Christian Cage had his first singles match since 2014 this past Wednesday on AEW Dynamite when he battled Frankie Kazarian.
Christian and Kazarian are no strangers to each other, having wrestled multiple matches as competitors during their time together in TNA/IMPACT Wrestling.
Speaking to Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho, Christian discussed how Frankie was picked as his first opponent in seven years.
"I wanted to have a match where it didn't matter who won or lost, both guys came out looking better," he said. "There's also that trust factor there where he knew I would be extra motivated. I had Frankie forefront in my mind. When I called Tony and we talked about it, 'I talk about outworking everyone. The work has to start pretty soon.' We decided we'd do something to set the match up and then we'd do the match. The first person he said was, 'What do you think about Frankie Kazarian?' I said I was thinking that too. We batted a couple of names and it came back to Frankie. I let it marinate for a couple of days and I texted him and said, 'You were right from the start. He's the guy.' He sent back a heart. I didn't even talk to Frankie. Just showed up and it was on."
Christian didn't go into detail regarding the match, but said he wanted to make sure everything meant something in the bout.
He described how he felt after the match by saying, "I'm my own worst critic, I won't say anything more, but I remember going to the back and having these emotions and people congratulating me. Tony was sitting there and he was the first person waiting for me. I doubled back to him and I said him to quietly, 'Tony, you signed me sight unseen. You have no idea how much that means to me and how hard I will work for you going forward.' He hugged me and that was it."
Christian was victorious in the bout, winning his first televised singles match since March 2014 when he defeated Dolph Ziggler on SmackDown.
If you missed anything from AEW Dynamite, you can check out Fightful's full report on the show by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
