Modern Day Singles Wrestler
Christopher Daniels
The US Indy scene is loaded with so many great workers that quite often some amazing wrestlers are looked over by the "major" feds. Christopher Daniels is one of these guys. Despite spending over a decade in the business, and having worked for WWF(E), WCW, ECW and more indy promotions in the US and Japan than anyone else in the business, The Fallen Angel still hasn't been signed with the "big" fed. He is much closer now, as he is working for what many consider the second biggest fed in the wrestling business, NWA TNA.
Trained by: Sam DeCero, Windy City Wrestling School, Mike Anthony, and
Kevin Quinn, Christopher Daniels made his wrestling debut in 1993. He
has trademarked three of the most effective finishing maneuvers that the
wrestling world has ever seen: Last Rites, Angel's Wings, and The Best
Moonsault Ever.
There are few who play a heel better than Christopher Daniels, and it’s
no surprise that he’s held his fair share of titles during the years
he’s been wrestling.
Early in his career he held the Windy City Pro Wrestling Light Heavyweight Title as well as the World Wrestling Council Tag Team Titles. In 1997, he captured the Windy City Pro Wrestling Middleweight title, the World Power Wrestling title, the Empire Wrestling Federation title and the British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight title.
During Vampiro’s “Higher Power” WCW angle, Christopher was due to be given his big break at the Canadian’s cloaked dark master. However, the angle was dropped, and Daniels continued to be underused in WCW. Before all of this though, Daniels was a superstar on the Indy circuit, even winning the highly acclaimed King Of The Indies crown in 2000. Daniels was a regular on WWE shows such as Metal or Shotgun, as he jobbed to "stars" who didn’t have an iota of the talent that The Fallen Angel posses.
In Japan, Daniels is well known as Curry Man, the spiciest wrestler in the world.
Some of Christopher Daniels career highlights include:
January 22, 2000: Chris Daniels defeated Michael Modest to win the APW
(All Pro Wrestling) Internet title.
February 26, 2000:- ECWA Super 8: Christopher Daniels wins the ECWA Super
8 tournament!!!
May 20, 2000: Chris Daniels defeated Jayson Reign to win the Windy City
Pro Wrestling League title.
October 12, 2000: Chris Daniels defeated Spaz to capture the UPW title.
December 30, 2000: Chris Daniels won APW's 2000 King of the Indies tournament.
September 29, 2001: Chris Daniels & Reign defeated Low Ki & Airborne
for the Midwest Championship Wrestling Tag Team title.
June 29, 2002: Chris Daniels defeated Danny Doring to win the NWA Florida
title.
September 21, 2002: Donovan Morgan & Chris Daniels win a tourniment
to win the ROH Tag Team Titles.
October 2002: Curry Man & Hayashi Rice won the Futaritabi Tag Team
League 2002 tournament, defeating Taka Michinoku & Great Sasuke in
the finals.
October 25, 2002: Chris Daniels beat Jody Fleisch & Doug Williams
to capture the FWA Heavyweight title.
January 18, 2003: Chris Daniels won a 5 way to become ECWA champ over
Red, Mike Kruel, Low Ki & American Dragon..
May 3, 2003: Chris Daniels won a 3-way over Paul London and Chance Beckett
to keep ECWA title.
May 7, 2003 Chris Daniels defeated Jerry Lynn & Red by himself to
win the TNA World Tag Team titles!
August 16, 2003: Christopher Daniels beat Xavier for the ROH #1 Contenders
Trophy.
March 12, 2004: Curry Man & American Dragon defeated Gedo & Jado
to win the IWGP (International Wrestling Grand Prix) Tag Team title.
April 3, 2004: Christopher Daniels wins the ECWA Super 8 tournament and
becomes the first person to win it twice! (in the finals against Mike
Kruel the ECWA Heavyweight title was on the line and Daniels won it for
the second time)
The Fallen Angel's List of Titles Held is simply amazing and includes:
British Commonwealth Jr. Heavyweight title
APW Worldwide Internet title
EWF Heavyweight title
WCPW League title
WCPW Lightweight title
WCPW Middleweight title
WCPW Tag Team titles w/Kevin Quinn
WCPW Tag Team titles w/Mike Anthony
WPW Heavyweight title
WWC Tag Team titles w/Kevin Quinn
ECWA Heavyweight title (2)
ECWA Super 8 Tournament Winner (2000)
ECWA Hall of Fame: Christopher Daniels was inducted in 2001
MCW Tag Team titlesw/Jayson Reign
UPW Heavyweight title
FWA Heavyweight title defeating Jody Fleisch (champ) & Doug Williams
(October 25, 2002)
ROH Tag Team Titles w/Donovan Morgan
NWA TNA World Tag Team titles w/Elix Skipper
ECWA Super 8 Tournament Winner (2004)
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team titles w/American Dragon (March 12, 2004)
NWA Florida title
UPW Heavyweight title (2)
APW's 2000 King of the Indies;
In 2001, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview Christopher Daniels. You can read that interview by clicking here!
Too see Christopher Daniels in action is to see wrestling
at its truest artform. Christopher Daniels is one of, if not the best,
worker on the indy scene today and I am thrilled to see him inducted into
the Indy Hall of Fame.
(Written by Brett Schwan)
