Source: KineticFix.com
A few days ago, one half of Bad Influence and former TNA World Tag Team Champion and TNA X-Division Champion Christopher Daniels talked with the team at KineticFix.com. During the interview, Daniels talked about how he became a professional wrestler, the Best Moonsault Ever, and other topics related to healthy living. Below are highlights of the interview, though you can read the entire interview by clicking here. Enjoy!
On How He Became a Professional Wrestler
Well, I grew up in Fayetteville, N.C., where I became a pro wrestling fan at an early age, watching people like Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, the Road Warriors and Sting wrestle for Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling. But those men seemed a lot larger than I thought I’d ever become, so I didn’t envision becoming a wrestler until a lot later in life. After I graduated college, I moved to Chicago and did some children’s theater, telling my girlfriend at the time (who is now my wife), “You know, if this acting thing never works out, I could always try to be a pro wrestler,” never actually meaning it. Little did I know, she found a local professional wrestling school (Windy City Pro Wrestling in Chicago) and made an appointment for me. She says that I came out of that meeting with a look in my eyes that said, “I’m going to do this!” Because I grew up a fan, I had a frame of reference and finished my initial training in three months. In my third match, I won my first championship, the Windy City Lightweight Championship, and I just stuck with it until this slowly became my career.
On Eating Clean and Lifting Weights
I do admit that the hardest facet of my fitness routine is eating clean, especially in terms of carbs. I have two kids, so I’ve always got snacks and sweets around and it’s hard to be super-strict, but I do try to keep my protein intake as high as I can to offset whatever carbohydrates I may consume. When I’m home, I know that my job is to hit the gym at some point during a day, so it’s very rare that I take a day off. I usually try to do a four-day split in a given week – a day each for chest, back, shoulders and arms, plus leg exercises each day in-between sets.
On Perfecting the Best Moonsault Ever
It was a two-part process. First off, the moonsault itself (for non-wrestling fans, basically a back-flip off the top rope landing on your opponent chest-to-chest) I initially saw watching the Great Muta, one of the most famous Japanese wrestlers ever to compete in the US. It took me a while to get confident enough to try and back-flip without worrying about landing on my head…and even longer to learn how to do it by leading with my head instead of one of my shoulders, which keeps me going straight over instead of leaning to one side or the other. Then, the unique way I do it, bouncing first on the second rope and leaping straight up to the top rope before executing the moonsault, I learned from a Mexican wrestler who came through Chicago to train with us. After a bit, I decided to put them together, and the rest is history.
