Christian Cage Defeats Adam Copeland On AEW Dynamite (With Help From Nick Wayne's Mom)

The moment Adam Copeland signed with AEW, a match between him and Christian Cage was no longer a matter of if, but when. After months of feuding, the two former partners battled for the AEW TNT Championship on Wednesday's episode of "AEW Dynamite." Their battle, however, while incredibly personal, did not conclude without outside interference.

Shayna Wayne, mother of Nick Wayne, has a tense relationship with both Cage and Copeland. She's made her disdain for Cage's stable, The Patriarchy, well-known — especially as it relates to her son and his involvement — but she also has a bad opinion of Copeland after he subjected her son to a Con-Chair-To on the November 22 episode of "Dynamite". These relationships came to a head during their AEW TNT Championship match, when Wayne marched down the ramp, AEW TNT Championship title in hand. With both Copeland and Cage exhausted and the referee down, Wayne was faced with a decision: she could either attack Cage, the man who inducted her son into The Patriarchy, or Copeland, the man who smashed her son's head in with a chair. In the end, she chose the latter option, and Cage immediately took advantage of the interference, delivering a Killswitch to Copeland to retain the TNT Championship.