One of AEW’s fastest rising stars in Daniel Garcia recently appeared on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, where he talked about facing CM Punk and how he first got booked on AEW Dark.
Below are the highlights:
On facing CM Punk:
“That was pretty cool. CM Punk is someone who I obviously watched for probably 15 years of my life at this point. I really looked up to that guy for a very long time. He’s one of my favorite wrestlers and still probably is. He’s my mom’s favorite wrestler too. When he came in, I was thinking, man it would be cool if I got to wrestle CM Punk. It would be like a dream come true for me. When me and 2point0 attacked him on his second appearance back I think, it was the first time there was any physical contact with CM Punk in the ring in 7 years. Then we didn’t touch upon that for a couple of weeks. I was like, maybe I won’t get to wrestle him for a little bit. Then they announced on Dynamite when I was just sitting backstage, and he called me out. I checked my phone and I was like, I guess I’m wrestling CM Punk on Rampage this week. I wrestled him and it was a great learning experience for me. It taught me a lot about simple, easy storytelling. Not everything has to be hard wrestling. It’s very easy if you let it be.”
On how he first got booked on AEW Dark:
“People just end up reaching out to you. I think you develop a lot of independent clout or notoriety, and people end up hitting you up. I think The Blade, Pepper Parks, one of my trainers, I think was able to put in a good word for me. I’m sure that didn’t harm the cause at all, but I think that’s how it came together. They were looking for high profile indie wrestlers that they could put on their show and give an opportunity to. That plus the recommendation I think went a long way.”
