'I'm a conqueror': AEW’s Daniel Garcia is hell-bent on finishing what he started

Sports fans have a strange relationship with loyalty. They expect it from their fellow fans, demand it from their favorite team’s players, and turn a blind eye to it when it’s subverted by management or ownership. How could someone not want to be part of the thing that brings them joy? How could you ever see value in another team or organization? With professional wrestling having so few “teams,” loyalty is valued at an even higher extreme. Talent wanting a change of scenery, a new challenge, a higher salary, anything that any of us look for in our professional lives, is treated like high-school breakup. It’s irrational, it’s unfounded, but it’s the part of why all this works. The dedication to a team sells the tickets, sells the jerseys, sells the dream. But for Daniel Garcia, one of professional wrestling’s top young prospects, the decision to re-sign with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) was rooted in one principle: You finish what you start.

Garcia’s first AEW match was on September 8th, 2020, when he teamed with Kevin Blackwood in a loss to The Butcher and the Blade. He signed his first contract with the company almost a year later, and was immediately thrust into the upper tier of singles competitors, facing the likes of Darby Allin, Jon Moxley and CM Punk. It was a unique amount of trust to put into someone who had never competed on the national level and wasn’t part of a noted wrestling family. But the stone-faced, tenacious Buffalo (N.Y.) native, aptly nicknamed “Red Death,” held up his end of the deal every time out, quickly becoming the go-to guy for televised main events. He got the very best out of AEW’s premiere players, with the likes of Bryan Danielson and Chris Jericho openly pursuing him as their heirs apparent. But while he appreciated the looks and the opportunities, just being there didn’t check off any boxes on his career to-do list.

“I feel like I'm a conqueror," Garcia tells Uncrowned.

"But if you look at the facts, I've never been in the main event of a pay-per-view. I've never won a title. I haven't solidified myself as a top guy in the company.”

The term bidding war may be overused in professional wrestling in 2024, but what’s clear is that when Garcia’s contract was set to expire this summer, there was strong interest from WWE.

It also seemed to be more than just storyline coincidence that Garcia didn't appear on TV following a brutal attack from fellow young gun MJF in July. While rumors swirled and fantasy booking kicked into overdrive, there was one constant: Before making his re-signing announcement live on the October 8th edition of "AEW Dynamite," you didn’t hear a word about Daniel Garcia from Daniel Garcia. Calling it dedication would sell the commitment short — he’s hell-bent on his privacy. Over the summer, he turned down a promotional event by responding via text, “Can’t I’m dead on TV." The closest you’ll get to cracking the code on anything he’s thinking comes in the form of an X account dedicated to his posted — then quickly deleted — tweets. For decades, talent dropped hints and steered narratives in their favor to better position themselves when it’s time to sign or re-sign, but Garcia’s business stays in-house.

“If you look at the reports and stuff, nobody ever had any information on me, ever, because I don't tell anybody anything," he says. "The only [person] I talk to is Isiah [Kassidy, one half of the AEW tag team Private Party]. And that's really the person who really knew anything that I had going on.”

It’s here you start to see the mindset of the younger AEW talent. Five years ago, for most on the rise, it was WWE or bust. AEW’s very existence as an American alternative provides more chances to reach the upper echelon of pro wrestling. There’s a focused few who want that to happen in the place that helped break them. “When I see [Konosuke] Takeshita getting a shot for the International title, that gets me excited," Garcia says. "Private Party wrestling for the Tag Titles, that gets me excited. Whenever Top Flight has a big match on 'Dynamite,' that gets me hyped. I love being involved [with the young talent]. I love talking about ideas. I love talking about wrestling theory. I love getting and receiving advice. The young guys in AEW, I think we're powerful. I think that we have the best young roster on the planet.”

