Brian Cage on Why He Rejected WWE’s Interest In Him, Long-Term Goals and Plans for His AEW Career, His Plans To Bring His “Body Guy Championship” to AEW Shows Every Week, How He Joined Cast for “Disclosure Day”, & Steven Spielberg Being Interested In Going To AEW Show In The Future

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Brian Cage as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Cage’s thoughts about his decision to stay in AEW over joining WWE when his original contract expired in 2023.

“I mean, there was a lot of interest and I, it’s funny because I wanted to go there. You don’t know what you’re going to get either place. There’s no guarantees. They could say that we’re going to use you this way, that way, whatever, but obviously there’s you don’t know anything. And after going back and forth, all the different pros and cons, a lot of stuff with AEW just seemed more safe, if you will, which is, it’s pretty hard to have some sort of security in this business.

But I’ve been here for a while. Tony’s, you know, they just randomly release anyone like a lot of the perks.Travel is way like he pays for all the travel. So hotel, ground transportation and airfare where WWE is just airfare. We’re an actual independent contractor. So I can do anything else outside of AEW, which, you know, that’s another +2. And then I felt like I don’t have a fear of getting released if I stay here too. The longer I stay, the longer I feel I can just keep staying to have longevity.”

Cage also gave his thoughts about his current long-term plans and ambitions for his career in AEW.

“I’ve always wanted to do more solo stuff because I feel that’s how I get my stuff in.I feel like that’s how I stand out more and there’s a plethora, and I think I said this in the last interview too, there’s so, so much I feel like I haven’t done an AEW, especially compared to my time in Lucha Underground and IMPACT and anywhere else, I feel like I’ve done so much more.

There’s just so many matches I haven’t had. And I feel because a lot of my matches haven’t been, it’s always a kind of sort of a multi way match or a tag match or a big, four way, six way, whatever the case may be.

So, I’d really like some more single opportunity.I like in the few, that I have the matches with Ospreay and Swerve and Hangman and stuff obviously been great.”

Cage also gave his thoughts about him winning the Mr. Nevada State bodybuilding competition and him recently bringing his custom made Body Guy Championship belt with him to AEW television.

“So, the idea behind this thing — I actually got this made (at the) beginning of last year. So what I wanted to do was take it on the indies, get it over first and then bring it to AEW. The idea was I would defend the Body Guy Title but the catch is you have to be a body guy to get a shot at the title and that was kind of my jab at everyone, because then no one would actually ever get a shot at the title, because you’re not a body guy. So that was kind of the loose end. I just thought it was a great idea and (it looks) cool and I never got to do anything and I tore my knee so it just kind of sat there. Then, after winning the bodybuilding show, I was like, you know what? This is the perfect time to bring it back. Instead of bringing the overall trophy with the medal, I’ll just bring the freaking title to represent the overall trophy and then we’ll just start to incorporate that. So, I had it backstage with me during the segment, and on Dynamite this past Wednesday, and I will be bringing it every week, and we will go from there.”

Cage also gave his thoughts about working on the recently released Disclose Day film by legendary film director Steven Spielberg and how Speilberg told him that he is interested in going to an AEW show in the future.

“It was a blast, it was so much fun. We got to talk with Spielberg a lot. He was a huge wrestling fan and he was talking about how he’s surprised he’s never done, this is the first time he’s ever done anything wrestling related in any of his movies. And he’s talking about all the throwback stuff. And he was like, ‘Oh man, you guys ever in LA?’ I go, ‘We actually have a pay-per-view this weekend.’ And he goes, ‘Well, I’ll be out here still filming.’

But he goes, he’s like, ‘I would love, you guys are there and I’m not on set, I would love to come to the show.’ And I go, ‘Pretty sure they’d love to have you come to the show.’ So maybe it’ll work out down the road.”

Cage also gave his thoughts about the process that led to him joining the cast of the Disclosure Day film and Chavo Guerrero, who works as a coordinator on many wrestling-related Hollywood projects, being responsible for it.

“I’m in the gym, all of a sudden I get an email. And it’s, ‘Hey, I just sat down and watched everything with the director. He absolutely loves you, your look, your persona, your charisma, everything you do, you’re exactly perfect and you’re exactly what he wants.’ Great email to get. And he goes, ‘Give me a call immediately.’

So I call him and again, I don’t even know what the project is. Nothing. And he goes, ‘Yeah, man, so I was watching it and Steven loves you, loves your look. He just wants you on the set, blah, blah, blah.’ He keeps saying Steven. I go, ‘Steven, who’s Steven?’ And he goes, ‘Oh, the director, Steven Spielberg.’ And I went, ‘Wait, what?’ And I go, Steven Spielberg is watching my stuff. He’s like, that’s it, I need Brian Cage in my movie. I go, ‘This is amazing.’”

Cage also gave his thoughts about how he was allowed to pick the other wrestler who would be in the film and his choice being Lance Archer due to casting wanting another big guy who had a different look than him.

Cage also gave his thoughts about Spielberg being impressed when he saw that a big man like him was able to hit a moonsault.

“When I did the one moonsault too, he goes, ‘Whoa, I didn’t know you could do that kind of stuff.’ The way he popped for it. He wasn’t the smart mark like, ‘Oh, just stick to big man stuff.’ He’s like, ‘Whoa, that was amazing.’”

Cage also gave his thoughts about he filmed three times more material than ended up in the final cut and he currently hopes some of that gets released as deleted scenes in the future.

“There’s a couple of specific shots he wanted us to do. Like, he wanted this one cool diving elbow or headbutt off like how it was filmed. He wanted the POV shot. There’s one other thing too specifically he wanted, and even we didn’t even use a lot of that.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com 1 & 2, Fightful.com