In an interview with Lee Sanders of the RCWR Show, former TNA Wrestling superstar Christopher Daniels discussed his departure from the company, Eric Young as TNA World Heavyweight Champion, why he was never the World Champion and much more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On his TNA departure: “Just disappointment really. I envisioned that there would be an opportunity for Bad Influence vs. The Wolves to happen on TV, 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 decisions that they think are best for the 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, 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 wrestling fans seeing TNA as an unrecognizable product with so many of the veterans gone from the company: “In terms of my presence there you will see and feel it in the next couple of months because I won’t be there and you’ll be able to notice the 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 that there’s still going to be guys like James Storm, Ken Anderson, Gunner, Robbie E & 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 as 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 fanbase 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 used to the idea of Eric Young as World Champion and those names that I just mentioned to be the benchmark for the company.”
On Eric Young as TNA World Heavyweight Champion: “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 number one 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 they’re first made, but hopefully people can take a step back and sort of look at the grand picture and hopefully things will turn out well for IMPACT Wrestling and Eric Young overall.”
On why he was never TNA World Heavyweight Champion: “That’s not my decision, those decisions don’t come from us. Any wrestler that has ever been asked why you have not been World Champion yet, the answer is you’re asking the wrong people. When you have your interview with John Gaburick, Dave Lagana or Matt Conway, 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 they 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’re 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 and performer.”
The interview is available in full at this link.
