Christian Cage spoke with Chris Van Vliet about his AEW run so far, among other topics. Here are the highlights:
On doing the best work of his career:
“So like I said, when I got my career back after being retired for seven years, it was a gift to get it back. And it wasn’t just enough to get it back for me. Okay, I got it back, that’s great. Now, it’s like, how far can we push it? How far can we go with it? I had seven years of lost time to make up for, I didn’t feel like I had accomplished everything that I accomplished. Was I content with what I accomplished? Yes. But did I feel like I’d accomplished everything that I could accomplish? Not even close. So the goal was even to prove at an advanced age that you can still go out there and do it if you apply yourself and you push yourself. It’s taking chances and risks to write. Sometimes you have to go and do things that other people are unwilling to do to stand out and that’s what I’m doing.”
On being allowed to say what he says in his promos:
“I’ve never told anybody what I’m gonna say. Never had it cleared with anybody. I’ve never asked anybody, I just go out there and do it. It’s one of those things, you have to be willing to go places that others are unwilling to go in order to stand out, especially in this day and age. I saw an opportunity that I could jump on, I took it and I rode it, and sometimes things happen you’re not expecting to happen. I said one phrase and it turned into a wildfire. I just embraced it and ran with it.”
On ‘Go f*ck yourself’:
“When he hugged me, and most of the time, 99.9% of the time, you’d hear somebody say no, yes or no. I wanted to leave people’s jaws on the floor with my response, something so out of left field that they weren’t gonna believe that was my response to my childhood lifelong friend. Closer than friends, brothers. I just wanted something that would just get people talking, and it did. I was at a Tool concert. I went in to watch soundcheck and guitarist Adam Jones. I could see him whispering to his security guy that knew that I was there. And he pointed over to me. He’s playing, getting ready for his big show. He looks at me and goes ‘Go f*ck yourself’ from the stage.”
On targeting late fathers:
“Yeah, like I said, I don’t even know how this happened, it just did. It’s like when a shark senses blood in the water, you attack it. So that’s what happened. I saw an opportunity in that and I attacked it. Like I said, the only way to stand out to me in this day and age is to be different. And it’s hard to be different when a lot of things have been done or are being done, and it’s very much a copycat business, if something’s working, you see people start to do it. I’m seeing the influence that a lot of characters not just on our show, but on other shows as well. So when that happens, you start saying, Okay, what I’m doing is working here.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
