Brian Cage: I Never Asked For The FTW Title And We Never Really Did Much With It

Brian Cage was almost immediately taken under the wing of Taz upon signing with AEW. Playing off the past, Taz handed Cage the FTW Championship at Fyter Fest 2020. 

As Team Taz grew with the additions of Powerhouse Will Hobbs and Ricky Starks, dissension began in the group with Team Taz turning on Cage and Starks eventually dethroning Cage to win the FTW Title. 

Speaking on Dynamite Download, Cage reflected on his run with the FTW Title. 

“The FTW Title, which I never asked for, it was handed to me. It was cool, it was neat, but it wasn’t anything I asked for or anything I needed. More so, we never really did that much with it. It was cool, but I don’t know, I was indifferent on the whole thing. Obviously, with how it all ended, it doesn’t sit very well with me. The more we’ve gotten to with this thing, it has taken longer than it probably should have to have gotten there and now, at this point, yes, I want my retribution and I still want to beat Ricky Starks when it’s one-on-one, but at the same time, I’m almost okay with moving on just to move on. I’m caught in the middle where I wanted a Team Taz is barred from ringside stipulation, but at the same time, the idea of finally moving away from Team Taz feels damn good as well. It’s a little open-ended and with that long-term storytelling, we can fall back to it. Come this weekend, if we move in a totally different direction, I’m not going to be terribly upset with it,” he said.

Starks defeated Cage in a street fight on the October 8 episode of AEW Rampage. 

Seemingly speaking in character, Cage explained what went wrong with him and Team Taz. 

“I was like, ‘Look, Taz, you don’t really care about me or how I look or am represented, you just care how you look. You’re trying to live vicariously through me.’ I thought he was going to ask me to do the Tazmission, I was like, ‘Don’t ask me to do the fucking Tazmission.’ I thought it was more of that than anything else. We had more and more disagreements on how we would see things. It obviously wasn’t working out. I didn’t buttheads with Will or Hook, it was more Ricky trying to steal the spotlight and Taz trying to live vicariously through me. Even Taz and Ricky bumped heads a little, so it was a little love triangle,” he said.

After losing to Starks, it is unknown where Cage will go next. 

AEW is set for two live shows this weekend with Rampage on Friday and Dynamite on Saturday. Fightful will have live coverage of both events.

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