Christopher Daniels Recalls Not Being Used In WCW, Thinking He Was Right In Staying Out Of The Way

Before he went on to acheive success in TNA/IMPACT, Ring of Honor, and AEW; Christopher Daniels spent a very brief time in WCW.

Daniels made his WCW television debut in June 2000 on WCW Worldwide against Chris Candido. However, he was signed in January 2000, but the timing didn’t exactly work out.

Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, Daniels recalled his time in WCW.

“I ended up [in WCW] in 2000. I first got signed in January 2000. Kevin Sullivan hired me. While I was in Japan, Kevin Sullivan was fired, Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff took over. There was a famous Nitro where everything got reset. It was the beginning of New Blood vs. Millionaire Club. That was supposed to be my first day, but because Vince and Eric didn’t know who I was, they were like, ‘Okay, well we’ll bring you in when we have an idea for you,'” he said.

Daniels continued by saying, “A couple of weeks later, they call me and say, ‘Vince Russo wants to meet with you and has ideas.’ I go to Atlanta, this is the night they dropped blood on Ric Flair in the cage. I’m waiting around, they’re busy all day, and I finally meet with Vince and he goes, ‘Okay, what are your ideas?’ I go, ‘Oh, crap.’ I threw out some stuff and it never went anywhere. Oh well. I was under contract from January to October. They brought me to television and this is when guys who were at the Power Plant were getting on television and I wasn’t one of those guys. So no one was like, ‘We need something for Christopher Daniels.’ I was at television like, ‘What do you need from me?’ ‘Uh, nothing.’ Thinking I was doing right and staying out of the way, but by not going up to people and being like ‘don’t forgot about me.’ Finally, I got a phone call from JJ Dillon who said, ‘You’re making a lot of money and not doing a lot of wrestling.’ ‘That’s not up to me.’ I didn’t know ‘tell them to do this.’ So, I got let go. A couple months later, in January 2001, I got called by Terry Taylor who wanted me to do a tryout match with Mike Modest. That was the match on Nitro where I got hurt and we did the angle with Scott Steiner. I got signed again, this time to a developmental deal, and that was the last you saw me in WCW because they got bought.”

The match against Modest took place on January 22, 2001 and would be his last bout in WCW. He would work a handful of enhancement matches in WWE while continuing his Independent career before finding a strong home in ROH.

Elsewhere during the podcast, Daniels discussed his in-ring future in AEW. You can find his full comments by clicking here.

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