Every wrestler has that moment where they will know they have made it. It could be winning a World Heavyweight Championship or competing at WrestleMania.
Christopher Daniels never got his chance to reach to top of the biggest companies. So instead, he strived to make every company he was in the best.
Every wrestler has that moment where they will know they’ve made it. It could be winning a World Heavyweight Championship, or simply competing at WrestleMania.
Most of wrestling’s biggest accolades have eluded Christopher Daniels. And yet he has achieved more than most of his peers ever will. Few have flown higher than the Fallen Angel.
Christopher Daniels – The Rise of the Fallen Angel
Christopher Covell was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1970. His family relocated to Fayetteville, North Carolina. He became an avid fan of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.
He married his high-school sweetheart Lisa, and graduated from Methodist College with a degree in theatre. They moved to Chicago, Illinois, so he could pursue a career in acting. He then decided to chase his true calling; wrestling.
Covell mainly wrestled as “Chris Daniels” at first. The surname was taken from his middle name Daniel. He trained with Windy City Pro Wrestling before making his in-ring debut in April 1993.
It took just one month for him to win his first title; the WCPW Light Heavyweight Championship. He later won their Middleweight Championship.
Daniels invented his “Fallen Angel” character very early into his career. He initially debuted as a babyface. His heel character was simply that he had “turned evil”.
It was about a year later when he became inspired by Dustin Rhodes’ Goldust character. He saw Goldust as being so different from Rhodes.
A tattoo artist helped him to design the symbol he has tattooed on his sternum. The depth of the character would depend on the promoter he worked for.
He took a brief hiatus to compete for World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico. He and Kevin Quinn formed a tag team named “Overkill”.
They defeated Huracan Castillo and Invader I to win the WWC World Tag Team Championships. Overkill would become the first NWA Midwest Tag Team Champions after winning them at the NWA’s 50th Anniversary Show.
He wasn’t in Empire Wrestling Federation for long before he won their Heavyweight Championship. He also competed in Extreme Championship Wrestling but did not compete for any titles or have any feuds.
He signed a developmental deal with the WWF in 1998. They sent him for further training with Dory Funk, Jr. at his Funkin’ Dojo. He was mainly used as an enhancement talent.
He worked matches for their B-shows such as Monday Night Heat and Shotgun Saturday Night. A rumour claims that Daniels was meant to debut as “The Higher Power”, the secret leader behind The Ministry of Darkness.
While insiders like Bruce Pritchard seemingly confirmed the rumour, Daniels claims no-one ever mentioned it to him. He briefly returned in late 2000.
Edge and Christian had been posing as Los Conquistadors to get around a ban preventing them from challenging for the titles.
Aaron Aguilera and Daniels would pose as the characters when Edge and Christian wanted to pretend they were two separate teams. Aguilera and Daniels would never actually compete as the characters.
“Honestly, it was a terrible idea anyway. The idea would have been like Undertaker is answering to this Higher Power. Then I unmask and it’s me. It is like ‘Who is this guy?’ “
– Daniels on the ‘Higher Power’ rumours.
While under contract with the WWF, Daniels spent some time competing in Japan. It was here where he became ‘Curry Man’. Michinoku Pro Wrestling sometimes held a Masked Man League.
Every participant was a masked character, with some being created just for that show. Curry Man was based on a character from a Japanese that Daniels had never seen.
All he was told was the character was from India, and always had a bowl of food on his head. Daniels wore an orange sherwani, and a mask with a nylon bowl of noodles on top.
But his own admission, his portrayal of the character was “racist” in the beginning. He had based it on Apu from The Simpsons.
Gran Hamada told him to calm down and have fun with the character. Daniels then wore his regular ring gear with a cut-off t-shirt.
It was here that he created the ‘Curry Man’ character. There was not much to explain about it. Curry Man was a guy from India who liked to dance.
His fed his hair through a hole in the top of the mask so it resembled a plate of curry. He had no intention of using the character long-term.
