Kayfabe Monday--April 26th Edition

For this week's Kayfabe Monday, I want to first show you a entrance video.



In case you do not know who that is and you have lived under a rock for the past 10 years, that is "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels.

Now why I am writing about him this week? For this very question--Why in the blue hell was he let go from TNA?

Reason: THERE WAS NOTHING FOR HIM.

That is an excuse.

Let us tale a look at his TNA Career History: Christopher Daniels joined TNA shortly after the company was founded in 2002. He formed a stable with Low-Ki and Elix Skipper known as Triple X, which competed in the tag division and won the NWA World Tag Team Championship. He also joined Vince Russo's Sports Entertainment Xtreme faction. Triple X disbanded in June 2003 after Low-Ki began wrestling primarily in Japan and the remaining two members decisively lost a cage match to America's Most Wanted. After XXX disbanded, Daniels had a brief feud with Jeff Jarrett around August through September 2003. Afterwards, Daniels competed in the X Division until reviving XXX as a tag team with Skipper in July 2004. They were forced to disband once more after losing to America's Most Wanted on December 5 at Turning Point.

In 2005, Daniels engaged in a lengthy feud with A.J. Styles over the TNA X Division Championship. He won the title at Destination X in an Ultimate X Challenge with a screwjob ending. Styles had taken down the belt, but the referee was unconscious. Daniels put Styles in the Angel's Wings and took the belt when the ref came to. Daniels became the longest reigning X Division champion in TNA history, holding the belt for over 150 days. During the run, Daniels successfully defended the X Division Title against Elix Skipper, Shocker, Petey Williams, Matt Bentley, Chris Sabin, and Austin Aries. Later, on September 11 at Unbreakable, Styles won back the title in a three-way dance with Daniels and Samoa Joe when Styles reversed an attempted Angels Wings into a pin; this match would later get a 5-star rating from Dave Meltzer, the pinnacle of professional wrestling writers.

At Genesis on November 13, Daniels unfortunately received a Grade III concussion after being attacked by Samoa Joe and given a Musclebuster on a chair, following a tag match together. This is one of the reasons why I HATE Sloppy Joe--he is dangerous in the ring and injures people. But that is an entry for another week. At Turning Point, when Joe tried to similarly injure A.J. Styles after winning the X Division Championship from him, Daniels made his return, attacking Joe and enabling members of TNA security to protect Styles and restrain Joe. At Final Resolution, Daniels was defeated by Joe when Styles threw in the towel to prevent the badly beaten Daniels from suffering serious injuries after Daniels was unable to defend himself. The next week, Daniels claimed Styles did it to get the number one contendership for the X Division Title. That same night he cost Styles a match against the "Prince of Punk" Shannon Moore by throwing in the towel, resulting in another three-way at for the title at Against All Odds, where Samoa Joe retained his title. Daniels succeeded in winning an Ultimate X match to regain the X Division Title, but lost it on April 13, 2006 to Joe after receiving a second rope Island Driver. After losing the X Division title, Daniels was scheduled to face Jushin Liger in a Six Sides of Steel match at Lockdown, but Liger was pulled out of the match. Daniels, instead, would face a mystery opponent, who turned out to be the returning Low Ki—now named Senshi—who won the match.

Daniels then teamed with A.J. Styles, becoming the number one contenders for the NWA Tag Team Title, then held by America's Most Wanted. Daniels and Styles won the title from AMW at Slammiversary. The team feuded with The Latin American Xchange (LAX), trading the tag title back and forth with the team of Homicide and Hernandez. On November 16, 2006, Daniels competed in a triple threat match that also involved Chris Sabin and Styles in the primetime debut of TNA Impact! on Spike TV. Daniels won the match by pinning Sabin to capture his third TNA X Division Championship. He lost it to Sabin in a Three-Way bout at Final Resolution, which also involved Jerry Lynn.

Daniels then took time off from TNA for a repackaging of his character but made his return as a villain at Destination X. He distracted Lynn during his match with Sabin. After the match, the newly-bearded Daniels, sporting tribal-styled paint on one side of his face hit Sabin with the Angel's Wings and Lynn with the X Division title belt. At Lockdown, Daniels pinned Jerry Lynn in the Six Sides of Steel. At Sacrifice, Daniels pinned Rhino after hitting him with a baseball bat. Daniels next moved to a feud with Sting, costing him a King of the Mountain match qualifier by hitting him with a baseball bat. Sting then attacked Daniels the next week on Impact!. On June 17, 2007 at Slammiversary, Daniels lost a match against Sting via the Scorpion Death Drop. At Victory Road, he won a 10-Man Ultimate X Gauntlet Match to become the number one contender for the X Division Championship. Senshi and Elix Skipper helped Daniels to win the match, resulting in the reunion of Triple X. At Bound for Glory on October 14, Daniels challenged unsuccessfully for Jay Lethal's X Division Championship. On the December 6 edition of Impact!, Daniels beat Senshi in a match for his Feast or Fired briefcase, refereed by Elix Skipper.On the following week's show it was revealed that Daniels' briefcase contained a pink slip, immediately causing him to be fired from TNA.

One month after Daniels was fired, Christopher Daniels returned to TNA as his masked persona Curry Man, which is a successful gimmick in Japan, soon to team up regularly with Shark Boy. Unlike the brooding serious nature of his "Fallen Angel" persona, Curry Man was much more humorous, entertaining fans with his silly antics. He feuded with Team 3D and won a "Fish Market Street Fight" against them at Destination X. On the March 13, 2008 Impact!, Curry Man qualified for the Xscape match for the X Division Title at Lockdown by beating Petey Williams. At Lockdown, he fought Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Shark Boy, Consequences Creed, and Johnny Devine. Curry Man eliminated Creed from the match after delivering the Spice Rack. He was later eliminated by Devine via the Devine Intervention.

