Christopher Daniels recently appeared as a guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, “The Fallen Angel” spoke about never joining WWE when WCW was bought out, the rumor that he was going to be the “Higher Power” behind The Corporation before it ultimately became Vince McMahon, the inspiration behind the BME – Best Moonsault Ever, as well as his thoughts on Tiffany Stratton’s PME – Prettiest Moonsault Ever.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On why he never joined WWE when WCW got bought out: “Well, it was a developmental deal, because I had that match with Mike Modest on Nitro, and we did the angle at the end where Scott Steiner came out and broke our legs. So the idea was going to be like, we would heal, and at some point we would come back. That was January of 2001, then by March of 2001 they had closed. And so basically, WWE took all the contracts, and they just went down the list. They’re like, All right, we’ll keep you, we’ll keep you. We’ll keep you. And like all the guys at developmental, they’re like, Oh, well, we don’t need you.”
On the rumor he was going to be the higher power in WWE: “I didn’t hear this until years later. [So is there any truth to it?] Maybe, but it was never anything that they told me, and honestly, it was a terrible idea anyway. Because the idea would have been Undertaker is answering to this higher power, and then I unmask, and it’s me, and it’s like, Who the f*ck is this guy? It’s sort of like what was going on in my first WCW contract as well. When I first signed with WCW, they had an idea, the way they described it to me was, if Vampiro is Darth Vader, you’re the Emperor. And I was like, Okay. But also, at this point, Vampiro was feuding with Sting, and I was an unknown indie guy, so whatever the reveal was gonna be at that point was gonna be a letdown to me. And so I thought, Okay, we’ll do this. I remember going to WCW one day, cutting this promo backstage with Vampiro, I’ve got this hood, and they’re talking to me, like, ‘All right, talk about harvesting souls and things like that.’ I’m like, okay. So I cut this promo. We get it live, and then I’m back in the locker room, and it comes on live Nitro, and we watch it. And as soon as it’s done, Jeff Jarrett, who happens to be there, and I haven’t really even met Jeff at this point, goes, ‘Who the f*ck was that?!’ And I was like, ‘That’s me sir.’ Then that flopped so quickly that they didn’t go forward with that idea. Then I was just under contract with WCW. I was traveling with them for like, four months, and then they let me go. That was the first contract that I had with them that ended like, JJ Dillon called me, is like, hey, you’re not wrestling a whole lot for us. And I was like, Well, you’re not booking me, so that’s why. It’s not like I’m wasting your money on purpose, sir. But they let me go.”
On how he found out about the rumour: “It came out on the internet. I think maybe Bruce Prichard mentioned it? But yeah, everyone was like, ‘Christopher Daniels was almost the higher power.’ I was like, was he though? I don’t think that’s true. I think maybe it was discussed because I had been going to do WWE dark matches as an extra, and Jim Cornette was always sort of high on trying to get me there early on when the light heavyweight thing was a thing, and they knew I was doing the fallen angel. So I think they thought, Oh, well, maybe this is something that we could use him as. But honestly, I think once Vince saw me, and, you know, I’m 5 10 and this is the time when everybody is six feet something, it’s like, we can do better. And I was like, that makes sense.”
On the inspiration of the BME: “Okay, so I was always a moonsault guy. I always wanted to do a moonsault. The Great Muta inspired me to do a moonsault. And so I started to learn a moonsault, like early 94 95 I was even doing it. I remember doing it for the first time in Puerto Rico when I was in WWC. So I was training one day in windy city, and there was a Mexican wrestler that was there, it wasn’t anybody famous, I don’t even remember the gentleman’s name, but I saw him bounce from the second [rope], bounce to the top, do a cross body. And I thought, Oh, that’s cool. At the time, I was playing with this moonsault where you stand on the top rope and then you jump up and bounce. You basically turn and bounce, like Mark Mero had done. So I was doing that for a little bit and having sort of good success with it. But then I thought. Oh, maybe it’d be easier if I just did this bounce-bounce thing. And so for the longest time, I just called it the double bounce moonsault. I wasn’t doing it on television at that point, so no one was calling it the double bounce moonsault, no announcers were calling it. It was just me when I would say, Hey, okay, this, this, this, and then I’ll hit you with the double bounce moonsault. So somewhere along the lines in TNA, you know, I’m a Simpsons fan. So everything that Comic Book Guy said was like best comic book ever. And I thought, haha! So I was like best moonsault ever. So that was where I got that from.”
On Tiffany Stratton having the prettiest moonsault ever: “Which was very, very cool of her. I don’t know Tiffany at all. I’ve never met her. But the fact that she didn’t just copy it, she sort of adjusted it, which is what the greats do. I feel like they don’t just steal. If we are inspired by something, we try to put our own little spin on it. And so the fact that she goes from the bottom all the way up and then to sort of like, pay homage, call it in that same vein, PME, I was like, that’s pretty cool. I can’t be mad at that.”
On if there is a secret to the move: “Yeah. I mean, for me, the idea was using the top rope to sort of balance yourself until you bounce, and then once you bounce, it’s basically push from the top and bounce off the second at the same time to go straight. And you just got to keep your eyes on the ropes. So, I mean, I wasn’t perfect all the time, but I very rarely flubbed it. And just very lucky to be able to do it and keep doing it as long as I did.”
