now the new plan is sort of stay there and do TV tapings occasionally in different venues. I think that's the best of both worlds. We're going to have that central area in Orlando, that central location, but we're also going out every once in a while to do stuff around the United States. I feel like were going to try and keep the product fresh and not give anyone a chance to become numb to the product.
Wrestling Inc: What were your thoughts on Eric Bischoff leaving just recently? I know he had a big hand in TNA's creative direction in the past couple of years.
Daniels: I never had anything but good experiences with Eric. He was always a straight shooter with us, especially with Bad Influence. He was a big supporter of our act and I could always go to him with ideas and get an honest response from him. So I hope that he comes back and does stuff, and if he doesn't, I'm sure that wherever he ends up, he's going to end up being successful. But personally, selfishly speaking, I had fun working with him and I hope that he gets a chance to come back and sort of, continue adding his two cents to our creative direction.
Wrestling Inc: What were your thoughts of Hulk Hogan leaving?
Daniels: Same thing. I always had good experiences with Hulk. I had opportunities to be on camera with him and in the ring with him and I felt like he definitely wanted the best out of all of us. If he comes back, that'd be great, but if not, I understand. He's got his career that he still sort of wants to do and creative things he still wants to do in his life before he completely gets out of wrestling. Whatever's best for him, I wish him good luck.
Wrestling Inc: AJ Styles is now a free agent. He's someone that's been there since the beginning like you, like yourself. What are your thoughts on his departure, and what effect does that have?
Daniels: Well I hope, I'm not sure what his future is with TNA at this point. I'm not sure if he's done with the company, or if he's coming back, or what the situation is. But whatever happens, I've got nothing but respect for AJ. He's done a lot for this company, and if it ends up being that goes in a different direction than TNA, I wish him the best of luck as well. But, I definitely think that he's an asset to our company and there's always room, there's always a spot for him on the TNA roster and I feel like he should just do what is best for him. TNA's going to do what they think is best for TNA. I'm not sure what that is yet, so we'll find out.
Wrestling Inc: Did the reports of TNA possibly being up for sale, or people being interested in purchasing a stake, did that have an effect on morale at all?
Daniels: Not really. I mean, it's sort of out of our wheelhouse to deal with the business end of it in that respect. If the company were to be sold to someone else who's interested in running the show, it would just be a matter of meeting the new owners and doing different things. But I feel like TNA at this point, Dixie Carter and Panda Energy, I feel like they're still behind us and I feel like they're actively still trying to make the best product that they can and still do their best. I feel like we're fine whichever happens. I feel like whether TNA stays with Panda Energy and the Carter family, or if they're sold, we're still going to try and put the best wrestling product out there.
Wrestling Inc: You're seeing Magnus get a big push now, who are some of the young stars in TNA that you see that could become big stars?
Daniels: I feel like Magnus is sort of coming into his own right now. Definitely guys still like Austin Aries and Chris Sabin are guys that are getting opportunities to stand out. Guys like the Bro Mans are doing well. Robbie E and Jessie are getting the opportunity as the tag champs to sort of come into their own as an act, so those guys come to mind.
Wrestling Inc: For a while there, the X Division was a big selling point. I think that brought in a lot of new fans, but it seems like it doesn't get pushed consistently enough. With the UFC, you see the lighter divisions drawing just as much as the heavyweight divisions and things like that. Do you think that could happen with the X Division, where it can be treated on the same level as the world title and kind of use that niche as something different?
Daniels: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like they've done it in the past where guys like Austin Aries and guys like Chris Sabin and guys like Manik, they were holding the belt and the top guys were going for the title, whether it was Jeff Hardy or Samoa Joe. It's just a matter of the athletes that are involved in the division. It's just a matter of getting a group of those guys together and putting the focus on that championship. I'm not sure what's happening in the next couple of months with the X Division Title, but I'm sure TNA is going to focus some emphasis on that as well. Your style in the ring has not changed all that much. You've been in the business for a long time and you still go out there and have great matches. What do you attribute to your longevity? Daniels: Stubbornness, just straight up stubbornness. This is what I love to do. It's how I earn my living and I still want to be one of the best in the business. So, I'm always pushing myself to stay in good shape and try and come up with ideas and different ways to continue to be relevant. The tag team right now with Frankie is still going strong and I still feel like it's one of the most entertaining parts of our show. The feedback that I get from the fans is that we're the reason that a lot of people watch TNA, to see what we're going to do next week every week. It's fun to have that sort of backing from the fans, knowing that we're the highlight of their Impact workweek, so to speak.
Wrestling Inc: You were on the very first TNA Genesis pay per view. You have TNA Genesis [tonight], but it's going to be free on Spike TV. WWE now has their network coming out. They're going to be moving their pay per views to the network. TV companies are now paying insane amounts for rights for sports. Do you think pay per view is starting to become a thing of the past, at least for pro wrestling?
Daniels: Not necessarily. I'm not really sure the business aspect of it all, I just know, for example, for us cutting back on actual pay per views to four a year, we were attempting to try and make those pay per views more special. By cutting them out and having more time in between them, we were trying to build them up. The television stuff is like Clash of the Champions from my era. But I don't feel like they're taking away from the pay per views or anything at all. It's a matter of our business model trying to make it more, trying to build up our shows more to those four tent pole pay per views we have a year.
Wrestling Inc: Do you know what you're going to be doing at Genesis?
Daniels: Not yet, but whatever it is it will be entertaining. That's our job.
Wrestling Inc: Finally, it seems like you guys are going strong, you're not going to call it quits for awhile, but when you're done with wrestling, are you looking to try other things? You mentioned you had acting experience in the past. Or do you still want to be a part of the business? What do you think you want to do once you decide you don't want to wrestle anymore?
Daniels: Wel,l I'm probably still going to be a part of the business just because I don't think you ever really get rid of that feeling, the love that you have for that sport or the love that I have for it. I feel like I'm still going to be a part of it, whether it's working behind the scenes or being a commentator or something to that effect. But, with an acting background too, and living out in southern California, there are opportunities for me to try and branch out and do other things. But I'm still probably going to do something in the business. I'm still sort of far away from that moment, so I still have my options open.
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