Daniels: Just understand that it is a massive undertaking and you’re only going to get out of it what you put into it. When I started my training, I was at my wrestling school four days a week, two or three hours at a time. I wrestled as many different people as I could to become comfortable with my own skills in the ring and to be able to adapt to the people that I wrestled. Once I started wrestling matches, I tried to work for as many different promoters as I could, against as many different opponents that I could just to get that experience. You’re never going to exceed if you stay within your comfort zone. I tell independent wrestlers all the time you’ve got to branch out and get away from the home base and go out there and take that leap of faith and try to get your name out there because that is the only way you are going to do it.
Eric: From the tone of the emails I receive, it appears many people are under the illusion that after graduating from wrestling school that they will be immediately picked up by a major wrestling company. Could you explain to me your path from wrestling school to being a star in TNA?
Daniels: I was basically just a hobby wrestler, what I like to call a weekend guy. I wrestled like one or twice a month for a good five years. I mean between small, successful things like when I went to Puerto Rico in ’95, it wasn’t until ’99, which was six years in where I started wrestling more of a full schedule. It was the middle of ’99 when I became full time and from ’99 until 2002, I was basically just beating the pavement trying to get independent promoters to book me. I was always filling my schedule, my empty dates, with independent wrestling and/or tours overseas. It was very difficult. I didn’t know a month from now where I’d be wrestling. Sometimes I booked shows the week before. It was very unstable. I was very fortunate to be booked as often as I was. I realize now, especially in this climate, how hard it is in independent wrestling to keep a full-time schedule. You’ve just got to knock on doors, make calls, just hustle to get booked. It wasn’t until 2002 that TNA came along and I got the full-time gig with them.
Eric: On my site, I have a photo of you at the premiere of The Wrestler. What did you think of the movie and did it fairly portray the independent wrestling scene?
Daniels: It think it had aspects of reality. I don’t think it was 100% accurate. I think they took a situation and sort of exaggerated it slightly for dramatic effect. But I thought there were certain aspects of it that were spot-on. I tell people that you can enjoy the movie if you look at it as just the story of that one man rather than attribute the whole movie to what pro wrestling is like today. That was one man’s travels and I didn’t think it was 100% realistic the way he was portrayed in terms of the path of his career. But at the same time, there were details that kind of spoke out to me as a professional wrestler, as someone who had come up through the ranks of independent wrestling, who like I said was hustling for work for a long time. That’s what I took away from it. There were parts of it that I felt were a little bit exaggerated to hype it up for dramatic affect.
Eric: Just out of curiosity, what parts did you think were spot-on and what parts did you think were overly dramatized?
Daniels: For example, if Mickey Rourke’s character had been as high up as had been, and they made it seem like he had been a WrestleMania main-eventer, then for him to go to a CZW atmosphere and subject himself to the hardcore match he had with Necro Butcher, I couldn’t think of any veteran in the business today that would do the same thing having had the same stardom in the past. I don’t think that, and I’m not going to name any names, that any of those guys that had been in WrestleMania and are still making their money on the independent scene now would ever have put themselves through what Mickey Rourke’s character put himself through. So I thought that was a little dramatized.
The things that kind of spoke to me were the scenes where Mickey Rourke was at work. Sometimes when you are at work you are the center of attention and having a good time. Then sometimes work sucks and you flip out. You don’t necessarily stick your hand in a deli slicer and storm out screaming but sometimes work is drudgery. I remember when I had a full-time job and I was wrestling on the weekends that I couldn’t wait for 5:01 to come around so I could go to the gym or watch wrestling tapes, or do whatever I had to do to further my wrestling career knowing that the job was just a paycheck.
Eric: Is there anything else you would like my readers to know?
Daniels: Keep watching TNA:iMPACT! on Spike TV at 9:00 Eastern. Stay in touch with the website TNAwrestling.com. Sacrifice is coming up this Sunday and then next month, the 7-year anniversary, Slammiversary is in Detroit. Just keep your eye on me. I plan to be in a high-profile match not just on Sunday but also at Slammiversary. Just stay tuned man, onwards and upwards for Daniels.