In June, Curry Man represented Team TNA in the 2008 World X Cup. After being defeated by Team International's Alex Koslov in a preview match, Curry Man lost to Team Japan's Milano Collection A.T. in the tournament itself. At Victory Road Curry Man took part in a four-team twelve-man elimination tag team, out of which he was eliminated by Team Mexico's Último Guerrero. After the tournament Curry Man and Shark Boy aligned themselves with Super Eric to form a comedic superhero-themed stable called the "Prince Justice Brotherhood". At Final Resolution, Curry Man was one of the four participants in the "Feast or Fired" match (along with Jay Lethal, and both members of LAX, Homicide and Hernandez) to collect a briefcase, in which he got the pink slip (again), meaning his contract with TNA was terminated according to the storyline.

In early 2009 Daniels began portraying the character of Suicide while Kaz, the original Suicide, was recovering from his injury and was in the costume when the character won the X Division Championship in an Ultimate X match at Destination X.

Daniels returned as a fan favorite to TNA television under his "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels character (with the name simplified to just Daniels afterwards) on the April 16 episode of TNA Impact! in a match against Kurt Angle for the man advantage challenge for Lethal Lockdown at TNA's annual Lockdown PPV event. He was announced as being a member of Team Jarrett as a result. Daniels won the match, however the result was over-turned by Jeff Jarrett, after noticing that Angle's shoulder was up during the pinfall and Daniels' shoulders were down. At Lockdown, Team Jarrett defeated Team Angle. Then Daniels started a feud with Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin of The Motor City Machine Guns, who on the April 30 episode of Impact! accused him of being Suicide. On the May 7 edition of Impact!, Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed joined the accusations by also accusing Daniels of being Suicide. On the May 14 edition of Impact!, Daniels helped Suicide clear the ring of Shelley, Sabin, Lethal, and Creed while they attempted to unmask him, in an attempt to prove Daniels was Suicide all along. At Sacrifice, Daniels defeated Suicide to win the TNA X Division Championship. However, after the match Daniels saw a replay of the finish which showed Alex Shelley interfering in the match and said he didn't want to win the belt like that and asked for five extra minutes. In the end there was no winner, which meant that Suicide retained his title. At Slammiversary he faced Shane Douglas with Daniels' roster spot on the line. Daniels retained his roster spot by pinning Douglas after the Best Moonsault Ever. At Victory Road, Daniels lost to Matt Morgan in a standard match. At Hard Justice, Daniels managed to win the Steel Asylum match to become the number one contender to the X Division Championship, thus reigniting his feud with champion Samoa Joe. Daniels lost the match at No Surrender, along with a triple threat match on the following Impact, also featuring Homicide. At Bound for Glory, Daniels competed in a six way Ultimate X match for the X Division Championship, also featuring Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Suicide, Homicide, and defending champion, and eventual winner, Amazing Red. Towards the end of the match, Daniels took a bump, falling from the cables to the ring, landing on his head.

On the November 5 edition of Impact!, Daniels started showing signs of a heel turn when he confronted the TNA World Heavyweight Champion A.J. Styles and claimed that while he was just as good a wrestler as Styles, he was never given the same breaks by the company, that was pampering, coddling, and spoiling Styles. At Turning Point, Styles retained his title in a three-way match against Daniels and Samoa Joe by pinning Joe. On the November 19 edition of Impact!, Daniels completed his heel turn and pinned Styles in a tag team match where he teamed with Desmond Wolfe against Styles and Kurt Angle. At Final Resolution Daniels received a one-on-one shot at the World Heavyweight Champion, A.J. Styles, but was unable to defeat him for the title. The following month at Genesis Daniels was defeated by Sean Morley in his first match for the company. On the March 8 edition of Impact! Daniels declared that he was going to be the one to re-ignite the flame of the X Division. Afterwards the X Division Champion Doug Williams pinned Daniels in a three-way match for the title, also involving Kazarian. At Destination X Daniels competed in a four-way ladder match for the number one contendership to the X Division title, but was defeated by Kazarian.[43] Two days later Daniels defeated Kazuchika Okada in a dark match at the Impact! tapings in what would turn out to be his last match with the company.[44] Covell was released from his TNA contract on March 31, 2010, after spending more than seven years with the company.

Before I go any further, thanks to various wrestling history websites for all of that info.

Personally, I think the reason why TNA let him go is simply the fact that Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan want to revive WCW but use the letters TNA instead. The Band for example is just another version of New World Order just with a different name. AJ Styles is now a mini Ric Flair. The wrestling world already has a Ric Flair and he still has it. Did Rob Van Dam really need a belt? Nope. He is over already. What is going on with the Knockouts Division? Absolutely nothing, in fact it looks like it is going back to bra and panties type matches which I DESPISE.

Do not get me wrong, TNA's ratings have improved but like the Hollywood Industry, they are stuck in the mindset of remakes. If it is not broke, DO NOT FIX IT. Christopher Daniels has a tremendous fan following. Instead of trying to re-create WCW, maybe some original thought should go into their product instead of a constant rehash/remake. I did not like it that George Romero's films were remade--do I like it when professional wrestling gimmicks that worked in the past are remade? What do you think?

Remember, I believe in Kayfabe,
JoiseyDani