It was mainly so he could compete in the Masked Man League. He spent some time in Michinoku Pro Wrestling and won the British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship.
Daniels had a number of minor acting roles. One of them was in the NBC documentary ‘Exposed! Wrestling’s Greatest Secrets’. The show claimed to explain how certain moves and stunts in wrestling were performed.
While some of it was legitimate, other aspects were made up. They hired Harley Race and a number of indie wrestlers for the show. They were given unique characters that were all masked.
The show insisted that the wrestlers used these new identities by choice because they risked being blackballed from the industry for participating.
In reality, none of them were bothered. They were simply playing characters for a paid gig. Michael Modest alleged that they had signed on to do a fictional drama.
Their contracts stated that the nature of the show was “subject to change”. Contrary to the show’s claims, Race was the only participant who did not go onto bigger things in their wrestling careers.
Daniels made a one-off appearance on the talk show Later. His role was to help Bret Hart demonstrate moves. He would also sell a clothesline from the show’s host.
Curry Man made two appearances on the game show Distraction with Frankie Kazarian and Samoa Joe. He would perform wrestling moves on contestants while they attempted to answer questions. He also appeared in a Chef Boyardee commercial with the Hardy Boyz.
He defeated Modest to win All Pro Wrestling’s Worldwide Internet Championship. He then won the ECWA Super 8 Tournament.
This was quickly followed up with the APW King of the Indies tournament, the WCPW League Championship, and Ultimate Pro Wrestling’s Heavyweight Championship.
Daniels worked a series of try-out matches in World Championship Wrestling. It took a year for them to offer a 90-day contract.
It was rumoured that the was going to debut as the leader of Vampiro’s stable, like with the WWF’s “Higher Power”. However, Daniels was legitimately injured during the match where he earned his contract.
He slipped while attempting a springboard move and injured his shoulder. He would not return to the company before it closed down. The injury never healed properly and Daniels has worked around it since.
Christopher Daniels main-evented the first ever Ring Of Honor event. He faced Low-Ki and Bryan Danielson in a three-way match.
When he lost, he broke company protocol by refusing to shake either of his opponents’ hands. This then became part of his persona as the top heel.
He refused to shake hands with opponents, yet forced them to shake his hand if he won. He made and exception for Donovan Morgan.
The two became the first members of “The Prophesy”. Each member believed they were equals while Daniels secretly pulled the strings.
He was one of the four participants in the match to determine the first ever ROH World Heavweight Champion. Low Ki, Spanky (Brian Kendrick), Doug Williams and himself competed in a 60-minute Iron Man match.
He managed to evade being pinned or submitted. Yet Low Ki claimed the most falls to win the title. Daniels would continuously interfere in Low Ki’s title matches. He helped Xavier to defeat Low Ki for the title before revealing him as the newest member of The Prophesy.
ROH had working relationship with Frontier Wrestling Alliance in the U.K. Both Daniels and A.J. Styles were brought in at top attractions.
They were both heels purely because they were Americans, with Daniels being more so. He defeated Jody Fleisch for the British Heavyweight Championship.
This made him the first American to hold a British Heavyweight title. He would defend the title in FWA and ROH. He dropped the title to Williams at an ROH event in Pennsylvania. This was the only title it changed hands outside of England.
Daniels and Morgan won the new ROH World Tag Team Championships. Daniels declared that the new titles would be defended under “Prophesy Rules”.
This meant all members of the Prophesy were co-champions, and any combination of the two may defend them. His reasoning was that the championship was represented by a trophy instead of individual belts, and therefore allowed for an infinite number of co-champions.
Short-lived member Samoa Joe defeated Xavier for the World title. This then led to a feud between Prophesy and Joe. Joe briefly formed an alliance with C.W. Anderson and Michael Shane.
Both teams faced off in a tag team match where Joe’s alliance were forced to disband. However, Prophesy would never succeed in beating Joe in a World title match.
