Brian CagePhoto courtesy of AEW
It used to be “Steve Austin Appreciation Night” but Brian Cage simplest had eyes for one wrestler—and it wasn’t the immortal Stone Frigid. Then 16, Cage had pushed the total style down to Sacramento with his brother to behold his favourite wrestler Chris Kanyon, “Who Greater Than Kanyon” signal in tow.
The revolutionary, underappreciated switch machine had even spotted him in the sixth row and made his evening with a thumbs up.
“I stood up on my chair, waved my signal around,” Cage said. “He checked out me and he noticed the signal, and I knew that used to be it, mission carried out.”
Wrestling followers endure in thoughts the show nearly 20 years later for Kurt Angle’s unforgettable milk-truck moment, taking a page out of Austin’s e book by riding up to the ring and spraying the sinister guys down with milk.
Cage remembers it for a lifestyles-changing interaction after the show went off the air. As they had been leaving, they’d spotted Kanyon to the side of the titantron and, encouraged by his brother, he desperately sought one extra interaction with his hero.
“I ran aid down the steps, blowing through man, lady, baby, does now not subject. And I truly ran your total plan the total style down to the ground and hit the guard rail and fell over,” Cage said. “He’d viewed me coming and said ‘Right here you prance’, and he gave me the “Who greater than Austin” shirt he’d made for the match to give Stone Frigid.
“I aloof hold it to for the time being. I purchased it signed by him. The evening used to be so major, particular to me. And that used to be explanation why I desired to be a wrestler. To return the favor and spoil one other followers tackle that. Memorable and particular.”
The evening started a lifestyles-prolonged relationship between the 2 men. Cage wrote a prolonged message and sent it during the “Contact Me” portion of Kanyon’s web location. The positioning’s webmaster truly forwarded it to the wrestler and the 2 started corresponding, assembly in individual the subsequent time WWE came to city.
“We developed an increasing number of of a friendship,” Cage remembers. “He knew I always desired to be a wrestler and helped me out with masses of bits and bobs in the wrestling world. After which in 2006, he bought me into Deep South Wrestling (a WWE developmental territory on the time) and I truly stayed with him for a while. I give rather a few credit rating to him as far as how he influenced my wrestling style. How he helped me get some extra alternatives.
“He used to be so underrated, so underutilized. He skilled tackle every superstar who’s ever worked in WCW. He had so many enormous suggestions. He has a bunch of limited unknown accolades. And he used to be this kind of pleasant dude. There’s never always rather a few nice guys in the wrestling industry. He helped out so many. And helped so many of us damage into the companies, and get jobs or get alternatives.”
Kanyon’s 2010 suicide hit Cage laborious, but he carries his buddy’s memory and legacy with him into the ring at any time when he wrestles.
“He used to be the first individual, indispensable in my lifestyles, to ever pass,” Cage said. “When I started carrying gauntlets, I discovered a mode to position his image on them. Certainly, he is where the catchphrase ‘Who greater than Cage’ comes from. Various my strikes are his, or variations of his. He used to be a terribly real dude, truly phenomenal talent. I owe plenty to him.
“All americans wishes to hold the match of the evening, in conjunction with myself. But if I cannot hold a match of the evening, I always strive to hold some truly superior, icy, odd situation or switch or moment. Something that stands out to somebody in the audience true tackle ‘the Innovator’ stood out to me each time he used to be on Saturday Night or Nitro, or Whisper. Where you factor in ‘Oh my God, that one situation used to be a indispensable day out.’ Or ‘I’ve in no plan viewed that earlier than.’ I always strive to get that as a minimum. And I’d snarl many of the time, I attain. And that comes from Kanyon.”
Cage will be alive to about his mentor as he steps into the ring Wednesday evening at Wrestle for the Fallen to distress AEW world champion Jon Moxley. The conventional WWE superstar has one thing Cage believes belongs to him—his arrangement on the very high of the corporate.
Whereas the belt itself would mark real draped over his shoulder, Cage already has one amongst his hold (the FTW title given to him by his new coach, Taz). It’s Moxley’s situation on the terminate of the trade he both covets and intends to obtain by force in the guts of the ring.
