10 Things That Didn't Go The Way AEW Wanted

9. Christian Cage Signing Can't Live Up To Tony Khan's Hype

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You won't find a bigger Christian Cage fan than your writer here, but the AEW arrival of of the five-time World Champion didn't go down as well as Tony Khan would have hoped.

This was nothing to do with Christian himself, but it was a case of Khan hyping something up to such an extreme level that he was always going to struggle to appease his audience. Ahead of AEW Revolution 2021, Tony went hard in promoting - initially via Paul Wight - that a "Hall of Fame worthy" signing would be revealed at the PPV.

Of course, Christian is unequivocally a Hall of Fame talent by any definition, but the hype and hoopla drummed up by Khan meant that he gave the wrestling world the chance to dream up all kinds of scenarios. And when that opportunity to dream presented itself, the excitement levels generated by the AEW President meant that people were expecting a CM Punk, a Brock Lesnar, a Kurt Angle, a Batista.

No disrespect to Christian Cage, but he isn't viewed at being quite at the level of the likes of Punk, Lesnar, Angle and Batista by the mases, and thus him walking out at AEW Revolution felt a little underwhelming. Rather than getting the big-time reaction that Tony Khan thought this signing would get, the main response was an apathy-laced golf clap.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.