'The Progressive Liberal' Daniel Richards Discusses Increasing Threats Against Him, Interest From WWE And AEW, More - Exclusive

Back in 2015, an independent wrestler named Daniel Richards surveyed the American political landscape and decided it was time reinvent himself. In 2016, he finally settled on the gimmick that would gain him international attention: The Progressive Liberal.

With guidance from his long-time mentor, Beau James, Richards began presenting himself as a hard-line, left-leaning, outspoken Democrat in some of the reddest parts of the United States. Of course, 2016 saw the rise and eventual election of President Donald Trump, so the environment for such a character was ripe for some old-school pro wrestling heat. While the boos rained down on Richards with every passing Hilary Clinton reference, the mainstream press was starting to notice what was going on. In 2017, Vice TV presented a piece called "The Progressive Liberal Is Wrestling's New Left-Wing Villain" that aired on HBO, and just last week, CNN ran a piece looking at the escalating threats Richards has begun to receive.

In this exclusive interview with Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman, Richards opens up about the attention his gimmick continues to garner, the latest attention the threats against him have received, whether WWE or AEW has reached out with interest, promoters who are scared to work with him, and more!

Nick Hausman: Well, hey Daniel, it's been... oh man, has it been three, four years since we last connected? Five?

Daniel Richards: Five, yeah.

You've stayed at it doing this, being The Progressive Liberal, man. You did this really revealing CNN piece, and you talked about how the kind of anger towards you has really been ratcheted up here ... How bad has the heat really gotten right now for you?

Well, the funny thing is the way the... The CNN piece aired two different times that first day. I think it's aired a couple times since, but in the morning one, the way they introduced it, it was like I was about to quit the business because it was so bad. I was like, "Oh man, I hate how that sounds." But I mean, other than that, I was really, of course, really grateful for the coverage, and the time, and the commitment that they made to us.

But no, that wasn't doctored. There was a fight that broke out in the crowd the night they were there, because there were a few, granted just a few, people that actually wanted to hear what I had to say, and they were pissed off at all the other hundreds of people that were trying to drown me out anytime I tried to speak. So I mean, that happened. Then a month before, as I told Ellie, I mean, I had a lady pull a switchblade on me, someone else tried to light my trunks on fire when they were on my ass, and people throwing rocks at me. That was a month, month and a half ago, now.

You say that you didn't really like how the piece made it sound like you were thinking about hanging it up. Does it ever get to a point where you wonder if you're pushing this too far?

I don't think I'm the one pushing anything too far. I've stayed true and consistent. It's just these people, unfortunately, they take their cues from other people. So Trump says, "Let's storm the capital." They storm the capital. No thought goes into it whatsoever. "Hey, there might be consequences to it." Same thing on a micro level. When a lady takes a lighter to my trunks, what would happen if the trunks lit on fire? It's not a f***ing cartoon.

Well, that's what I wonder about, Daniel. As we're all reading this, you see what happened with Paul Pelosi, and obviously there's been other incidents where people have been put in real danger. Does that weigh on you that maybe there could come a day where there is somebody who really just does not like The Progressive Liberal, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I mean I keep my head on a swivel, and I'm aware that's a possibility, but none of these fake wannabe alpha males that come to these events and try to perpetuate the Trump tough guy image, none of them are going to stop me from coming to towns. So I'll keep going. Something that didn't air is, if someone brings a gun and shoots me — I don't wish for that to happen, but if that happens — I'll just be another example of why guns are stupid and have no place in our society. I take a pretty extreme view on that.

Obviously, there're fans out there that really hate you, but what's it like on the other side of the curtain? I mean, you work in some pretty deep south territories. Are you always welcome in the locker room, or is there ever any kind of tension that bleeds over to the back, as well?

Well, you've covered the business for a long time. Wrestling is a business where you have few friends to start with, so I just stick close with the guys that I'm close with and try to get along with everyone else. If they have a real problem, very few have actually had anything to say to me about it.

