Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
‘The Fallen Angel’ Christopher Daniels has had one hell of a career in professional wrestling. He has won titles in almost every promotion he ever competed for. He has wrestled all over the world including places like Japan, Mexico and throughout Europe. Daniels has appeared in commercials, television shows, game shows and even on a late night program. Despite all of these amazing accomplishments as a pro wrestler, he isn’t looked upon as a star in the same way we look at Hulk Hogan, John Cena, the Rock, Ric Flair or even MJF. Today on the blog, we examine a few angles that might have changed the trajectory of Christopher Daniels career and what caused these storylines to suddenly go in a different direction.
Every movie has its stars, co-stars and supporting cast. While the stars usually get most of the accolades by having their faces plastered on billboards, advertisements, doing pressers and all that…it really is the supporting cast that can make or even break a solid film. In many instances, they are faceless characters. People that look very familiar, but we never completely remember. We’ll see a supporting actor on some show or movie and say, “Where do I remember that actor from?” or “Hey, he’s that guy that did that one show that I liked.” The same might be said for wrestler Christopher Daniels. While Daniels has wrestled globally and has even wrestled in higher profile organizations like WWE, WCW, ECW, AEW and to a lesser degree with TNA and Ring of Honor, he still isn’t widely recognized as the star that he should be.
Instead, Daniels is regarded by most as a fantastic “supporting player.” A guy that has great charisma and well versed in art of selling and wrestling. Despite all of his achievements in and out of the squared circle, Daniels simply isn’t a star. That isn’t a swipe at his career at all…not in the least. It just means that Daniels is more of an under the radar wrestler like others such as Jerry Lynn and James Storm. Sure, die hard fans will know their names and faces almost immediately, they just never transcended past that. Considering how Daniels has wrestled in almost all of the major promotions, why didn’t he break out so to speak? Well, a lot of it was not under his own control, but at the hands of the booker or promoter.
There were at least three different storylines that could have really made him into more of a household name and for whatever reasons changed before they actually happened. Let’s take a look at them one by one…
The Brood
While working for the WWF as an enhancement talent, there were plans to have Christopher Daniels become a member of the Brood alongside Gangrel and Edge. According to Gangrel, Daniels was removed from the group after Adam ‘Edge’ Copeland lobbied hard to get his best friend Christian to join the group instead. Vince McMahon eventually relented and in was Christian and Daniels was on the outside looking in.
The Higher Power
The most known ‘What if’ in Christopher Daniels career was the fact he was initially pegged to be the mysterious Higher Power that was controlling the Ministry of Darkness in the WWF. This would have certainly been a bigger angle than being a member of the Brood. In any case, it was not to be. Vince McMahon supposedly took a look at Daniels and felt he was too short or simply wasn’t worthy of such a huge storyline. So, Vince did the only “logical” thing and place himself into the position.
Syndrome
The last angle that could have helped Daniels get a lot of eyeballs on him was in WCW. A plan was in place to make Daniels into a dark mentor to Vampiro named Syndrome. According to Daniels, the character was similar to how the Emperor was Darth Vader’s mentor in the Star Wars movie franchise. Daniels did state that this particular storyline didn’t feel perfectly right with him. The reason, he said, was because Vampiro was already established in wrestling as a mega star in Mexico and was also known in WCW. Daniels did film a couple of vignettes with Vampiro, but ultimately the Syndrome gimmick was dropped.
These are three high profile angles that were initially earmarked for Christopher Daniels. Who knows if his presence in any of them could have struck gold and made him into a bigger star? Regardless, ‘The Fallen Angel’ Christopher Daniels is a tremendous talent. That guy who wrestled at that thing.