Christopher Daniels reflects on his decision to retire from in-ring competition.
Back in January, Daniels wrestled Hangman Page on an episode of AEW Collision in a Texas Death Match. Following the match, Daniels announced his retirement. The Fallen Angel was a recent guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet. During the podcast, Daniels opened up about how the retirement match came to fruition.
Daniels says his contract was going to expire at the end of 2024, so he gave himself a year to evaluate how he was feeling. Daniels says he was going to wrestle like it was his last year no matter what. However, he’d only wrestle if Tony Khan wanted him to, rather than asking.
“We’ve got a very wide roster. And we’ve got two hours of time on a Wednesday, two hours of time on a Saturday. I didn’t want to conceivably take time away from something that was important just to scratch my wrestling itch. I wanted to sort of be cognizant of like, hey, this isn’t good for the show. If he doesn’t want it, if you’re just getting on to get on, that’s not fair. Especially as someone who I felt like was sort of like in the office. It felt wrong to try and take time away from stuff that Tony really wanted. So I didn’t ask Tony.”
Christopher Daniels on his EVP role
Daniels said that his storyline where he assumed an EVP role was one of the few times he pitched a potential storyline. This was one that would result in Daniels getting “fired” by the Young Bucks.
“But then once it happened, I thought, Oh, wait, what if they made me an EVP to sort of like offset them. I’m the babyface version of what Matt and Nick were doing as EVPs. And so we pitched that. And I think once I sort of got that position, I think Tony didn’t want me to wrestle and be an EVP. In my head, the EVPs wrestled all the time. So I was like, Oh, I’ll wrestle every once in a while. But I don’t think Tony had that same mentality.”
Daniels says he didn’t get asked to wrestle again, but he pitched wrestling Jack Perry, who had an opponent listed as “TBD.” In other cases, he pitched a tag team with John Morrison, who ended up linking up with mXm. Daniels also pitched Hangman Page ending his career, which did end up happening.
“And I was like, ‘Hey, man, what if you ended my career? That would be great heat for a heel to be if you crippled me so bad I couldn’t wrestle anymore. That would be cool.’ I didn’t think anything of it after that, just Oh, that would be cool. That’d be a good way to go out. And then, near the end of the year, he was like, ‘I went to Tony, and I think we’re going to do this thing with you and me.’ I was like, oh, okay, cool. So, I mean, if it wasn’t for Hangman asking for that, I don’t think it would happen. I might have ended my career with that match with Jack and just said, I’m done.”
Christopher Daniels reflects on his retirement match
The Texas Death Match was never advertised as The Fallen Angel’s last match, despite Khan suggesting it. Daniels didn’t want the wrestling world to know that he would be retiring, but wanted to sell it as being forced to retire as a result of the match.
Daniels also reflected on being caught by surprise of the news spreading online that his death match with Page would be his final match. While he was upset about the spoiler, he was happy with how the match went and how he ended his in-ring career.
What was your reaction after seeing Daniels’ retirement match?
