Christopher Daniels: Why I Never Joined WWE
'The Fallen Angel' has been a mainstay of TNA/IMPACT, ROH, and AEW
As a one-time King of the Indies, and cornerstone of TNA’s storied X-Division, you’d assume that Christopher Daniels and WWE’s paths would have crossed in a meaningful way, but they never did, with ‘The Fallen Angel’ never signing with WWE during his in-ring heyday.
It is one of wrestling’s great ‘what ifs’, especially seeing that Daniels’ contemporaries AJ Styles and Samoa Joe both had successful runs in WWE. But according to Daniels on an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, it was just never meant to be:
“They [WWE] weren’t buying what I was selling, and I get that,” Daniels admitted. “You look at the way the light heavyweight division was emphasised or how little it was emphasised at the time. You know, it’s all about timing. Like when I was available and ready to go, there wasn’t really a space for guys like me. They were struggling with just having Taka [Michinoku] and Águila [Essa Rios], and some of the other guys that were smaller stature. Those guys would, every once-in-a-while, be on television. So they weren’t like, added to that.
“Then all of a sudden in 2010, all of a sudden they were like, ‘hey, let’s get smaller guys and give those opportunities.’ By that time I was sort-of firmly entrenched with either TNA or Ring of Honor. So, there wasn’t really a moment where I was free and clear.”
Daniels did wrestle a handful of matches for WWE between 1998 and 2001, performing as a jobber on 'C-shows' Jakked, Heat, and Shotgun Saturday Night. It has also long been rumoured that Daniels was discussed as being the infamous ‘Higher Power’ of the Corporate Ministry.
H/T: Wrestling Inc.
