AEW superstar and number one contender Brian Cage spoke with TSN Canada ahead of his world championship matchup against Jon Moxley on tonight’s Fight for the Fallen special on TNT. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On his decision to sign with AEW:
There were multiple factors. I think just overall, it was the cool, new thing that everybody wants to be a part of, obviously, but to be able to break through the reach I’d already done – the Ring of Honor crowd, the Impact crowd and so on – and I felt like I needed to go to a bigger, national scene like an AEW. And another big thing was AEW had the most unique, cooler [potential] matches, if you will, and all of them would be first-time ever matches, whereas everywhere else would have been repeats and not as exciting. And if I were to go to WWE, I wouldn’t have as much creative control. That, artistically speaking, was a big reason why. I’m going to go to a place where I can showcase my abilities and have the most fun, intriguing matches and I had more personal desire to go to AEW than anywhere else.
Reveals how great Tony Khan was when he hurt his arm and thought he was going to lose his contract:
You don’t have to get surgery on your bicep…But aesthetically, and I’m a body guy, it would have messed up my arm. You could also lose up to 40 per cent of your strength in that arm, which would not be great as far as lifting-wise and move set-wise. I was too eager and impatient and I didn’t want to be sidelined. Plus, I was thinking well, if I can’t work, then I’m going to get my contract rescinded and be SOL. But [AEW president] Tony [Khan] was great. He said, ‘We’ll take care of you, don’t worry about it. We want you here. Don’t stress.’ That really made me think, okay, I’ll get it. So not only was that the better decision to make, had I rushed back, it would have been for no reason because the pandemic hit anyway.
On his debut at Double or Nothing:
I was way more excited than I thought I would be,” Cage said. “I didn’t think I would have the same level of adrenaline with no crowd, but it was so great to debut there. And the way AEW does it, too, with the crowd at ringside [mostly made up of other wrestlers on the roster and preliminary talent] – it’s such a little thing, but it goes such a long way.
On his pairing with Taz:
I think Taz is great and I think he’s a phenomenal commentator and, obviously, a great wrestler,” Cage said. “When you think of Taz, you think of him suplexing people and choking people out, but his promos weren’t the first thing that jumped out at me. And until I was standing next to him for our very first promo did it hit me like, ‘Oh dude, Taz is great at promos!’ I knew he was a great commentator and he could cut promos, but I didn’t really think of him as a promo guy. That’s not the first thing that jumps out at you. But dude, he can kill it on the promos.