By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Brian Cage
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
So you’re in the new Steven Spielberg film Disclosure Day. How’d you get cast for this? “So Chavo [Guerrero Jr.] hits me up for this TV show…”
And Chavo is the guy in Hollywood when it comes to any wrestling scene. “He’s like the liaison for wrestling in Hollywood. So, he hits me up for this TV show. It doesn’t happen. Well, it was gonna happen. It gets postponed. And then he goes, ‘Hey, I think you would fit really great for this role. Contact this guy and get him everything he wants.’ So I email him. I get everything he requests. Typical kind of like audition situation, where after a few weeks go by, you don’t hear anything, whatever. Easy come, easy go. So I’m in the gym and 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, and everything you do. He says you’re exactly perfect, and 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.”
You don’t know who the director is? “Nothing. [They say] ‘Yeah, I was watching it, and Steven loves you, loves you. He just wants you on the set, blah blah blah.’ He keeps saying, Steven, I go, ‘Who’s Steven?’ He goes, ‘Oh, the director, Steven Spielberg.’ I went, wait, what? Steven Spielberg’s watching my stuff and is like, ‘That’s it, I need Brian Cage in my movie.’ I go, this is amazing. He goes, ‘[Spielberg] likes you so much, we want you to work somebody else, preferably another big guy that looks a different type of big than you. But instead of casting it, we figured he just wants you, so you could just pick whoever you want.’ So I was like, what about my buddy Lance [Archer]? Because he was in some of the photos they sent, my tag partner, and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, we did see him. We thought he looked good.’ I go, I mean, I’m fine with that. They’re okay. So then that’s how Lance got in the movie, too.”
What are the goals now that you’re back in AEW? “I definitely want to branch out and do more on my own, for sure, because I know we’ve had a couple squash matches. I did stuff with Lance, I just did that one tag match with [Jake] Doyle, I do have a couple of different ideas. I do want to incorporate more of this winning this bodybuilding show. I mean the whole while too, I’ve always wanted to do more like solo stuff, because I feel like 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 on the last interview, too. There’s so much I feel like I haven’t done in AEW, especially compared to my time in Lucha Underground and Impact. Anywhere else, I feel like I’ve done so much more.”
So, is the AEW world title something that you want? “Oh, of course. But I mean, I guess even then, well, we have so many titles there. I mean, I’ll take whatever I can get. You know what I do really want to be part of this year, for sure, is the Continental Classic. Obviously, that’s not until the end of the year, but that’s something definitely I want to. I would love to build up enough repertoire to have an awesome Continental Classic run by the end of the year.”
You recently re-signed a contract extension with AEW in 2024, and I know you talked about you were going back and forth. Were you going to re-sign with AEW or were you going to go to WWE? How close were you to going to WWE? “I mean, there was a lot of interest, and it’s funny, because I wanted to go there. I mean, you don’t know what you’re gonna get either place. There’s no guarantees. They could say that, you know, we’re gonna use you this way, that way, whatever. But obviously, 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 safer, if you will. It’s pretty hard to have some sort of security in this business, but I’m like, I’ve been here for a while; they just randomly release anyone. A lot of the perks, so travel is way [easier]; he [Tony Khan] pays for all the travel, so hotel, ground transportation, and airfare, whereas WWE is just airfare. We’re an actual independent contractor, so I can do anything else outside of AEW, which is a plus too. Then I felt like I don’t have a fear of getting released if I stay here too long. The longer I feel like I can just keep staying to have longevity.”
But ultimately it came down to job security? “Big time, that’s the main one, and just longevity. It’s so much more chill there. I mean, obviously, I haven’t been in WWE for a long time, was there developmentally years ago, many years ago. But it’s like if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
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