Brian Cage is the guest this week on AEW Unrestricted with Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone.
Here are some highlights:
Brian Cage was asked why he came to AEW instead of staying where he was at: “First of all, I was more excited to come here than anywhere else. That wasn’t the be all and end all, but this is where I wanted to come. Second, I felt like, for me to break through the barrier on the reach that I have had, this would help here. Most importantly, this place had the most amount of not only unique awesome matches I wanted, but, so many are first time evers and elsewhere it would be a lot of repeats. But there are so many matches I wanted and that I never had. Artistically speaking, this would be the most fun place to go.”
Cage talked about a few delays in working for AEW: “It sounded like they were going to do something with me at the PPV in February and then I got hurt. I tore my bicep the day before my last day under contract. I saw a couple doctors. The complete tears usually don’t have much swelling or bruising but a partial tear has extreme bruising. Because I had full range, two different doctors I saw said I didn’t need surgery. Then I got an MRI and it said I had a complete tear and I needed surgery. I was so gutted. I’m thinking my contract would be rescinded and I would have to sit at home. Tony Khan said, don’t worry about it. He said I’ll get back to you and we will sort it out. Then he said we will still sign you. We want you to be part of the team. We have complete faith in you. Do what you can. We will keep you under contract and as soon as you can debut, we will bring you on board. I was actually supposed to be on Double or Nothing last year in the Battle Royal. It was 90 minutes before bell time. Even a lot of people in the Battle Royal didn’t know. Almost nothing gets kept a secret in wrestling anymore. Impact got a whiff of it and they were even more mad because I was the World Champion at the time and I wasn’t winning. They were mad because I was going to be in the pre show Battle Royal and wasn’t winning as the World Champion.”
Cage discussed his developmental contract with WWE in 2008: “Being a friend of Kanyon led to me being booked through a loop in California which led to me being signed there. I got pulled aside by Jamie Noble and I talked to Johnny Ace and they said we were going to sign me that night. I wrestled that night. I’m selling and I jump up in the air and I land on my head, stiff arms and everything. I go limp. I fall backwards and my head falls down all three ropes. The next day, I was concussed. I asked Noble what happened and if he talked to Ace. He said he will try to talk to him and we will see what happens. End of the night, he never talked to him and he said, don’t worry, we have your information. We are going to Australia for a couple weeks. We will reach out to you, whatever. I’m thinking this sucks. I’m going to look for Ace. I keep seeing him. He was always talking to somebody. I said ok, forget it, I’m going for it. I walk up to him and say, excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt. I put my hand out to shake his hand and he looked at me disgusted and said, well yea kid, that is what you’re doing and turned his back to me and walked away. I had RAW the next day. I figured I would hang out and make the best of it. I did do some ring work that day because they didn’t know I was concussed. Ace tapped me on the shoulder. He said sorry I was a dick to you. Technically when you say, sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you, technically you are interrupting. He said, but I’m glad that you did, so I’m going to offer you a contract. So, he said do you want to go to Florida? I said yea. He said go find Carano, welcome to the team. I was 24 then. The whole WWE accomplishment was checked off. I got to experience that and it’s cool. But, after several back and forths, and ups and downs with them since being released from them, as soon as I let go of the need to be there, my life personally and professionally went so much better. I’m not some super anti-them and F them, but I’ve done well without them and so if I never have to go back there, I’m happy with that.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