Their next rivalry would be with C.M. Punk. He rejected an invitation to join Prophesy. This led to Punk’s girlfriend Leah (better known as Daffney) being attacked by newest member B.J. Whitmer.
Punk responded by forming ‘The Second City Saints’. After a match between both teams, Punk performed his Pepsi Plunge finisher on Daniels through a table. Daniels was written off television and the Prophesy were immediately disbanded.
Daniels signed a contract with NWA Total Nonstop Action Wrestling just as it launched. He was recruited by former WCW ring announcer Jeremy Borash.
Like all new performers of his stature, he was shoehorned into the X Division until they decided what they wanted to do with him. His first match was a six-way contest which was won by Low Ki.
A week later, he teamed with Elix Skipper for the first time. He took a brief hiatus to honour his outside bookings. Low Ki and Skipper joined the Sports Entertainment Extreme stable. Daniels joined when he returned. The trio then broke away and formed Triple X.
“He was at the Dory Funkin’ Dojo my first time there. I thought he was going to make it. He was the best kid there. The problem was that he was a heat-seeking missile.
He was degrading Dory Funk, Jr., but he was just trying to be a heel. They were taking it the wrong way. They were like, ‘I’m not going to hire this guy’.”
– Kurt Angle on his theory about why Daniels never got singed to WWE.
All three members of Triple X faced NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett in a gauntlet match for the title. Jarrett won all three rounds. Triple X then started their long rivalry with America’s Most Wanted.
Low Ki and Skipper defeated them for the NWA World Tag Team Championships. They defended them under the “Triple X Rule”. Just like the “Prophesy Rule”, all three members were recognised as champions.
They were stripped off the titles when a match against the Harris Brothers ended in a double pin. Triple X would then beat AMW to reclaim them.
Triple X lost the titles to Jerry Lynn and Amazing Red. They defeated AMW for a rematch. Daniels tried to arrange a title contest to be a three-on-two handicap match.
However, Daniels lost a match to Lynn. It stipulated that Lynn and Red would only have to defend the titles against one member of Triple X of their choosing.
Daniels was forced to go it alone. Daniels won by DQ. Due to an NWA-TNA rule that titles could change hands by disqualification, Daniels became the first man to win the titles by himself.
The team kept splitting and reforming due to Low Ki bouncing in and out of the company. Daniels and Skipper kept trying to keep the team going each time.
Their first split happened after they lost a cage match to AMW. Daniels and Skipper blamed each other. Their second split was because Low Ki left again.
Both Daniels and Skipper qualified for Team USA in the 2004 World X Cup. This led to them reforming Triple X once again. They resumed their rivalry with AMW.
They competed in a ‘Best Of Three Series’ where the conclusion was delayed because of The Naturals. The Naturals had injured Daniels and James Storm.
Skipper and Chris Harris put their differences aside to face their mutual enemies. They defeated The Naturals for the Tag Team Championships. Daniels and Storm were not understanding. They formed their own alliance and beat their former partners for the titles.
The two teams reconciled to finish their series. Low Ki returned for five minutes. The feud was concluded in another cage match. It carried the stipulation that the losing team had to disband.
It became one of the most memorable matches in TNA history due to a spot where Skipper ran across a cage wall and caught
Harris with a frankensteiner from the top. Triple X had tried to win by handcuffing Harris to the cage at the start of the match. But it ended with Daniels being handcuffed and unable to prevent Skipper from being pinned.
In 2005, Daniels embarked in a rivalry that would not only shape the destines of those involved, but TNA itself. He challenged A.J. Styles for the X-Division Championship at Against All Odds.
They competed in a 30-minute Iron Man match which styles won by scoring the only point in the final minute. Then at Destination X, he was in the 3-round Ultimate X Challenge.
He lost the initial tag team round which saw Ron Killings be eliminated. He won the triple threat match in the second round by eliminating Skipper. Styles actually retrieved the title belt in the concluding Ultimate X round.
