AEW superstar and former WWE heavyweight champion Christian Cage recently spoke with ET Canada to discuss the differences between his AEW debut and his TNA debut from 2005, as well as what he feels like there is left to accomplish in his career. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On what he feels like he has left to do in his career:
Yeah, I mean, right now, just to come back and to compete at a high level. If I couldn’t come back and be what I was, if not better, I wouldn’t even attempt this and for me, the only goal that I have is to put on quality matches and to be able to write this final chapter myself. It never sat well with me that I was told that this was done. So now that I’ve been kind of gifted this opportunity to rewrite this final chapter on my own, I don’t take that lightly. So I’m going to go out there and whether I’m working in main events, I’m working for championships, whether I become the champion, that’s all icing on the cake. But for me just to go out there and have quality matches and, at the same time, elevate and help teach the younger generation coming up and make sure that they’re set up for success in the future.
Compares his recent AEW debut to his 2005 TNA debut:
When I left in 2005, it was more to bet on myself and to prove a point. I felt like I was stuck in a rut. I felt like I needed to get away in order to come back and be better than I was. I needed to step away and prove that I can work at and wrestle at the top of the card and carry a show. I felt like if I just stayed in WWE, I wasn’t necessarily going to get that opportunity no matter what reactions or the quality of matches that I was putting on. So I needed to kind of bet on myself, get out of their face for a little while, go and prove that even if it was on a smaller scale that I could do that. I feel like I did. then I came back. This time is a little bit different. I didn’t leave WWE because I wasn’t under contract with WWE. I hadn’t been under contract for WWE in probably six, seven years at this point in time. So it was a choice that I made. I needed the best platform for me at this stage of my career where I felt like I could go out and do my best work and also elevate the next generation that is coming up behind me.
