"You never got over huge" - Former world champion fires back at AEW veteran Christopher Daniels (Exclusive)

AEW star Christopher Daniels became one of the first people to join the promotion after it was founded in 2019. The Fallen Angel was already an industry veteran at the time when he signed with All Elite Wrestling, having made his in-ring debut in April 1993.

Christopher Daniels recently appeared on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet and spoke about butting heads creatively with Vince Russo when the latter was working as a writer for TNA Wrestling. The former WCW World Champion fired back at Daniels following his comments.

On Sportskeeda WrestleBinge's The Wrestling Outlaws, Russo claimed that Daniels "never got over huge" as a performer. He said that while the current AEW Head of Talent Relations was a good wrestler, it took more than that to become a huge star.

"This is what I'm sick of, Chris. You had so much [sic] opportunity. You were at TNA for freaking years and years, bro. You got over to a certain point, okay. You never got over huge. Chris, you know why? Because you were a good wrestler, and good wrestlers are a dime a dozen. It takes a lot more than that."

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Russo further explained why Daniels seemingly never reached his full potential.

"And the reality, Chris, is every time I never made it over to the level that I wanted to make it over to, it's always somebody else's fault. It was never my fault. Maybe I should have worked on my promos more. Maybe I really should have developed The Fallen Angel instead of just painting my fingernails black. It's always somebody else, and I'm so freaking sick and tired of hearing that." [From 2:51 onwards]

Christopher Daniels had a hugely successful career with Total Nonstop Action. The AEW star had three different stints with the Nashville-based promotion and went on to become the X-Division Champion thrice. He also held the TNA World Tag Team Championship twice with Frankie Kazarian, who also worked in AEW for years.

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About the author

Faiz is a WWE writer at Sportskeeda Wrestling. He is a BBA graduate who is passionate about sports and wants to make a career in that field. This passion led to a postgraduate degree in Journalism, which helped him pivot into becoming a sports writer. When writing, he puts the utmost importance on accuracy and thorough research.

Faiz has six years of work experience across four companies. He started his career with Zomato and then moved to Amazon. He shifted to becoming a football writer at TV9 Digital and is now with Sportskeeda. He covered the Wrestling Xtreme Mania event in Gurgaon in 2025, where he had the opportunity to interview Raj The Maharaja, fka Jinder Mahal. At the same event, he also got quick interviews with former WWE Superstar Dijak and Japanese Joshi legend Emi Sakura.

When it comes to his favourite wrestlers, Faiz has two names in mind. He loved to watch Triple H before the current WWE CCO retired, and he is a huge fan of Roman Reigns. Being a loyal fan since the Tribal Chief's SHIELD days, Faiz credits Roman's mic skills and unmatched in-ring storytelling for his mega success. When he was young, one in-ring story left a lasting impression on his mind and eventually got him hooked on WWE. That match was Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair at WrestleMania 24. Apart from that, he is also a fan of RAW.

When Faiz is not writing for Sportskeeda, he loves to keep up with other sports. He is an avid cricket and football fan, a huge gamer, and loves playing some RPGs on the PlayStation.

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Edited by Pratik Singh