But the referee was unconscious. Daniels hit his Angel’s Wings finisher on Styles and stole the belt. The confused referee mistakenly declared Daniels the winner and new champion.
Daniels held the title for what was then a record setting 150 days. While Daniels established himself as the top star of the division, a new threat emerged in Samoa Joe.
Joe intentionally targeted members of the X Division because they were much smaller than him. Daniels tried to befriend Joe in a bid to protect himself.
The gamble failed as the X on his title belt was a metaphorical X on his chest. Daniels, Joe and Styles fought over the title in the main event of Unbreakable.
It remains one of the most popular matches in company history. The trio would swap the title around during the feud with Joe never being pinned or submitted.
“The Impact Zone fanbase I felt was very protective and possessive of what… I feel like they felt they had found this like uncovered gem that no-one else knew about.
They were like ‘These are our guys’. A lot of the X Division wrestlers were beneficiaries of that good will.”
– Daniels on TNA fans’ support of the X Division.
He returned to ROH to return a favour on Punk. Daniels’ TNA contract allowed him to work for other companies apart from the WWE.
TNA banned their performers from competing on ROH’s shows after their founder had been caught in a scandal. After much pressure from ROH alumni, TNA were persuaded that ROH had distanced themselves from their founder.
Daniels reignited his feud with the Second City Saints. He was determined to get the World Championship away from Punk before the latter left for WWE.
There was a brief distraction when he lost to a debuting Matt Hardy. Daniels technically succeeded in his quest, but it was James Gibson (Jamie Noble) who claimed the title at Redemption.
After a short feud with Matt Sydal, the duo became a tag team. They would eventually win the tag titles and held them for four months. At Good Times, Great Memories, he wrestled Erick Stevens to a time-limit draw and “quit” the company.
Daniels was meant to face Jushin Thunder Liger in a cage match at TNA LockDown 2005. But Liger backed out, and Daniels lost to Senshi (Low Ki) instead.
Daniels was then targeted by AMW once more. He teamed with Styles to deal with them. They won the tag titles despite constant interference from Gail Kim.
They enlisted Sireda to neutralise her. They lost the titles to the new tag team of LAX. They managed to regain them in an Ultimate X match where they tried diving unto the overhead cables from above. LAX won the titles and feud in a cage match at Bound For Glory.
Both Daniels and Styles challenged Chris Sabin for the X Division title on the first episode of Impact on Spike TV. Daniels’ title win confirmed that he and Styles were going their separate ways.
He got caught up in the disagreements between Sabin and Lynn. This resulted in Sabin regaining the title at Destination X. He now had a new bearded loo with tribal face-paint that was never truly explained.
Even though his name was changed to “Fallen Angel”, commentators and fans were too used to calling him Christopher Daniels.
Not satisfied with just winning matches, he sought to injure them. It built up to a brief feud with Sting which the legend won. Daniels believed the new character failed because Russo didn’t know what to do with him.
Daniels won a ten-man Ultimate X Gauntlet match at Victory. He was assisted by his opponents Skipper and Senshi. This marked yet another Triple X reunion, but this time with Daniels pinpointed as the leader.
All three participated in the first-ever ‘Feast Or Fired’ match. The match allowed for three winners, and a single definitive loser.
Three of the briefcases contained contracts that guaranteed a match for a specific championship at any time the holder chose. The fourth determined that the holder would be fired immediately.
Senshi claimed one of the briefcases, but then genuinely asked for his release. Daniels defeated Senshi in a match for the briefcase, refereed by Skipper. Low Ki was released, Daniels had the pink slip, and Triple X was finished.
Curry Man debuted weeks later. It had made its first U.S. appearance at Dragon Gate Invasion in 2007. This new version was no longer from India. He was billed as a wrestling superstar from Tokyo, Japan.
He now wore an orange and yellow suit, and had a nylon bowl of curry on his head. He wore a top hat and carried a cane to the ring. Curry Man spoke in broken English which gradually got better.
