The Second Act Of A Fallen Angel
In the first act of The Resurrection Of Jake The Snake, Diamond Dallas Page finds the wrestling legend hermited inside a home as beaten as his body. A shell of an existence, Roberts lives hidden among the high grass of a rural highway.
Once protege to the snake handler, Page becomes mentor to Roberts and rescues the WWE legend from himself and his demons.
Roberts’s story is a sad but common curtain call for countless professional athletes, not just wrestlers. What happens when the body taps out, the indie appearances dry up and the modest pay of autograph signings are fewer and farther between?
Christopher Daniels is in the final act of his wrestling career. The former “Fallen Angel” and 23-year veteran has seen the top — a former champion in TNA, NWA, New Japan and Ring of Honor — Daniels is still basking in the cheers for as long as possible. He’s currently one half of The Addiction — the reigning Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions — with Frankie Kazarian.
A promotion like RoH is perfect for a performer like Daniels. The set schedule allows for the body to heal while also explore other professional options.
For this generation of professional wrestlers, there are opportunities to stay relevant, and employed, after the career-closing match. Many jump into podcasting, writing, acting or regular 9-to-5 careers. Daniels, a trained actor, explored a career with almost as much chance of injury — but only for his coworkers.
On the eve of a major ROH TV taping and title defense in a triple threat match in Philadelphia, Daniels talked to us about his current run and his side work in a stunt show.
The Outside Game: How long have you been with Ring of Honor?
Christopher Daniels: About since the beginning, man. They started 2002, and I was on the very first show in the main event . This current run—I came back to the company in 2014 after a brief hiatus — this weekend it will be my 13th year anniversary.
TOG: Is there anything different with the company in this second run?
Christopher Daniels: We’re always trying to grow Ring of Honor as a company. In the last few years, since the deal with Sinclair Broadcasting, Ring of Honor has built a strong syndicated base. We keep adding markets all the time. In the last two years we’ve gotten onto broadcast pay-per-view.
There’s always been the mentality of guys bonding together to make Ring of Honor, as a brand, as good as it can be, to make it an alternative to the WWE and the stuff fans see on the national scale. There are people that are just used to what the WWE offers in terms of professional wrestling and then there are other fans who are looking for a wider spectrum of pro wrestling. That’s what Ring of Honor offers. It’s something more of a throwback to what pro wrestling used to be. We’re with more about what’s going on in the ring as apposed to the stuff that happens backstage and the “soap opera” of it all.
TOG: Do you find that it’s harder to honor the old ways of professional wrestling with the dominance of social media?
Christopher Daniels: Absolutely. I think the internet has made professional wrestling very difficult. It has pulled back the curtain. People who want to know what goes on behind the scenes has made it difficult for performers to maintain the illusion of professional wrestling. I think that part of the art is adapting though. What people know and what people only assume is definitely something that wrestlers today deal with that guys didn’t have to deal with 20 or 30 years ago.
TOG: Has it, in a way, ruined a part of wrestling?
Christopher Daniels: Everybody sort of knows what professional wrestling is now. It’s tougher to get heat and have fans suspend that disbelief. I think that’s something that Ring of Honor does very well. There’s a method to the contact between professional wrestlers so that it looks like it’s really happening versus the other organizations who do more stage stunt or stage combat stuff. There’s an art to wrestling that I think the Ring of Honor guys do very well.
TOG: Speaking of stunts, you’re now moonlighting as a character in a popular stunt show.
Christopher Daniels: Yes, I’m in a stunt show at Universal Studios Hollywood based on the movie Waterworld. I play the character Deacon, made famous by Dennis Hopper in the film. It’s one of the top-rated stunt shows in the world and it’s one of the top attractions at Universal.
TOG: How did you get involved with the show?
Christopher Daniels: I don’t have a stunt background although wrestling and stunts are very similar in certain respects. When I first moved to California, my wife worked at Universal Studios. They have a stage show called The Rugrats based on the old cartoon. It’s a stage show and she was a costumed character.
I always thought about the possibility of doing something at Universal knowing that they have stunt shows.When we moved out here, the Waterworld show had just started. I was looking for something to do in my off time so I auditioned for the show. I was offered the part, but because of a wrestling tour that coincided with rehearsals, I had to turn the job down. This year, after signing a new contract with Ring of Honor, I had a set schedule so when auditions for Waterworld came around I was available. They remembered me from the previous year, and after an audition, offered me the spot.
TOG: Ring of Honor is obviously OK with that you’re doing on the side.
Christopher Daniels: Absolutely. You know, honestly speaking, it’s no more or less dangerous than wrestling. It’s a set stage show and I went through the training. Barring any catastrophic accidents, it’s a relatively safe side job.
TOG: What are the differences between a wrestling crowd and a crowd at Universal? What are the similarities and differences between two factions?
Christopher Daniels: The Waterworld show has a little bit of interaction with the crowd but it’s very set. It’s a set script and you know the story’s going to go the way the story goes. Waterworld is basically a play that we perform sometimes five times a day. It’s pretty set in terms of what you’re allowed to do and what you shouldn’t do. You don’t want to stray too far from the script.
Wrestling is different type of performance. You’re always dealing with the differences in wrestling, from the crowd to your opponent, it’s different each night. There’s much more interaction at a wrestling show. A performer can sort of play up the crowd a little bit more. There’s a freedom to do more back and forth with the crowd.
Credit: Ring of Honor / Andrea Kellaway
TOG: Has anyone ever recognized you at the Waterworld show from your wrestling work?
Christopher Daniels: I usually get about one or two people every show actually. A lot of it has to do with ROH and my time with TNA. There was a period of time in TNA where we were getting a million, a million-and-a-half viewers each week. There was a period of time where a million people watched me on TV every week. People recognize me from that and my time with Ring of Honor.
TOG: Do you enjoy the stunt show as much as you enjoy wrestling?
Christopher Daniels: It’s a different thing. To me it’s still performing and even though there are the differences between wrestling and playing like a set character, it’s still an opportunity to go out and flex the performance muscles that I’ve built up while I was going through school trying to get my degree in acting. It’s sort of a proactive act. I’ve been a professional wrestler full time since ’99. I don’t want to say that I gave up the world of acting when I got into wrestling, but I mean, I certainly didn’t put as much effort into acting as I could have or probably should have because wrestling was my main focus. Now, I have the opportunity to branch out into something that may turn into more opportunities down the road. I’m interacting with more stunt performers and stunt coordinators and it’s an opportunity to explore stunt work and acting while continuing to wrestle.
TOG: Do you think that’s where it might take you when you hang up the wrestling boots?
Christopher Daniels: It’s possible. I mean, you think about the rigors of professional wrestling and then walking away from that to do something lighter, I don’t know if stunt work is actually the lighter of the two professions.
Conceivably there will be opportunities for me to do stunt work when I decide to hang up the wrestling boots. I’m 46 right now so as I get older obviously it’s going to be harder for me to do the wrestling stuff, or even the stunt work, but I think there are ways for me to do it that are safe.
TOG: Your character Deacon, do you think he could get over in wrestling?
Christopher Daniels: Absolutely. Well, I don’t know if he can get over wearing the outfit that he wears. It’s sort of an outlandish outfit and it’s very heavy, too. It doesn’t have the best ventilation It’s would make for quite a jacket heading to the ring.