Brian Cage Says Injury Almost Cost Him AEW Contract

Brian Cage honed his craft in various promotions before debuting in AEW a couple of years ago. The Machine is certainly a very talented in-ring performer, especially for a man of his size. Cage also explained how he nearly lost out on a contract with AEW and Impact Wrestling.

Prior to signing with AEW back in 2020, Brian Cage used to work in Impact Wrestling and was one of their top stars as well. Cage was reported to have signed with AEW in January of 2020, right when his Impact Wrestling contract was going to expire.

However, it seems that might not necessarily be the case either. While speaking with Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Brian Cage explained how he nearly lost out on contracts with both AEW and Impact Wrestling.

“A lot of people wanted me, a lot of people were interested in me. There were a lot of verbal offers, but obviously nothing actually offered or signed. And it couldn’t have been anyway, because contractually and legally-wise, I couldn’t. So I tore my bicep the day before Hard to Kill, where I’m supposed to work RVD, which was under my current contract, my last match with Impact.”

Advertising

Advertising

“Monday, I was supposed to become a free agent and I could sign wherever I wanted. And I already decided, ‘okay, I’m probably going to go with AEW.’ Then the bicep went and I was like, ‘no!’ And Impact was supposed to hand me a contract in person, like an updated one from what they had already tried to offer me.

“They said, ‘we’re going to offer you one in person. Take it home, look it over, re-sign it, or whatever.’ And I was like, ‘okay. I’ll still look. Maybe I’ll sign it, who knows.’ So I get there and I tell them what happened with my arm. They’re not opposed to trying to keep me and they work around it for the match. Right after my match with RVD, I come back and it’s weird. The vibe was so weird.

“The place was so chill at Impact, but now everyone’s looking at me weird. It’s so quiet and awkward. I go, ‘what’s going on?’ I sit down, I pick up my phone, I look at it, and it’s just blowing up. ‘Brian Cage signs to AEW.’ I was like, ‘you have got to be kidding me.’

My worry was, now this contract they had in person, they didn’t give me,” Cage said. “They said, ‘we’ll just email you it later.’ My fear now was if Impact still wants to sign me, because now I’m injured, I’m damaged goods. If Impact wants to sign me and AEW doesn’t want to sign me, cool, because I can still sign with Impact. Now Impact thinks I’m signed with AEW, they’re probably pissed off.

I don’t know if they’ll take legal action, or maybe they don’t want to sign me now. But I didn’t really sign with AEW, and now maybe AEW isn’t going to sign me either. So now I’m thinking, ‘great, now I’m nowhere without a job and injured because some freakin’ dirt sheet wants to get some clickbait.’ So yeah, I was furious. Luckily enough, Impact still ended up sending an offer to me.

And Tony (Khan) reached out to me as well. He’s like, ‘don’t worry. I’m sure you’re worried we’re going to rescind the offer. But we still want you here. We still have faith in you.’ He even offered to have me go see his doctor to do the surgery. But with certain tendon injuries, you have to get them repaired within a certain amount of time or it’s too late. But yeah; I was super thankful for him and how he handled with. As well as Impact, too. Kudos to both those companies.”

Brian Cage also wants to work in both AEW and ROH. We will have to wait and see what is next in store for Brian Cage in the coming months.

h/t Wrestling Inc

What do you think of this story? Let us know in the comments!