Brian Cage has signed a multi-year contract with AEW and is expected to debut “soon,” according to a report by SoCalUncensored, which cited multiple sources.
The former Impact World Champion’s Impact contract expired recently and he received offers from Impact, Ring of Honor and AEW, the report says. The ROH contract was reportedly for the highest dollar amount, but would not give Cage as much high profile exposure as AEW would, so he went with AEW.
Cage wrestled in what may be his final match for Impact tonight at Hard to Kill in a no-contest against Rob Van Dam. Cage’s nose was busted open during the match, then RVD hit him with a Van Terminator, which caused the referee to stop the match due to an “injury” to Cage. As RVD was about to attack Cage some more, Daga ran out for the save, leading to an impromptu match between him and RVD, which RVD won.
Update: PWInsider is reporting that Brian Cage has a legit torn bicep, which is the reason why he didn’t compete in a full match against RVD tonight. No word on how bad the injury is or how much time he’s expected to miss.
Cage was scheduled to appear at AEW Double or Nothing in May in the Casino Battle Royale, but Impact pulled him from the match because he was the Impact World Champion at the time and they didn’t want their top champ losing in a pre-show battle royal at another company’s PPV.