Brian Cage discussed on Vickie Guerrero’s podcast the end of his Impact Wrestling run and reports that he signed with AEW while still under contract with the rival promotion
Here is what he had to say:
On his injuries in Impact: “So, I suffered a couple injuries last year in Impact, and I hurt my back and my hip. And I guess — well, that was the first one. And that was in the middle of the summer, and that one hurt for quite some time. I kind of worked through it, and it was persistent. And I won the world title there, and it definitely made my title run a little bit more lackluster because I didn’t get to compete a lot.”
On being considered injury-prone after that: “Coming back into it, I was having a lot of great matches there and trying to have the match of the night from all of the shows I was on, and I felt really good. And people kept talking to me like I was like, super injury prone, or had a bunch of injuries. And it’s like, ‘Eh, you know, I had a couple of minor — because too, there’s a difference between being hurt and being injured. And I feel like a lot of us are always hurt or always get hurt, and always have our bumps and bruises, to put it nicely. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I got hurt that one time, and I might have had like several small injuries or hurt. But nothing that kept me out. Hell, I’ve never even had to have surgery in my entire career, no matter what injury I had.”
On his bicep tear at the end of his run: “That was three days before I tore my bicep, so yes, I know. And I remember when I tore my bicep to an incident, I’m like ‘No, you’re kidding me!’ It was awful. And then I was freaking out about it, because it was the day before my last match, the PPV at Impact. And I’m like, ‘Okay, now what am I going to do.’ Instantly, I’m like, ‘No one is going to sign me if I have to have surgery.’ And I knew the plans and that I wanted to go to AEW, and I was getting offers from many places. I went from being super-wanted to like, ‘No one’s gonna want me,’ and I was panicking. The doctor told me — I had two different doctors tell me I didn’t have to have surgery and that I would be fine. I got an MRI anyways, just in case.”
On reports that he signed with AEW at the time: “Once my contract lapsed with Impact, I was talking with All Elite Wrestling. I was talking to Tony Khan and stuff. It was looking good, I finally got an offer, I signed it. And there was this news that broke out that I signed way before I signed. I came backstage from a match with RVD, and all these reports broke out that I signed with AEW. So under contract with Impact and backstage with Impact, everyone had these weird looks at me, like, ‘What’s going on?’ Everyone thinks I’m lying about it, and I’m like, ‘I wasn’t, I never even got an offer. I’d talked to them but I’d gotten no official offer of a contract that I could have signed. And if I would’ve, it would have [been a] breach of contract. So now I’m freaking out thinking ‘It’s gonna be held up.’
On Tony Khan’s reaction: “Once I found out I didn’t have to have surgery, I was like, ‘Great, my contract’s gonna be rescinded.’ I was just panicking. And dude, Tony was so cool. He told me not to worry, don’t stress. He said, ‘We want you, we believe in you, we have faith in you. We want you as part of the team. Just take your time, heal up, and we’ll just change plans and be here whenever you’re ready.’”
