Dan The Dad is a true professional.
Longtime independent veteran Dan The Dad went viral on the December 5 episode of AEW Dark: Elevation when he flicked Toa Liona's nose after tricking him into thinking he had something on his chest.
The dangerous spot was questioned by fans who believed Dan The Dad was working too stiff and could have seriously injured Toa ahead of ROH Final Battle. Fortunately, Toa was okay and Dan The Dad made sure to check on his opponent after the match.
"It's my first incident being accused of being an unsafe worker, but I think Toa is okay. I did reach out to him to make sure to apologize for working stiff on Dark," Dan The Dad told Jeremy Lambert and Stephen Jensen on The Spotlight. "I think he's alright, he won the Six-Man Tag Team Championships, so he's having a better week. He got his comeuppance on me if you saw the whole match, you saw he squished me in the corner. He's okay, he's a good guy."
What will @ToaLiona do next?!
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) December 6, 2022
Watch #TheEmbassy right now on #AEWDarkElevation!
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Dan The Dad has been using the "Dad Joke" for years when he first introduced the Dan The Dad character to the wrestling world and it was a pitch to Rickey Shane Page that started it all.
"That was early on. A lot of this came with be with Alpha-1 Wrestling in Ontario, which is a place that was run by Ethan Page at the time and he would bring a lot of great talents. It was a four-way or six-way match of some sort, maybe my third or fourth time even trying the character out. I pitched it to Rickey Shane Page, 'what if I said you have something on your shirt and flick your nose.' He laughed so hard at the pitching of the spot and was like, 'You know what, let's give it a try.' Then it worked and became a staple of what I do and find different creative ways to find something on someone's shirt and make them look foolish. It was very early on, one of the first dad jokes or dad things to incorporate into almost every match that I've done," he said.
Dan The Dad wrestled RSP in a six-way match in March 2019 and a four-way match in October 2019 under the Alpha-1 banner.
More recently, Dan The Dan won the REVOLVER Tag Team Championships with Jake Manning at REVOLVER Season Finale.
Fans can check out the entire interview with Dan The Dad on The Spotlight in the video above.
