Wrestling's Most Ridiculous Alter-Ego Gimmick, Explained
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A name that most wrestling fans have heard, either in passing or through actually seeing him perform, Christopher Daniels is the definition of a living legend. Having a multi-decade career, Daniels has been a staple of pro wrestling since the 1990s, working across many promotions including TNA, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, NJPW, WWE, and AEW. While Daniels has enjoyed a long, decorated career under many different characters, one that stands out from the rest of his career is that of Curry Man, his most zany and comedic gimmick to date. The name may ring bells for longtime wrestling fans or any members of the Impact Faithful, though the career of Curry Man begins all the way back in 1999.
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Curry Man Is A Decades-Spanning Wrestling Character
While Christopher Daniels' wrestling career would begin in the early 1990s, it would not be until the end of the decade that the Fallen Angel would debut the Curry Man character. From 1999 until 2002, Daniels' home promotion in Japan became Michinoku Pro, a company founded by The Great Sasuke and Jinsei Shinzaki, which still exists today. During his time with the company, Daniels adopted the character of Curry Man, something that may have started as an off-the-wall idea, but would later spiral into a memorable character throughout his career. The character saw Daniels wrestle under a mask, sometimes wearing Curry on his head, while also being seen as a dancing comedy act, though he would find success with the act.
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After making the jump to wrestle in New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2002, Curry Man took part in that year's Best of the Super Juniors Tournament, a tournament that remains the pinnacle of Junior Heavyweight/Cruiserweight wrestling to this day. Daniels continued using the gimmick during tours of NJPW through 2004, working alongside names like Katsuyori Shibata, Hirooki Goto, Jushin Thunder Liger, and Bryan Danielson, with whom he would capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles with, before his career reached new heights in both TNA and Ring of Honor.
The Curry Man Gimmick Rose To Prominence In TNA & ROH
As the 2000s began, with the death of WCW, both TNA and Ring of Honor would rise from the ashes, providing new wrestling options for fans that were looking for something other than WWE in North America. ROH was seen as the workhorse promotion, while TNA opted to feature former WCW and WWE talents, while also building up the youth in their X Division. Christopher Daniels originally worked in both companies during their early years. Working mostly as Christopher Daniels, the legendary wrestler occasionally wrestled as his former Japanese wrestling gimmick, Curry Man, in both promotions.
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First donning the gimmick in America in ROH during 2005, Curry Man faced off with two special opponents in their own right, as he would take on Jay Lethal and future IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Shingo Takagi. Daniels spent much of the 2000s and 2010s bouncing around ROH and TNA, with the latter being the promotion where Curry Man became a much bigger name, as he spent the entirety of 2008 wrestling as Curry Man in TNA before losing the Feast or Fired Ladder Match, with him eventually returning under the other masked gimmick of Suicide.
Christopher Daniels Still Uses The Curry Man Gimmick Sporadically Outside Of AEW
While 2008 marked the last full-time run of the Curry Man gimmick for Christopher Daniels, it would not be the last time that wrestling fans got to say Konnichiwa to the master of Spicy Style. Over the next several years, Daniels would bring out the comedy character for one-off matches, across many promotions, including Chikara, where he formed a team of food-inspired masked men called Team Delicioso alongside El Hijo Del Ice Cream and Ice Cream Jr. during the King of the Trios Tournament.
Curry Man also return to TNA three more times, wrestling bouts in 2013 and 2014 under the gimmick, with one of the matches ironically being another Feast or Fired Ladder Match. Daniels used the gimmick one final time in ROH during 2016, where he challenged Roderick Strong for the Ring of Honor World Television Championship. Since then Christopher Daniels has joined AEW, where he maintains a semi-regular on-screen role, while also running Talent Relations for the company. He still wrestles on the independent scene as well, where he recently brought back Curry Man once more, as in early 2023, Curry Man wrestled his first match since 2018, taking on Dan the Dad.
