When the Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes began booking matches for their massive All In pay-per-view event, they approached Christopher Daniels with an idea — a one-on-one match with Arrow actor Stephen Amell.
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Daniels, a 25-year veteran in the professional wrestling business and current Ring of Honor star, leaped at the opportunity.
“I knew that it was going to be a different challenge and I felt like I was the right guy to sort of make it work,” Daniels said in an interview with Comicbook.com. “And I was just very proud of the fact that the people involved, especially Stephen, trusted me with the job to sort of put this all together with him… I was just very honored to be thought of in that respect as someone they could trust to put in that position.”
Amell, who had become friends with Rhodes during the latter’s time in in WWE, made his pro wrestling debut in a tag team match at SummerSlam in 2015. He first appeared in Ring of Honor in late 2017 to align himself with Bullet Club, but All In marked the actor’s first singles match.
The CW star wound up losing, but Daniels was very impressed with how the rookie handled himself in front of a sold-out crowd for 12 solid minutes.
“I’m personally very proud of the match that I had with Stephen, I feel like, people had a preconceived notions of what a ‘celebrity match’ could be and I think Stephen sort of threw threw them against the wall and shocked the world,” Daniels said. “I was happy with what we did and I was proud of how it turned out.”
“I feel like Stephen, he kept his head about him and performed pretty admirably for his first singles match and his third match overall,” he added.
Daniels went on to say that after seeing Amell wrestle in just three matches, he believes the Green Arrow could have a successful future in the pro wrestling business if he chose to keep going.
“You know, the three matches that he’s had you’ve seen some of the stuff that he’s done and it’s wildly athletic,” Daniels said. “I don’t think it would have been out of the question that he would have been successful at this.”
Amell’s friendship with Rhodes eventually led to the reigning NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion getting cast as a Derek Sampson in the fifth and six seasons of Arrow.
Daniels has been building up his own acting career lately with cameo appearances on GLOW and Love while also starring in the Waterworld stunt show at Universal Studios Hollywood. He said if the opportunity came about, he’d definitely be up for an appearance on Arrow as well.
“You know, if that opportunity came to me I’d certainly be happy with it and do my best with it and that’s sort of the idea now, like doing the Waterworld stunt show has opened the doors for me in terms of stunt performing and acting and hopefully, I’m hoping to sort of parlay that into more work in the future,” Daniels said. “If Arrow came around, yeah I wouldn’t turn it down, that’s for sure.”
ROH Death Before Dishonor airs LIVE from the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Friday, September 28, 2018 at 9 p.m. EDT on traditional cable and satellite Pay-Per-View providers, and streaming free for HonorClub VIP, 50% off for HonorClub Standard members, and through FITE TV.
