AEW Wrestler Has First Dynamite Match In A Year

Former champion has been active on independents, but absent from AEW TV.

by Scott Carlson
AEW Mystery
AEW

Don't look now, but Brian Cage just had his first match on AEW Dynamite in 13 months.

Cage challenged Wardlow for the TNT Championship on the three-year anniversary show, falling short in his quest to win his first title in AEW since July 2021. However, The Machine gave Wardlow a good challenge, matching the champ's power and agility for much of the contest.

Once viewed as a significant player in All Elite Wrestling, Cage disappeared from the company shortly after unsuccessfully attempting to win back the FTW Championship from Ricky Starks. His last Dynamite match was a 1 September, 2021 loss to Powerhouse Hobbs, and his last televised, non-YouTube AEW singles match came on the 6 October Rampage, a street fight loss to Starks for the FTW title.

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Since then, Cage's status was an intriguing sideshow, with AEW extending his contract in February despite being absent from TV for four months at that point. He then surfaced in Ring of Honor as part of Tully Blanchard Enterprises, which was absorbed into the Embassy.

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It's unclear whether this appearance marks a regular return to television for the Machine, but the talented veteran made a nice impression Wednesday.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.