Cage used to be uncertain first and indispensable about his partnership with Taz. He’d in no plan had a manager or mouthpiece earlier than, so when All Elite Wrestling boss Tony Khan build them together in the origin, the wrestler wasn’t sure how exactly it would work.
Photo courtesy of AEW
“The very first thing you factor in of whenever you factor in of Taz is him suplexing fools, bop true on the head, and true being a laborious ass and badass,” Cage said. “It wasn’t till I was literally standing next to him as he used to be chopping a promo that I was tackle, ‘Oh yeah, Taz would damage up some stunning superior promos aid in the day.’
“You true don’t factor in him as a promo guy, true. You true factor in him as a fricking Suplex Machine. But after we came aid during the first tunnel the first time, I’m true tackle ‘Oh my goodness, why didn’t I factor in this earlier?'”
Taz, too, used to be skeptical first and indispensable about popping out from in the aid of the published desk where he calls AEW Darkish with Excalibur to alter into an on-camera talent again. He didn’t are seeking to attain it true to attain it. It needed to spoil sense and it needed to hold true capability. There hold been two men, he told Khan, who would possibly tempt him: Cage and Jeff Cobb.
“There’s a plethora of things to wade through with Brian, in no particular instruct, please, from his athleticism to his energy, his journey,” Taz said. “He’s a 15-three hundred and sixty five days reliable. He’s now not a younger guy in the trade. He’s a historical heavyweight champion from in other locations, so he is had the style of being a champion. He’s true a excellent potpourri of every little thing it’s needed to be a quote, unquote ‘high guy,’ from velocity, journey, capability, technical prowess, a total mark. It’s true, it’s all there.
“You attain get that aggregate on this industry now and again. It does happen. It’s now not the first time we hold viewed it. But with Brian, it’s tackle at one other stage. I mean, in case you mark at him, he appears to be like to be like nearly tackle a reliable bodybuilder. He’s in that realm, nice time.
“When I came up, with guys that had been pure bodybuilders. I’ve viewed guys in reliable wrestling now not last, that had been bodybuilders, because their physique cannot obtain it, or they have not got the flexibility and the agility. Brian has all of that and a freaking win of chips… I’m now not seeking to be a hype man. I know that’s accomplish of my persona with Brian on TV, but here’s a shoot. Adore, here is how I truly feel referring to the guy. I’m a believer.”
The two had some stumbling blocks first and indispensable, assorted visions for what Cage would possibly simply aloof be from a presentation standpoint. Taz, as you would possibly wager from his hold profession, noticed his new protege as a sparse, nearly Spartan warrior in dim trunks with limited in the form of decoration. Cage, as you would factor in from his self-given nickname “Mr. Get My-S–t In” wanted the pyro, the present an explanation for costumes and your total trimmings.
“He sees me as a nice odd monster with a beefy presence on my hold,” Cage said. “He view that there used to be no cause of me to be in the relaxation but dim trunks and dim boots because can I stand out on my own with out it. I don’t prefer all of it, the glitz and glamor. And that makes an announcement.
“And despite the proven truth that he would possibly simply now not be unsuitable in that, I tackle fairly flash and aptitude. I desire your total pyro. I desire my gear to mark icy and assorted, stand out and be true busy. But I desire my stuff to be icy. I always feel tackle I are seeking to attain extra than I doubtlessly would possibly simply aloof. As does this total era of wrestlers.
“It wasn’t tackle any nice true heated battle. After my first couple of outings, he used to be tackle, ‘All true, nah, you know what you is at possibility of be doing. It’s real, man.’ And it’s real. We have clicked truly smartly now. Now I rib him and always act tackle I truly are seeking to attain some an increasing number of present an explanation for stuff. Whether or now not I attain or don’t, I always true act tackle I are seeking to pour extra sauce on every little thing. Correct to agitate him, true to rib him.”
Unlike rather a few his contemporaries, Taz enjoys the stylish form of wrestling, intelligent to concede that the stage of athleticism in the sport is greater than it’s ever been in the previous. He does now not mark his relationship with Cage as a one-plan avenue. They are working together and it’s the combination of their skills that makes the partnership a truly unhealthy one.