He mainly teamed with “Stone Cold” Shark Boy. The character was parodying “Stone Cold” Steve Austin at the time. They were mainly an odd couple tag team who served as comic relief.
Team 3D (better known as The Dudley Boyz) briefly had a restriction where they had to weigh-in below 275lbs or forfeit the match. They faced Curry Man and Shark Boy in every match during this restriction.
It ended in a “Fish Market Street Fight” that Team 3D won to have the restriction lifted. Super Eric then recruited them to form ‘The Prince Justice Brotherhood’. They all competed in that year’s Feast Or Fired match, with Curry Man collecting the Pink Slip.
Daniels technically appeared in the TNA Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Impact video game three times. He features in all versions as his ‘Fallen Angel’ persona.
He also narrates one of the tutorial videos. Daniels, Low Ki and A.J. Styles had done motion capture work for the game. His Curry Man character was available as downloadable content for the X-Box 360 version.
A glitch caused the character to load as Fallen Angel until a patch was released. DLCs were cancelled for the PlayStation 3 format. While it was not the intention when the game was released, he portrayed central character Suicide.
Suicide was a fictional character that had been created for the game’s story mode. The company left it late to promote the game by bringing the character onto TV. Frankie Kazarian wore the suit for the first few weeks.
But Kazarian suffered a genuine bicep injury before his first match in the role. Daniels filled in at Destination X. He competed in the Ultimate X match against the members of Lethal Consequences and the Motor City Machine Guns.
He won the match after attempting a perilous dive from the top of the truss to the centre of the overhead ropes to get the title belt. He continued to defend the title until Kazarian could return.
“When I showed up, Chris was basically running the class. Like he was the veteran. He was basically running the class.
I knew who he was just because he had a name on the indie scene. I was like ‘Wow, cool. This is sweet’.”
– Frankie Kazarian on meeting Daniels for the first time.
He returned as “Daniels” in April. Fans didn’t catch on to the name change and it was phased out. Daniels was added as a member of “Team Jarrett” for the main event of LockDown. Team Jarrett defeated Team Angle in a Lethal Lockdown match.
Daniels was targeted by the Motor City Machine Guns who (correctly) believed he was Suicide. Suicide (portrayed by Kazarian) would help Daniels against the pair. They competed in a match to the X Division title.
Daniels initially won, but he ordered the match to be restarted when he discovered Alex Shelley had interfered. This allowed Suicide to retain.
Daniels bounced from one short feud to another. The peak was when he challenged Styles for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Turning Point.
Going into 2010, TNA was being run by WCW’s old creative team. They didn’t see much marketability in Daniels’ and released him in March.
For a year, he divided his attention between ROH and AAA in Mexico. On rare occasion, he competed as Curry Man. He didn’t agree to a formal contract with ROH until November.
Soon after this, he beat Eddie Edwards for the ROH World Television Championship. He lost the title to El Generico just before his contract ended early.
He returned to TNA as Suicide in early 2011, less than three months after signing a new contract with ROH. They had made an agreement that he could work for TNA as long as he didn’t use the ‘Fallen Angel’ persona until his ROH deal had expired. He alternated between “Daniels” and Suicide until then.
Daniels saved members of Fortune from an attack by Immortal. He aligned himself with the group, but was not an official member.
He particularly targeted Bully Ray for injuring Fortune’s leader Styles. Daniels was not formally added to the stable for some time after Styles’ return. Then they began their longest and most dragged-out feud.
They had a friendly match at Destination X. After Styles won, Daniels became obsessed with getting a rematch. When he finally got it, he won. Then he suddenly turned heel on Styles.
He refused to shake his hand, and denied a request for a tie-breaker. This led to a brawl that cemented his departure from Fortune.
They had their tie-break in the form of an “I Quit” match that Styles won. Yet the feud continued, even after both men set their sights on the TNA World Television Championship.