Has there ever been any instance of somebody not wanting to work with you or not wanting to go along with something you had in mind for a show or a match?

Yeah, a couple. One time in Atlanta and another time here in Virginia, but nothing of consequence, you could just tell the guys had an attitude about it. One guy in Virginia, I mean he was half my size, he tried to shoot a drop toehold on me. I don't fancy myself as a tough guy, but that didn't work out well for him. And so that's the one time I lost control in the ring, because just the audacity of trying to do that, like I was going to go down and let him have his way with me when I'm giving my body to him, that was didn't go over real well.

Wait, a wrestler tried to shoot drop toe tackle you? Wow.

Yeah, yeah. 

What was the other thing? I'm interested now.

The other guy was in Atlanta. This was in 2017, when everything was at a real peak. You can just tell the guy had an... I don't know. I don't know what his problem was, but instead of giving me elbows to the gut, he would purposely hit me in the balls, so I don't know.

Well, you've done a lot with this character, and we all see how much heat you get in these different markets ... Would you consider doing an angle with a MAGA counter, I guess, or have you already done that? Has there been an extreme right wing figure that you have dueled with, or have you tested the waters with that?

I think Sam Adonis and I missed a real opportunity to do something back in the summer of 2017. Because his cover, he was pretty fresh off of all the publicity he had received, and I had my run there, and I think we could have done something. Honestly Nick, I think people are tired of politics. There's certainly a different story to tell this time around, and it is newsworthy because it's a trend that we're seeing and we were able to present it through our channel, pro wrestling, but I don't know. I think there'd still be interest in that match, like in Pittsburgh where Sam lives, and maybe in northern Virginia, where I'm real popular, but I don't know how much outside of that. Whereas before, maybe there was a lot more.

I got bad news for you. Sam Adonis ... I talked to him a month ago and he was like, he has no plans on going back [to his Donald Trump sympathizer gimmick] ... He regrets even doing it because he feels like it got this stink on him. He's like, "I'm not really that guy. I'm playing a character." Which is different than you, because you're not really playing a character. This is more authentic for you. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Well, I think it was still smart for him to do that in Mexico to get heat. I mean, it was brilliant. But yeah, that is the difference, I guess. This is me. I conceptualized the idea years before I did it, and I just got really lucky that my timing to execute it was in line with Trump's candidacy. I mean, it worked.

Well, and you talk about Trump, and you're talking about Trump, I'm sure, all the time on the mic. Are those Trump lines, are they getting the same reaction? You talk about how you feel like people are getting over politics. Are you getting the same heat? Are the same things hitting that used to hit for you with this gimmick?

The Trump chants, before, would just start. I didn't have to say anything. And now, at the end of the day, one thing we really try to make clear to people is we use politics this much. It's really the assault of this, I don't know what it is with people in the south, but there is an aversion to outsiders, people who don't sound like them, or talk like them, or look like them, like me. I've come in, and they have all these... As they don't want to be stereotyped, they have all their stereotypes about liberals. They can't get at Nancy Pelosi. They can't get at Joseph R. Biden, but when I come to their town, they can reach out and touch me. I mean, I try not to get that close, but I'm right there, and so I'm someone they can spew all their hatred towards. I poke fun at them because they're already sensitive about being made fun of to begin with.

So where do you take the character from here, I guess? Knowing the lay of the land, where do you want to see this character evolving into? Where do you see this character going in the not too distant future?

Time will tell, but I just look at today as, I'm a business person, so I see and hear all this stupid stuff from the people on the right side of the aisle, or my political right, so I don't bring it up because it's divisive. But it's an opportunity for me to let that out and just tell people how stupid I think their perspective is, which really they don't have perspective, because I just remember a lot of the times I'll hear people say, "Hillary sucks." And I would just sometimes humor myself and say, 'Why is that?' There's no answer, because they don't know, because they don't have the magic R in front of their name, they have a D. So that means they're going to take away your guns, and now we're down to where we're stereotyped as eating children, or eating babies or whatever, and just all it's gotten into this whole mega universe of conspiracy theories and everything. So that's the conception, or perception rather, they have of liberals now.