“Various guys who are conventional-faculty, they mark at it tackle, ‘Ah, here is unsuitable. How are these kids are doing this all unsuitable?’ I mean…shut up. End. OK, listen. There’s nothing unsuitable. Legitimate wrestling is, and it’s always has been, about creativity. OK? And that is the explanation the great thing about being a reliable wrestler. You create what it’s major to create.
“I truly don’t hold any distress with the style reliable wrestling is on the present time. I truly don’t hold any distress with the assorted gimmicks. There’s less talent that hold that hardened, badass, violent vibes to them. I mediate social media plays plenty into it. Since you accomplish of are seeking to be truth-basically based on your social media since you do now not are seeking to insult of us’s intelligence. Wrestlers are, roughly, embracing followers publicly. Which you’ll simply aloof because they’re the of us on the close of the day who pay the bills, so it’s needed to admire the followers. My era used to be a limited assorted. It used to be an extraordinarily very prolonged time ago.”
In his day, Taz would reply to hecklers now not by doing extra to appease them, but by antagonizing them with an prolonged chin lock, declaring his dominance. It’s that edge he hopes to raise by osmosis to Cage, his mere presence rubbing off on the youthful man, a signal to followers that here’s a wrestler to be taken seriously.
“It works truly smartly because rather a few of us know me and know what I will be capable to attain,” Cage said. “But on the identical time, I’m now not going to be naive to the truth that there would possibly be rather a few of us who don’t know me. So, I would possibly prance accessible and let you know the plan in which real I am as nearly every wrestler does. But in case you are making a call somebody that every person does know, tackle the Taz, and you would possibly well hold got him get on the mic and tell every person how real I am, due to this one thing. Somebody who is a nice shot that they know comes in and goes, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s improbable.’ Whether or now not I am or now not, you is at possibility of be going to desire it and give it some view a chunk extra.
“Taz accessible hyping me up, it gives me a limited extra little bit of credibility to of us who don’t know me. And then, it’s up to me to help up what he says as soon as they mark me in the ring and truly mark what I will be capable to attain and what I’m able to. I believe tackle it’ll spoil the dynamic that great extra icy. Then they’ll head, ‘Oh crap, Taz wasn’t mendacity at all, he used to be telling the truth.’ They would possibly even mediate he used to be underselling Brian Cage. That’s what I am hoping to behold.”
Cage has spent 15 years doing true about every little thing there would possibly be to attain in wrestling. In that time, he is crossed paths with nearly every person of gift in the industry. But one indispensable exception will be staring him in the eye at Wrestle for the Fallen.
“Before I tossed him during the vehicle window, Moxley and I had in no plan touched,” Cage said. “So, it’ll be a label-new match for me. And he is stunning unpredictable and has a odd style and one thing that I’m now not conventional to. I’ve simplest viewed this guy on tapes. Perchance I’ve been in a pair of locker rooms with him earlier than, but we have in no plan touched and now here is the nice, first-time assembly.
“I nearly tackle it greater that there would possibly be now not any put together match, for lack of a bigger observe. Because it makes it extra true. It makes it extra dramatic. It’s reliable, it’s long-established. And I mediate it puts you below a chunk extra stress and makes you are making an try to spoil. A minimal of for me, the stress makes you spoil greater. So that little bit of grief, or fairly nerves, it helps you flip that adjust on so that you just can spoil.
“I always are seeking to conform. I always are seeking to enhance in every aspect and each perspective. Truthfully, there is rather a few stuff that I have not even been in a arrangement to attain but. I have not been here very prolonged and I have not been spending rather a few time in my fits that I’ve had. So there is aloof a enormous playbook that of us have not viewed.
“I’m ready for this. I am hoping Moxley is too. I’m ready to expose the total world who I am and what I will be capable to attain.”
Jonathan Snowden covers strive in opposition to sports activities for Bleacher Represent and is the creator of Shamrock: The World’s Most Unhealthy Man.