The feud then turned into one of the worst story lines in TNA history. Kazarian turned on Styles and aligned with Daniels. It was strongly implied that Kazarian was being blackmailed over a secret.
Kazarian would reveal the secret was not about himself. He did Daniels’ bidding to protect Styles. But now he saw Styles as untrustworthy.
The heels alleged that Styles was having an affair with TNA President Dixie Carter. Carter and Styles then admitted they were sponsoring a drug addict through rehab.
The heels then discovered that “Claire Lynch” was pregnant and insinuated Styles was the baby’s father. They then brought in Claire to cut a heel promo Styles.
The segment bombed so hard that the actress playing Claire resigned. She had allegedly received online abuse from fans who found out her real name.
They wrapped up story line quickly when Styles won the right to have a DNA test. It was determined that Lynch was never pregnant, and Daniels and Kazarian set up the whole thing.
The story line was originally created by Kazarian. Daniels and Styles would help him to develop it. But TNA kept changing it to things that didn’t work.
Kazarian’s original plan was that he would eventually stand up for himself and feud with Daniels. When “Claire” was brought into the story line, they wanted her to be a relative of Carter.
But the Carter family did not want any members of their family (even fictional ones) to be depicted as having an affair or drug problems.
The character was named after a beautiful office worker that Daniels and Kazarian wanted to use. But TNA reportedly wanted to hire an actress that wasn’t as pretty as Dixie.
When the actress pulled out, they came up with an angle that the company’s audio technician used his expertise to prove that their recordings were faked. This was not used either.
During the debacle, they had two runs with the TNA World Tag Team Championships. They briefly called themselves “The World Tag Team Champions of the World”.
He had a brief match with Styles which was billed as their “last ever”. He used Styles’ own Styles Clash finisher to win their rivalry. They later shortened to “The Addiction”.
Daniels once posed with a martini glass two weeks in a row. He was then made to make the appletinis a regular part of his character.
He and Kazarian would throw it in the faces of opponents to momentarily obstruct their vision. Bobby Roode was shoe-horned into their stable, and they renamed it “E.G.O.” Daniels would occasionally wrestle as Curry Man.
Many of TNA’s home-grown talents were becoming frustrated. Bad Influence kept being booked for house shows instead of televised events.
Their attempts to talk to creative or management fell flat. Daniels was one of several performers that criticised the company for doing charity stunts for publicity while they were behind on pay.
They were informed that their contracts would not be renewed when they ran out. To make things more frustration, Carter seemed unaware they were being let go.
Bad Influence began appearing in other promotions. They bounced around various promotions, trying to get booked as a tag team.
Daniels played harder into his “Ring General” character that didn’t get pushed in TNA. This involved him wearing a general’s hat and jacket with imitation medals. They changed their name to “The Addiction”.
On April 5, they competed at WrestleCon and a Dragon Gate USA event in the same day. Companies were hesitant about putting titles on them because they wouldn’t commit to formal contracts.
Yet they still booked them against their top stars or champions. Merely working with them gave their homegrown talents a boost.
WrestleCentre tried a different approach. They had Daniels defeated Rhett Titus for the vacant IFWA Heavyweight Championship.
He held the title for over a year. His title defences included victories over Styles, Joe, and Lance Storm. Storm had made a social media post listing some of the companies he had worked for.
Daniels famously replied to point out he had worked them too. Daniels lost the IFWA title to recurring challenger JP Simms.
Daniels became the challenger for the ROH World Heavyweight Championship at their 15th Anniversary Show. Even though he was about to turn 48 that month, and Kazarian had aligned with the Bullet Club, he went into the match as the heavy favourite as determined by fans.
He would defeat Adam Cole to win the title. Kazarian also showed his “betrayal” was a counter measure to ensure that the Bullet Club didn’t stop him from having a fair shot at the title.
Daniels protested getting the belt unless it was good for the company too. He defended it in both ROH and WCPW. He held the title for four months before dropping it to CODY (Rhodes).
