Was Christopher Daniels Really Meant To Be The Undertaker’s Higher Power?

Was Christopher Daniels really meant to work with The Undertaker?

In late 1998, The Undertaker updated his famous character once again and headed up what became known as The Ministry of Darkness.

The spooky faction encompassed ‘Taker, Paul Bearer, Mideon, The Acolytes, The Brood, and Viscera, and immediately went to war with the entire WWF. But as the storyline progressed, The Undertaker began referencing that he was working on behalf of a higher power.

This sparked lots of excited speculation about who the mystery figure might be, but that excitement was extinguished in July 1999, when the figure in question was revealed to be Vince McMahon. The involvement of McMahon, which caused the creation of The Corporate Ministry, is widely regarded as one of the most disappointing storyline payoffs in company history.

Since the infamous storyline swept through the WWF, it’s been speculated that Christopher Daniels was originally meant to take the role played by McMahon.

Daniels signed a developmental deal with the company in 1998 and wrestled several matches on the WWF’s B-shows through the late 90s.

Christopher Daniels Unsure About The Undertaker Myth

During a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Daniels gave his side of the story on claims that he was meant to be the “Higher Power.” Surprisingly, the veteran said he only heard the story years later, and such a pitch never made its way to him.

In addition, he said that portraying the character would have made little sense, given that he was all but unknown to the WWF audience.

“I didn’t hear this until years later. [So is there any truth to it?] Maybe, but it was never anything that they told me, and honestly, it was a terrible idea anyway. Because the idea would have been Undertaker is answering to this higher power, and then I unmask, and it’s me, and it’s like, Who the f*ck is this guy? It’s sort of like what was going on in my first WCW contract as well.

When asked where he finally learned about the claims, Daniels said it was something that really exploded on the internet after being mentioned by Bruce Prichard.

“It came out on the internet. I think maybe Bruce Prichard mentioned it? But yeah, everyone was like, ‘Christopher Daniels was almost the higher power.’ I was like, was he though? I don’t think that’s true.

I think maybe it was discussed because I had been going to do WWE dark matches as an extra, and Jim Cornette was always sort of high on trying to get me there early on when the light heavyweight thing was a thing, and they knew I was doing The Fallen Angel.

So I think they thought, Oh, well, maybe this is something that we could use him as. But honestly, I think once Vince saw me, and, you know, I’m 5’10 and this is the time when everybody is six feet something, it’s like, we can do better. And I was like, that makes sense.”

While Daniels continues to work as AEW’s Head of Talent Relations after his in-ring retirement in January, The Undertaker has admitted that he would be interested in joining WWE’s backstage team for the first time.

Back in June, it was claimed that The Deadman had been working behind the scenes at Worlds Collide and Money In The Bank.

All quotes courtesy of chrisvanvliet.com