Brian Cage was set to compete in the Casino Battle Royale at AEW Double or Nothing, but IMPACT Wrestling prevent the move as they didn't want their World Champion losing at the event.
The battle royale was won by Hangman Page, setting him up to compete in the innagural AEW World Title bout.
According to Cage, a bout against Hangman Page was pitched to take place on IMPACT as a result of their champion losing on the pay-per-view, but IMPACT turned it down.
"It could have started with me," Cage said about the forbidden door in wrestling when speaking to Dynamite Download. "I was talking with Ed Nordholm of Anthem, 'this benefits you guys more than anybody.' It's an awesome opportunity for me, which benefits me, it's cool for AEW but it doesn't really do much for them. For me to walk out as IMPACT World Champion and decimate a bunch of their roster and almost win a shot at the title, even if we never do anything again, it would still make everyone go, 'Oh, are IMPACT and AEW working together?'
"Don [Callis] told me afterwards when they were trying to negotiate, they were like, 'if it's that much of an issue to you, we'll loan you guys Adam Page and have Cage go over on him on IMPACT. They said no to that because they didn't believe it would really happen. I guess they could have said it and there is the possibility of them not following through, but there is still the possibility of it happening where, if I don't do [the Battle Royale], there is no possibility of it happening. IMPACT had nothing to lose and everything to gain. If I go out there and they put me over, even if I don't win but I get shine on all their talent, and if I lose the Battle Royale, no one is beating me, I'm just getting thrown over the top rope. Who cares?"
Cage would eventually make his way to AEW one year later at Double or Nothing 2020 when he debuted in the Casino Ladder Match, which he would go on to win. He would also have two singles matches against Hangman in AEW with the two men splitting the pair of bouts.
Elsewhere during the interview, Cage discussed his storyline with Team Taz. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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