Melissa Santos, Brian Cage’s wife, expressed her opinion that AEW was misusing her husband in a statement in September 2021. While Cage has competed for Ring of Honor since it was bought by Tony Khan, he hasn’t competed on AEW television since October of 2021.
At a K&S WrestleFest signing, Cage talked about the repercussions of what his wife had stated in public.
“I’ve retweeted and favorited plenty of things that plenty of my fans have said about me, why would I not? They are supporting me. Regardless, if someone agrees or not, it’s someone’s opinion and it’s positive for me, why would I be against that? The fact that it is my wife, obviously she’s going to have a biased opinion, but I feel like that’s why…it’s not really from what she said, it’s from certain people backstage — and I’m looking at the camera like I’m looking at them — that don’t like me there that pointed that out and brought that heat to me intentionally. It wouldn’t have been a big deal, but certain individuals there made it a big deal. That’s what they hung their hat on. There’s more to it, but I’m not going to say that. Certain individuals I know and the certain individuals know who they are.”
“I don’t even have heat with them. I show up, go to the gym, eat, want to have the best match possible, I go home. I don’t hang out, I don’t drink or party. Pretty simple and easy-going guy. Some people are upset because they don’t look like me or can’t move as well as me with the way I look, that’s on them. If you want to talk about professional jealousy, that’s what it is. Without naming names, we can maybe put it together, there is another pretty big superstar’s wife that has heavily criticized things at our company and there are no repercussions for them. Melissa didn’t say anything negative, she just said, ‘Brian Cage has been underutilized.’ She didn’t say anything bad. Even what she originally tweeted was a write-up about me. She just retweeted that and I retweeted what she retweeted. The write-up was nothing negative about AEW or the booking. Basically, ‘I’m a big Brian Cage fan, I hope he gets used better.’”
“There’s not a whole lot I can do. I’ve done what I can do. Until I get the opportunity…what sucks is I haven’t had the opportunity to do anything since then. They have me there for a reason and I’m still there, but if I’m not able to showcase anything, I’m not able to climb myself out of the hole. Until I get that opportunity, I’m just gonna sit around and wait.”
You can watch the appearance below:
(h/t to Fightful.com for the transcription)
