Christopher Daniels finally reveals the real reason behind his retirement from AEW

The legendary in-ring career of Christopher Daniels has wrapped up after more than 30 years. After years of success in numerous promotions such as WCW, ROH, TNA, and PWG, plus the indies, Daniels joined AEW in its first year as a wrestler and Vice President of Talent Relations. The Michigan native recently worked his final match and is now opening up on why he retired.

The Fallen Angel wrapped his in-ring career in a bloody, brutal fashion. Daniels wrestled Adam Page for the second time ever on the Maximum Carnage Collision earlier this month but came up short in a 17-minute Texas Death Match. Daniels then appeared on Dynamite last week, wearing a neck brace, and confirmed his retirement. The three-time TNA X-Division Champion is now legitimately retired.

Daniels just discussed his career and retirement with Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho. The 54-year-old noted how he's had atrophy in his left arm and shoulder for years from an injury suffered on WCW Nitro. After becoming an AEW EVP, Daniels looked into getting neck surgery, and while he has numerous bone spurs from the base of his skull down to the middle of his back, this operation would not have fixed the atrophy. Daniels accepted this and moved on until suffering a stinger in the match with Hangman. He recalled sliding too far down when trying to take a move, bumping his head, and feeling tingles on his arm.

The Buckshot Lariat finish to the back of the neck caused another stinger, and he didn't think anything of it but was then told to stop wrestling after getting a post-match MRI. The inaugural ROH World Tag Team Champion was warned that one bump could seriously injure him as vertebrae in his neck were beginning to fuse, and this lessened his flexibility but added to the overall risk. Christopher Daniels began to think deeper about his life and career, pointing to how important his behind-the-scenes work is.

The 2000 King of The Indies remembered a story from around 2019 when he called Tony Khan after reading how Roddy Piper tried to return to action at age 49. Daniels expressed gratitude to Khan and was in tears when stating he's somewhat financially stable, and his family is taken care of, thanks to AEW. He was asked if he was content with how the run ended.

"I’m a lot more at peace with it than I thought I would be. I think a lot of that has to do with not wrestling as often as I did in 2024. Like I said, this match that I had with Hangman was the first match that I had in four months. Before that, it was another four months before I had a match. The match that I had before this Hangman match was a match with Jack Perry. And honestly, it wasn’t even supposed to be me. It was just one of those things where Tony had Jack Perry versus TBD, and I was like what if that’s me? Because I had this thing with The Elite," Christopher Daniels said. [H/T to Inside The Ropes]

Before the call with Khan, the former ROH World Champion thought hard about his career today and realized AEW didn't really hire him for his in-ring work but for what he can do to help other talents. As a coach and VP of Talent Relations, Christopher Daniels wondered why he would risk his health and future with his family, and he decided he no longer needed to wrestle.

Christopher Daniels almost had another final opponent

Christopher Daniels wrapped up his legendary in-ring career with a Texas Death Match loss to Adam Page but almost wrestled his final match against Jack Perry.

The Fallen Angel revealed on Talk Is Jericho how the match with The Scapegoat could have marked the end of his active run. Held on the September 9, 2024 edition of Collision, Perry retained the TNT Championship over Daniels in just five minutes.

Christopher Daniels is a three-time Hall of Famer. He was inducted into ECWA's Hall of Fame in 2001, the Southern California Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2020, and the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2023.