AEW star Daniel Garcia recently joined Fightful’s Grapsody for an in-depth conversation about his run with the company thus far, which includes his thoughts on his Continental Classic tournament storyline of always losing. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On his story of always losing in the Continental Classic:
I remember after the Continental Classic, those couple of weeks, I was so exhausted. It wasn’t even like a physical exhaustion. It was an emotional exhaustion. I remember going to producers; Zane is one of the camera guys for AEW; he does a lot of the backstage stuff and is super talented. He told me, ‘You’re so exhausted because you’re pouring your heart out after every match for the past five weeks.’ That’s not something that clicked in my head, but I remember feeling so empty and exhausted. It was emotional because of those promotions. A lot of those times during the losses and during the times you keep losing, you have to have faith in yourself and belief in yourself that I’m going to overcome all of these things. These losses do not define me. That’s the biggest thing. I never strive for perfection, I think imperfection is beautiful and what makes us humans different and what makes every individual special. I never strive for perfection. If you win all the time and you’re perfect, that’s boring. I don’t want to be boring. I want to be imperfect. I want to be beautiful. That’s what losses represent for me.
Says it was a blessing to wrestle on television multiple weeks in a row:
It was such a blessing. I keep saying blessing. I live a very blessed life. Blessing is my favorite word. It’s amazing. Being able to wrestle on TV for that many weeks straight, in such a packed locker room where so many people are fighting for opportunities every single week and a lot of people, who maybe are deserving of opportunities, sometimes don’t get it because we have such a crowded locker room. I can’t describe the feeling that I felt when they told me, ‘You get to wrestle every week for the next five weeks.’ It was amazing. In hindsight, I miss it so much. I still wrestle a lot now. That tournament was a real turning point for AEW and Daniel Garcia. It’s something people are going to look back at a long time from now; it’s a really special thing. The Continental Classic is even more special than anybody realizes right now. People will realize it the next couple of decades, just how important that tournament is. In a way, it still feels very nostalgic. I’m nostalgic for that time. It’s really weird.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)