Posted By James Walsh on 07/27/26
Pro wrestling can appeal to people so many different ways. Some might like the bright lights, the loud music, the energetic crowd, the atmosphere. Others might look at it as a soap opera and get lost in the stories. But, the present measuring stick, thanks in no small part to Dave Melzer, is entirely on moves and "work rate." Austin Aries told me in an interview about a decade ago, "The X Division style of the early days of TNA is just the way wrestling is now." He was right. Damn it, he was right.
In 2003, MLW's first run of shows aired on the Sunshine Network. One night, a match aired between Christopher Daniels and two partners against the Spanish Announce Team of the Maximos and Amazing Red. Does this sound like a TNA X Division match? It should because all of the available talent were working TNA, ROH, and MLW at that time. CM Punk and Raven were on all 3 shows involved in 3 different variations of their feud and never a crossover mention was made. But, I digress. As I watched this match, I said, "This is RIDICULOUS!" and I rewound the tape back to the start of the match and counted the backflips. It is a good thing I didn't make it that game where you take a shot whenever a backflip happened because I would've been three sheets to the wind. The result? 29 backflips. Twenty-nine! Remember that number as it will come up later.
Can you remember ever being in a bar fight and thinking, "You know, I've had a few. I think I might be able to win this fight. I can do 15, maybe even 20 backflips right now... I don't know if I can do as many as 29!" No, you didn't. No one has. Why? Because, as I thought while watching it, IT IS RIDICULOUS!
There is an artform to pro wrestling of all kinds. However, in the modern era, the belief is that unless you do 29 flips in a match or kick out of the other guy's finisher, the other guy doing your finisher, and involve at least one piece of furniture in the match, it just isn't a very good match.
When I was just getting smartened up to pro wrestling, not that I ever really didn't get it, a lot of the old timers used to complain about Shawn Michaels' bumps. A few years later, Rob Van Dam gave them fits. Now, well, those guys are the ones trying to teach psychology. Did they get smarter? Or, did wrestling evolve or devolve so drastically that even their "upsetting the old timers" style has far more psychology than the mess we are left with now? Or, as HBK and RVD aged, did they "figure it out"?
Christopher Daniels did not figure it out. And, he's agenting AEW matches now. That should pinpoint the problem. The next step, to quote Tommy Boy, would be washing it off.
Don't get me wrong. Christopher Daniels had a heck of a career. I interviewed him a number of times and always thought he was a good, kind man. Being kind doesn't mean you get it. I don't think he does. If you think back on his career, the matches he did best with were ones with guys who did get wrestling on a higher level. AJ Styles, who he wrestled 4,965 times or so, give or take a thousand,