Daniel Garcia On AEW Match With Jon Moxley: "It Mostly Just Kind Of Hurt"

Daniel Garcia has cemented himself as one of professional wrestling's rising stars in 2021 and Red Death recently signed a full-time deal with AEW. 

Since returning to the promotion in May, Garcia has been in several high-profile matches against the likes of Jon Moxley, Darby Allin and CM Punk.

Garcia faced Jon Moxley inside Chicago's United Center in August when CM Punk made his return to professional wrestling.

Speaking about the match on the AEW Unrestricted Podcast, Garcia noted "it kinda hurt."

"It mostly just kind of hurt, that was the biggest thing about wrestling Jon Moxley. It kinda hurt. I remember pulling up to the United Center that day, I didn't know I was wrestling there until that week. I remember walking into the United Center, looking around, seeing pictures of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, going out into the arena and seeing the 17,000 seats. It was a pretty wild experience seeing where I was the month prior to a month later. It was a pretty out-of-body experience, to say the least," Garcia said.

Garcia and 2point0 would then attack CM Punk ahead of The Second City Saviour's return match at All Out and Red Death and Punk would eventually go one-on-one in October. 

"That was pretty cool," Garcia said about the match. "CM Punk is somebody I've watched for 15 years of my life. I've really looked up to that guy for a very long time, used to be one of my favourite wrestlers, still probably is, he's my mom's favourite wrestler too. When he came in, I was thinking like, 'It'd be cool if I got to wrestle CM Punk, it'd be like a dream come true.' When me and 2point0 attacked him on his second appearance back, I was the first wrestler to have any physical contact with CM Punk in the ring in seven years.

"Then, we kind of didn't touch upon that for a couple of weeks and I was like, 'Hmm, maybe I won't get to wrestle him for a little bit.' Then, they announced on Dynamite, he just called me out. I was sitting backstage, he called me out, and I checked my phone and I was like, 'Oh, I guess I'm wrestling CM Punk on Rampage this week.' I wrestled him and it was a great learning experience for me. It showed me a lot of things about simple and easy storytelling and not everything has to be hard. Wrestling is very easy if you let it be."

Beyond his AEW commitments, Garcia has been active on the independent wrestling scene and he has faced the likes of Alex Shelley, Minoru Suzuki and Christopher Daniels in recent months. 

Speaking about his schedule, Garcia admitted he is remaining "very present."

"I feel like I don't have time to feel pressure or excitement. Everything is kind of going so fast and piling up on me so quick that I don't even have time to think about, 'I'm nervous for this match coming up' or 'I'm super excited for this match coming up.' I feel like I'm able to stay very present in that way because there is so much high profile things thrown at me in such a quick amount of time, I feel like the best way to deal with it is to stay in the moment, stay present, focus on the task I have at hand."

H/T to Fightful