American professional wrestler (born 1998) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Daniel Garcia (born September 17, 1998) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the reigning AEW TNT Champion in his first reign. He also performs in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he is the reigning PWG World Champion in his first reign.
| Daniel Garcia | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Garcia in 2019 | |
| Born | September 17, 1998 Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Buffalo State College |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Daniel Garcia Danny Garcia[1] Dante Rios[2] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[3] |
| Billed weight | 187 lb (85 kg)[3] |
| Billed from | Buffalo, New York[4] |
| Trained by | Brandon Thurston The Blade |
| Debut | 2017[3] |
Garcia was trained in professional wrestling by Brandon Thurston and The Blade.[5][6] Garcia began competing for Limitless Wrestling in 2018.[7] He appeared for WWE on an episode of 205 Live in July 2018, during which he lost against Drew Gulak.[1] In January 2021, he competed against Tyler Rust in WWE on NXT, where he lost.[2] Garcia won the Limitless World Championship in March.[7] He lost the title to Anthony Greene in September.[8]
Garcia made his debut in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in September 2020 during an episode of Dark.[9] He was announced as having signed with AEW in October 2021.[9] In a March 2022 episode of Dynamite, Garcia, alongside 2point0 (Angelo Parker and Matt Menard), formed a stable with Chris Jericho and Jake Hager, called the Jericho Appreciation Society (JAS).[10] In August 2022, Bryan Danielson attempted to recruit Garcia away from the JAS and into the Blackpool Combat Club (BCC), citing that Garcia was more suited to the competitive wrestling philosophy of the BCC than Jericho's sports entertainment-focused group.[11][12] Garcia ultimately chose to remain loyal to Jericho.[13] In September 2022 on Dynamite, Garcia defeated the BCC's Wheeler Yuta to win the ROH Pure Championship.[14] Garcia lost the title back to Yuta at Final Battle in December 2022, ending his reign at 94 days.[15]
In 2023, Garcia unsuccessfully challenged Orange Cassidy for the AEW International Championship on two occasions, including in a four-way match at Forbidden Door.[16] In July, he partnered Sammy Guevara in an blind eliminator tag team tournament,[17] but they were defeated by Better Than You Bay Bay in the final.[18] Around the same time, Don Callis began tempting Jericho to join his stable,[19] which saw Garcia and Guevara team up again to face Jericho and Konosuke Takeshita in a losing effort.[20] The JAS split soon afterwards,[21] and Garcia, Parker and Menard branched off as their own group once again.
The trio challenged Billy Gunn and the Acclaimed for the AEW World Trios Championship on two occasions, but were defeated both times.[22] In November, Garcia called out MJF for the AEW World Championship,[23] but was defeated within ten minutes on an episode of Dynamite.[24]
On November 22, Garcia was announced as one of 12 competitors in the Continental Classic tournament, where he would compete in the Blue League.[25] Garcia began a losing streak in the tournament, failing to secure any points, causing him to be eliminated from the tournament before he had competed in all of his matches. The streak ended during his final league match, where Garcia defeated Brody King, to eliminate King from the tournament and finish his tournament campaign with 3 points.[26]
The victory over King, began a win streak for Garcia heading into the new year, who began a short feud with House of Black, alongside FTR. Following a win over House of Black's Buddy Matthews on the January 20, 2024 edition of Collision,[27] Garcia and FTR, teamed to defeat House of Black in a Escape The Cage Elimination match.[28] Following this, Garcia began pursuing the TNT Championship from Christian Cage, where on the February 14 edition of Dynamite, he faced Adam Copeland in a #1 contendership match, however this ended in a no-contest following interference from Cage's associates Killswitch and Nick Wayne.[29] On the February 21 episode of Dynamite, it was announced Garcia would receive a TNT championship match on March 3 at Revolution.[30] At the event, Cage retained his title against Garcia.[31] At Beach Break on July 3, Garcia unsuccessfully challenged Will Ospreay for the AEW International Champion after Garcia was distracted by MJF wanting him to use his Dynamite Diamond Ring to hit Ospreay. Afterwards, Garcia was attacked by MJF and was stretchered off in an ambulance.[32] On July 30, it was reported Garcia was written off television due to his contract expiring in late 2024 and Garcia had not yet resigned with AEW, leaving his future with the promotion unclear.[33][34][35]
On August 25 at All In, Garcia returned and attacked MJF during his match against Will Ospreay for the International Championship, costing him the match and his title. On September 7 at All Out, Garcia was defeated by MJF. After the match, MJF almost low blowed Garcia before he countered it, also at the end, Garcia piledrived MJF and was stretched off in an ambulance, the same that he did to Garcia.[36]
After a short hiatus, Garcia returned on the October 8 episode of Dynamite: Title Tuesday, where he announced that he had re-signed with AEW and had his continued sights set on championship gold.[37] On November 23 at Full Gear, Garcia defeated Jack Perry to win the AEW TNT Championship for the first time and his first championship in AEW.[38] At the post-show media scrum, Garcia announced his entry in the 2024 Continental Classic, where he was placed in the Blue league.[39][40] Garcia finished the tournament with 7 points, but failed to advance to the playoff stage.[41]
On the January 4, 2025 episode of Collision, Garcia defeated Mark Briscoe in his first title defense.[42]
Garcia debuted for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) at It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll) on November 21, 2021, by losing to Jonathan Gresham via referee's decision.[43] The following month, Garcia participated in the Battle of Los Angeles tournament at the namesake event.[44] He defeated Kevin Blackwood in the first round, Alex Shelley in the quarterfinals, Black Taurus in the semifinals, and Mike Bailey in the final round to win the tournament.[45] It earned him a title shot for the PWG World Championship against Bandido at Delivering The Goods.[46] Garcia defeated Bandido to win the title.[47] Garcia successfully defended the title against Konosuke Takeshita at Nineteen and Jonathan Gresham at DINK.[48][49] Garcia then participated in the 2023 Battle of Los Angeles, where he lost to Titus Alexander by disqualification in the opening round.[50] On the second night of the event, Garcia brought his Jericho Appreciation Society teammates Chris Jericho, Angelo Parker, Matt Menard, and Sammy Guevara for a ten-man tag team match, which JAS won.[51] Garcia then retained the World Championship against Battle of Los Angeles winner Mike Bailey in sudden death overtime in an Iron Man match at Twenty: Mystery Vortex by using underhanded tactics.[52]
Garcia has been described as a technical wrestler.[53][54] He uses a bridging Sharpshooter hold as a finishing move, which since 2022 he calls the Dragon Tamer.[55][56] This is a reference to his upset victory over "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson by using the move at the Dynamite special Fight for the Fallen on July 27, 2022.
Following his entry into the JAS, Garcia rejected the label "professional wrestler" and embraced calling himself a sports entertainer,[57][58] a pejorative term used in AEW to denote a wrestling storytelling style that prioritizes showmanship.[59] On a Dynamite show held in El Paso, Texas, Garcia began to dance in a Latin-esque way to elicit reactions from the crowd; he has since incorporated this into his character, where he uses the dance as a taunt.[60]
In January 2019, Garcia broke both of his legs in a car crash involving three other wrestlers. The vehicle he was riding in crashed after hitting black ice.[61][62] Garcia returned to wrestling six months later. The following year, he graduated from Buffalo State College with a communications degree.[4]
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