Ring of Honor star Christopher Daniels recently spoke with Channel Guide Magazine‘s Scott Fishman about his new role in a Universal Studios Hollywood production of Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular.
Daniels talks about his new role, continuing to work for Ring of Honor, how much longer he might wrestle, and much more. You can read a few excerpts below:
Christopher Daniels talks Waterworld:
“It’s a lot of stunt work and bit different than wrestling. One of the things about being a pro wrestler is body control. That helped me sort of pick up what I needed to pick up with the stunt work. Stage combat is a very specialized form of acting. So I had to go through the training. It took me a couple of weeks to pick it up. It’s basically for two fights that last, like, two minutes. It took some time to get to the point where I felt comfortable in doing it. Because I’m a wrestler and have that body control, I sort of had that point of reference of what I needed to do.”
Daniels on working for Ring of Honor, his role in the company:
“I said if I couldn’t perform at a high level I was going to get out. I certainly don’t want to admit the time is coming close. It means I have to work harder. Part of it is being able to play to my strengths and hide my weaknesses, and that comes with experience. It’s one of those things of being smart, knowing what I can do and what I can’t do and wrestling around that. Working with Alex Shelley at the pay-per-view, Alex is a phenomenal wrestler and is in phenomenal shape. I think I proved I can go out there with a guy of Alex’s caliber and put on an entertaining match and tell a good story and do my job.
I feel I have a good handle of what works and what doesn’t work. I think that is part of the reason they wanted me to sign that contract. They wanted me to be that guy helping younger talent become better performers for the company as a whole. Helping with matches, fine tuning performers and their acts and finding what works and what doesn’t work with finishes. Nothing too specific, but basically lending a hand where I can. It was this way even before I signed a new contract. Guys would come up asking for my opinion and for me to watch their stuff and to lend constructive criticism. That was part of the deal for me. It sort of builds a foundation for what is going to happen to me after I’m done wrestling in the ring. It was a good fit for me to do this now while I’m continuing to wrestle and get a head start.”
Daniels comments on ROH’s tag team division:
“I feel like we are doing a good job with that. Even with the reformation of the Motor City Machine Guns, that’s another team you can add to the list with so many high level tag teams out there. We want to be at the top of the list. That’s our main priority right now.”
Does he know how much longer he might actively wrestle?
“When I say the time is drawing near, I don’t think it’s any time soon. I just know that it’s coming. We are closer to the end now than we were to the beginning. It could be two years from now or five years from now. I’m still open-ended. Using my powers of deduction, though, I would assume it’s closer than further away.”