Do you ever go and talk, I mean, I'm not trying to be mean, but it sounds very abrasive, obviously, the way you're talking to them, 'You sound stupid,' right? That heat. But do you ever find yourself in a conversation or an encounter with one of these people that's on the other side where you actually do get a dialogue, or maybe even change a mind a little bit? Do you ever have those moments when you're out doing this all?

No, I think that ship has sailed. I hate that, because it used to be, when we were growing up, what do you not talk about? We don't talk about politics, we don't talk about religion. And then somewhere in the early 2000s we threw that out the window and now we talk about it. And now we couldn't be more polarized as a country.

So obviously the character you play has gotten a tremendous amount of press. I'm surprised that nobody has really taken a chance and tried to do something. Have you ever talked to anybody,. gotten a look from a bigger company like a WWE or AEW, to possibly do something with them?

So in 2017, 2018, I was booked and as an extra talent in WWE ... I had trial matches each time you'd do "Raw" and "SmackDown," so I'd have a trial match each time. Obviously nothing came of that. But that was independent of what I had going on. I think WWE stays, even though they've had alignments with Trump in the past, they stay away from politics. AEW, I mean, man, that'd be awesome. I'd be totally open to it. I don't know if the powers that be are, and maybe because [of] their political leanings. Certainly, I'd love to do something there, and there's a window for it.

So you look at AEWs roster, do you see an opponent or a dancing partner you think would work best with the character you're playing right now?

I mean, I think I can work with anybody. I'd love to work with some of the big guys that they have there on their roster.

Are you north of 40 years old now? Is that true?

Yeah, I'm 42.

And so you've really just kind of picked up this whirlwind of momentum in your late 30s into where you are now. The only person I can really think of who's kind of done stuff like that is Diamond Dallas Page. How does it feel to get this burst of momentum here a little bit later than other people would normally see this kind of thing?

Yeah, I think the unfortunate thing for me is this happened later, and then I had this break in the business. I mean I was wrestling 130, 140 times a year out of the gate. I had this break in the business and I started working again [in] 2014. Fast forward to 2017, that's when everything happened the first time. But I think for a lot of guys in the business, this is anybody. The older you get, actually the smarter you work. So I actually think this time around, post-pandemic, because I've had a bad neck despite not working a real crazy style, and my right knee is replaced. That all happened during COVID times. And I think I'm doing my best work now, putting together my best matches, because it's more a mental thing than anything. So I think when you don't rely on the physical and you pay attention to the psychology more, that's when you're going to produce your best work. But I'm 42 and that's like... CM Punk's calling himself an old man at 42. I don't feel old, but I don't think I look as old as I am, but either way, Nick, there's a stigma with my age, unfortunately.

I've talked to certain promoters about you in the past ... a lot of people say [they're] just kind of scared of the heat that comes with welcoming politics into their brand, into their stories, into the approach or whatever. What's your response to promoters that are maybe hesitant to work with you just because they don't, they're like, "Dude, I just don't want to get into the politics thing. I'm just not interested in working with you like that."

Yeah, well I mean, that's the thing. Yeah, my name is what it is, but I believe we all are in this to entertain people and capture emotion. And with the exception of when CNN was there, I mean, it's never gotten that level, but it's that heat. I get heat. It's legit heat, and with that one exception, there's not a problem there. So it's not so much the politics, it's the reaction. And I think you want people emotionally invested, and that's what I bring to the table.

Where can people go to find you, support you, ask you questions, that kind of thing?

I'm [on] Twitter @ProgressLib804, and you can find me on Facebook as well. And this time around, a bunch of people found my Instagram for my real estate business, which I tried to keep to real estate, but that ship has sailed after the CNN story.