“Whenever we would have a World title change in Ring Of Honor, a lot of times we’d have a meeting in the back.
We’d all get together and basically the guy would give a speech. I remember going in the back and going ‘Guys, I just want you to know I’m fully aware that at this moment, the best wrestler in Ring Of Honor does not have your World Championship.
But I will do everything I can to make this title reign beneficial for all of us. And I want to thank you’, and blah blah blah. We had a locker room full of great guys and they decided to put it on me.’
– Daniels on addressing the locker room when he won the ROH World Championship.
Scorpio Sky joined The Addiction. The stable was renamed SoCal Uncensored. They were named that because all of them had been living in Southern California for over ten years. CODY brought in his actor friend Steve Amell.
He had worked a tag team match at WWE SummerSlam where CODY was one of his opponents. As CODY’s main rival, it would be Daniels who got to work with Amell.
Daniels was concerned that if he won the match, he would be cheered because Amell was not a wrestler. But Amell refused to win.
The association with SCU had turned him into a babyface. He had no issue winning the match where both men were babyfaces.
SCU defeated The Hung Bucks (Hangman Page and The Young Bucks) at the 16th Anniversary Show to win the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championships.
This made Daniels the first ever Grand Slam Champion. He had won the company’s World, Television, Tag Team, and Six-Man Tag Team Championships.
At the beginning of 2019, Daniels was involved with a skit where Shane Taylor ripped up Daniels’ new contract before he could sign it.
This preceded an announcement that SoCal Uncensored had signed with the new promotion All Elite Wrestling. It was later revealed that Daniels was the first Head of Talent Relations.
SoCal Uncensored defeated Strong Hearts at the inaugural AEW PPV Double or Nothing. Daniels and Kazarian were billed as competing in the tournament to decide the first ever AEW World Tag Team Champions.
Daniels was attacked just before the first match and Sky took his place. Management ruled that Sky had to take Daniels’ place for the remainder of the tournament, or SCU would forfeit.
Kazarian and Sky won the titles. Daniels was not recognised as a co-champion. Daniels competed less often than his teammates due to his other role in the company.
SCU had short rivalries with nearly every tag team and stable. After losing a match to the Bucks, they were forced to disband.
In April 2022, several members of the AEW staff were involved with a genuine brawl in a locker room. All of the alleged participants were suspended during an independent investigation.
Daniels made good on the time off by returning to ROH. He was reportedly the first person to be cleared and reinstated by the investigation.
It was determined that his only involvement in the brawl was to try and physically separate the instigators. He would make sporadic appearances with ROH.
In May 2024, Daniels suffered a bruised eye during a match against the Bucks. He was genuinely disappointed when it healed within two days.
He bought a special contact lens to make it appear his injury was potentially permanent. The Bucks would “fire” Daniels as he was no longer medically cleared to compete.
Two weeks later, President Tony Khan brought Daniels back as an interim Executive Vice-President. He remained in the role until the end of the year.
“I don’t know what I could say that I already haven’t. Again, you know, underrated. A guy who could do anything. A loveable heel. A disgusting slimeball of a babyface. Just so, so damn good.”
– Frankie Kazarian giving respect to his best friend.
Daniels’ final feud was against Hangman Page. A week after their last match, Daniels announced he was “forced to retire due to injury”. The retirement was genuine. The injuries were not.
Daniels has noted that a lot of people around him and co-workers believed the eye and knee injuries were real. He had pitched the ‘career-ending injury’ multiple times to help get a heel over.
Some of his co-workers were angry that he didn’t tell them he was retiring. Daniels was angry that it got leaked online before the match happened. He would do one final match as Curry Man which he defines as “Curry Man’s retirement”.
The industry has changed. You no longer need to be in the top company to be successful. Nobody had exemplified this more than Christopher Daniels. He has been everywhere, and he has faced everyone. Few people flew as high as the Fallen Angel.