Something that’s still fairly new to pro wrestling is the love of all things pro wrestling. There’s a generation of wrestlers that got into the business because of what they saw on the USA, UPN and Turner networks in their youth. With so many different personalities and styles across platforms, along with the ability to watch international promotions digitally, it’s fitting that talents like Garcia, who currently holds the Los Angeles-based Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG) World Championship, appreciate the ability to work in Mexico, Japan, and Europe to process and excel at more facets of their trade.

While WWE slowly gets away from their decades-long mandate of talents only wrestling under their umbrella, AEW, since its inception, has embraced and encouraged talents to earn accolades and experience where they can find it. “A big part of the reason why I love AEW is that we can go do other things," Garcia says. "I can go do indies if I want. We have those relationships with New Japan Pro Wrestling, CMLL, to where I can still get experience other places. I feel like New Japan Pro Wrestling was always my dream when I first started being a wrestler. That's something I always wanted to accomplish.

"I wouldn't feel full in my wrestling career until I get to have a little stint there. I feel like keeping those doors open [was] very important to me.”

Seeing his close friends like current IWPG Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Kevin Knight flourish in both New Japan and TNA Wrestling also feeds into an idea first established by a certain Kliq: Why can’t everybody eat? “It's like the NBA,” Garcia explains. “When the Golden State Warriors had everybody, it wasn't as fun because there wasn't as much parity in the league. ... When multiple companies are hot and you have multiple hot people in each of these hot companies, it just makes wrestling better for the fans, it makes it better for the business, and it's just more fun for everybody involved.”

Perhaps the biggest thing Garcia provides to the AEW roster is malleability. Like rostermates Chris Jericho and Christian before him, he can operate as a top tier title contender one week, and be right at home putting a peer closer in age and experience through the paces the next. He can be the most serious, unflinching assassin, then somehow manage to get over a double-fisted hip thrust as the “Daniel Garcia dance.” He’s open to all things professional wrestling, and while he knows his time is coming, he’s not going at it alone. He’s picking up pointers and feeding off the energy of AEW’s established acts every chance he gets. “I remember [weeks ago] I was sitting at the monitor, and it was me, [Will] Ospreay, Swerve, Mercedes Moné. I was just looking around and I'm like, 'Man, everybody's watching the monitor. Everybody's hyping up whatever is on TV right now. These are the people that I want to be [at] war with.'

"It's just the trust that I have with people at AEW. I look around to the left and to the right of me, and I feel like I'm surrounded by people that I want to go to battle with.”

The phrase betting on yourself has been bastardized to the point that now, it just kind of means “I took a job that I will show up at.” But for a 26-year-old already heralded as one of the top in-ring talents in the world, choosing to stay and build something when he had the opportunity to seek out success elsewhere is more of a risk than most are willing to take. “To me, things take time," Garcia says.

"It's a marathon, not a sprint.”

There’s absolutely not one right way to do it. Ethan Page was lost in the AEW shuffle and is flourishing in NXT. Even with a tiny sample size, acts like MVP and Shelton Benjamin seem to have a new energy about them after long tenures with WWE. But for Daniel Garcia, re-signing is a chance to lead early by example. It’s easy to tell people “do it like I did” after you’ve had the titles, the fame, and the money. The challenge is bringing the team with you as you’re figuring it all out. And for all the toxicity that fandom brings, for all the double talk that comes out of people making the best decisions for themselves, it’s tough to root against someone who, regardless of position, is going all out to make sure the team wins.

Daniel Garcia wants to be a champion in AEW.

Daniel Garcia wants to main event pay-per-views in AEW.

Daniel Garcia wants his class of AEW to be synonymous with pro wrestling’s best and brightest, and Daniel Garcia wants his decision to re-sign to be a catalyst for that class going forward.

“I'm somebody who's never been afraid to take that shot," he says. "There are times I feel like the ball has been in my hands, and even if I wasn't in the best position to take that shot, even if I should have passed it off, I still shot it anyway. But now I feel like whenever I get that shot, I'm not missing it.

"I'm draining it every single time, nothing but net.”