Christopher Daniels has revealed that the severe eye injury he appeared to have from 2022 to 2023 was not real. During an appearance on the “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” podcast, Daniels explained the origin of the idea and how he maintained the appearance for nearly a year and a half.
He said the idea came after he suffered a real, but temporary, black eye in the May 2021 match where SCU was forced to split up after a loss to The Young Bucks.
“So, news flash, that was never real. I had the match with The Young Bucks where SCU split up. I got super kicked into the post, and the next day, I had this huge black eye, and it started to fill with blood. I thought, ‘Man, that’s pretty cool.’ Then three days later, it healed. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s too bad,’ but then I thought, what if?”
Daniels explained that he then got a custom contact lens to make it look like a permanent hemorrhage and pitched a new storyline to AEW President Tony Khan.
“Here’s the story. I was the ring general, but my plans failed, and because of that, SCU is no longer a thing, and now I have this scar to show for my failure. But I’m going to come back, and all I have left is my career and my fighting. I thought, ‘Okay, well, this will get me back on television,’ but we never really capitalized on that.”
He wore the contact lens everywhere, even fooling people in his public life, including actor Stephen Amell. Daniels eventually stopped wearing it when the storyline wasn’t utilized.