Brian Cage On Turning Down WWE After Recent Talks, Who Released Him During His First WWE Run
After vignettes leading to his arrival, Lucha Underground star Brian Cage debuted in Impact Wrestling and destroyed Jon Cruz after a powerbomb, followed by a buckle bomb, discus clothesline, and screwdriver finisher. Cage is being billed as an unstoppable machine, and looks to have a promising future ahead of him at Impact.
I had the pleasure to speak with Cage on the Pancakes and Powerslams Show about his recent Impact Wrestling signing, as well as other topics. One of the talking points centered around Cage on if he would go back to the WWE. Cage was signed to a WWE contract in 2008 as Brian Cage, but this was later changed to Kris Logan. Cage teamed with Justin Angel (Gabriel) to defeat Trent Barreta and Caylen Croft to become the FCW Florida Tag Team Champions, but lost them two weeks later (based on FCW tapings, but actually they lost the same day) to Bo Rotundo (Bo Dallas) and Duke Rotundo (Bray Wyatt).
Cage, who was much smaller in stature at this time, was released from his contract in 2009. Cage went into detail on his release.
"I had a groin injury, and was put into this squash match that lasted about 3 minutes. During the match, I was supposed to get spot where I was going to get a boot, but I couldn't race to the boot because my groin was torn and so he threw the boot like 12 feet away, and you were wondering what he was doing," said Cage. "Despite having awesome matches with TJ Wilson, none of that mattered, it was only that spot where they felt that I didn't want to do that spot, so I was really upset about it.
"I ended up on Tough Enough, and when we ended up in a town in Fresno, I met with John Laurinaitis and asked him how the match went, he said it went great. He said that let's just get through WrestleMania because there was a month left until WrestleMania, and I was okay with that. I thought to myself why he would lie to me. Why would he bring me down, so I was confident about it. WrestleMania came and went but I never heard back from them.
"I called him and he said to me, 'Nevermind, we are going to release you.' I asked what he meant by that and he said that they are no longer interested in me. I was so pissed; I said that it was okay, thank you for responding and doing business with him. Through all the ups and downs from being signed, to being released, to Tough Enough, I said, enough of this. I don't care about that anymore. I don't care if I don't go back now. My life is substantially better, both personally and professionally after my release."
Cage did reveal that he recently had discussions with WWE, but turned them down after going through too much back and forth.
"I had been recently in talks with WWE and they said that there were these trials coming up and whether I was available, then they changed their minds saying that they couldn't bring me in for those upcoming tryouts, they would try again for the next one, and so on and so forth," said Cage. "That was the way it went through, about a year and change. Finally, when they were going to bring me in for a tryout I said okay. After I booked my flight and everything, I thought about it and the next day I said, nevermind, I don't want to do it anymore. They said, what do I mean I don't want to do it? I responded by saying that I had signed with Impact Wrestling, Lucha Underground, AAA. I just didn't want to go on that weekend that they were offering so I said that I am not interested at this time. It just felt really good to say that."
Although Cage is experiencing a very successful time in his career, he is not completely saying no to a WWE return.
"They asked if I wanted to come through for the next tryouts and I said that we will see what would happen. Since then, I haven't been to a tryout since. Am I willing to go back? I'm not begging to go back, but it would have to be where the opportunity would be perfect for me to go back. Right now, my life is great, my life is awesome, and there is no need for me to go back. I wouldn't say that I would never go back, but if it doesn't ever end up happening, I am okay with that."
You can hear the full interview below.
Source: Pancakes and Powerslams