In professional wrestling, be it AEW, WWE, NJPW, or otherwise, only so many performers get to be on top.

Sure, winners come and go, and promotions make secondary belts and even brands to allow more performers to hold titles, but in a sport where shelflives end in the blink of an eye, if there are no opportunities in place, or even just subpar opportunities, it's only natural to expect professional wrestlers to start looking elsewhere, especially when their contract comes due.

Speaking on this very concept in an interview with The Walkaway to Fight Club, Daniel Garcia noted that, with his contract set to expire in the not-too-distant future, he's been thinking a lot about his future and where he could land within the professional wrestling landscape.

“I mean, the champion is the person who gets to put the company on their back,” Daniel Garcia told The Walkaway to Fight Club via Fightful. “They're the one who's on every poster, every pay-per-view, every TV show, they make the most money. It would mean a lot for me. This is a contract year for me. So I'm doing everything I can to solidify my next deal, where I end up. So I feel like winning the title, it would be the biggest deal in the world for the place that I'm at right now. It would be amazing.”

Discussing the matter further, Garcia noted that he's only appeared on one AEW Pay-Per-View since signing with the promotion in 2021 and has been afforded far less television time due to the ebb and flow of booking and his spot within the Jericho Appreciation Society.

“I haven't been on a strictly only AEW pay-per-view since Double or Nothing 2022. That's the only strictly AEW Pay-Per-View I've been on. That's the only one I've ever wrestled on. I've been on Forbidden Door, I've been on some of the Ring of Honor [events], but that's the only AEW pay-per-view I've ever wrestled on. Like I said, opportunities are hard to come by,” Garcia noted.

“I get frustrated, and I get mad in a good, motivated way, where I see these pay-per-views pass by. I'm just sitting there, not on them. When I see the intros to the TV show, and I'm not on them, when I see the faces on the truck and I'm not on them. So I feel like winning the title, it's gonna force the hand. They're gonna have no choice but to put me on every pay-per-view and on the trucks and on every merch, and on everything. I want Daniel Garcia's beautiful, gorgeous, Hispanic face to be on every AEW-related thing possible. I want to be on Dynamite, Rampage, Collision, Ring of Honor every single week. That's my aspirations. I'm not somebody that wants to win the title just to say, ‘Look, I have this metal object that I can flaunt around and bring through TSA. I want to be the person to carry AEW into the future, and I want to be the person to put it on my back and lead AEW in the right direction.”

While Garcia hasn't done much in AEW as of late, with a singles push only really pushing up over the last month or so, he's still accomplished plenty over the last few years, holding the PWG World Championship for 564 days and counting and even earning a chance to call himself the Ring of Honor Pure Champion for a quarter of 2022. Still, if he wants to become a champion and a featured performer for a professional wrestling promotion, then talking shop with Shawn Michaels may prove enticing.

Daniel Garcia expands on his lack of in-ring time.

Expanding on his initial thought, Daniel Garcia explained how his in-ring experience had changed over his run in AEW and how he's been forced to look outside of the company to earn the competition he craves.

“It's weird. I have a lot less ring time than I had 12 months ago. I feel like 12 months ago, I was wrestling very, very consistently — maybe more than 12 months ago. Let's say 14-16 months ago. I was wrestling so much; I was wrestling a lot. I felt like I was wrestling every week. Last week on Rampage against Trent and this week against MJF, this is only my second singles match in AEW in six months,” Daniel Garcia said via WrestleZone.

“Since May, opportunities are getting harder and harder to come by. Time is getting harder and harder to come by. So I feel like, in-ring wise, what's been keeping me fresh a lot is training. I train a lot in Buffalo, NY, at Grapplers Anonymous. And I still take indy dates. Like a month or two ago, I did an hour-long match with Speedball Mike Bailey at PWG. Like a month or two ago, I wrestled Titus Alexander at West Coast Pro for a half-hour.

“I've been taking other avenues to keep me fresh when in-ring opportunities aren't coming at AEW. I still feel ready as ever; I feel like somehow, with the lack of ring time, I'm still better than I was 12 months ago. I feel like I've grown more as a performer and as a wrestler in-ring.”

At 25, Daniel Garcia is incredibly early in his professional wrestling career. While it would be understandable for AEW to slow roll his progression moving forward, as they currently have more championship-caliber performers than they know what to do with, MJF is less than two years older than Garcia, and he just became the longest-reigning champion in AEW history. If Garcia looks like a pillar from which the promotion can build around long-term, they need to find a way to make him feel like he's on a path to greatness.