Christopher Daniels Recalls Being Told That WCW Had Plans For Him

On a recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast, multi-time champion Christopher Daniels was on chatting with Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone about his nearly three decade long career. When Daniels first broke out in wrestling, he had short stints in WWE and WCW. He talked about the state of the company when he signed and his situation at the time.

"I ended up there in 2000. I first got signed in January of 2000, and I had one last trip to Japan that I had to fulfill for Michinoku Pro," Daniels recalled. "Kevin Sullivan hired me, and while I was in Japan, Kevin Sullivan was fired. Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff took over, and I can't remember the date, but there was a very famous Nitro where everything sort of got reset in Denver, CO.

"It was the very beginning of The New Blood – Millionaires Club thing. That was supposed to be my first day but because Vince Russo didn't know who I was, and Eric Bischoff didn't know who I was, I was hired through Kevin, they were like, 'Okay, well, we'll bring you in when we have an idea for you, but we're doing this New Blood – Millionaire's Club thing now.'"

Daniels continued recalling that he got a call from WCW saying that Vince Russo had some ideas for him. However, he revealed how their conversation played out.

"A couple weeks later, they called me," Daniels stated. "They're like, 'Hey, Vince Russo wants to meet you. He's got some ideas for you.' So I go to Atlanta, and this is the night that they dropped all the blood on Ric Flair, I believe, in the cage. I'm waiting around. They're busy all day.

"Afterwards, they're online doing talk shows, him and Bob Ryder, and finally, I meet up with Vince. And Vince goes, 'Okay, what are your ideas?' And I go, oh crap, okay, and so I threw out some stuff and they never really went anywhere. So, oh well."

Daniels also noted that WCW were pushing talent from the Power Plant during the time he was in WCW. He revealed a phone call he had with JJ Dillion and how his time in WCW ended before the buyout.

"Honestly, that first period of time, I was under WCW contract from January to October, and they were bringing me to television," Daniels recalled. This was right around the time where the people that were working in the Power Plant were getting on television, guys Sean O'Haire, and Mark Jindrak and Elix Skipper, and I wasn't one of those guys.

"There wasn't anybody like, 'Hey, we need something for Christopher Daniels.' So I was showing up to television. 'Hey, where do you guys need for me?' Oh, nothing and so thinking I was doing right, I would just go sort of stay out of the way and watch the monitors and stuff like that, but also, not walking up and going, 'Hey guys, don't forget about me.' Finally, I got a phone call from JJ Dillon who's like, 'Hey, you're making a lot of money, and you're not doing a lot of wrestling.' I was like, 'That's not up to me,' and at that point, I didn't know, 'Oh, tell him you'll do this.' I was like, 'Yes, sir. Sorry,' and he was like, 'Well we gotta let you go.' And so a couple months later in January of 2001, I got called by Terry Taylor.

"He was like, 'Hey, we'd like to have you and Mike Modest do this tryout match, and that was the match on Nitro where I got hurt and we did the angle with Scott Steiner. And we got signed again. This one time we got signed to a developmental deal, and that the last you saw of me on WCW because pretty soon they were bought."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.