Brian Cage: I Compare The Austin Aries-Bound For Glory Incident To UFC 229 Brawl

Brian Cage might be onto something. 

In the immediate aftermath of Bound For Glory, all anyone could talk about was Austin Aries “walking out” after the main event. Aries lost his IMPACT World Title to Johnny Impact in the main event, in a match that received rave reviews from many observers. However, the match quality was overshadowed by Aries immediately getting up, yelling at executive vice president Don Callis, and flipping off the audience. 

Cage, who wrestled earlier in the night in six-man action, found the scene to be familiar. Appearing on Busted Open Radio, Cage compared Bound For Glory to another sports entertainment incident that had the sports world buzzing.

“To me, I was comparing it to UFC 229. Khabib and McGregor have this awesome fight and the chaos that ensued afterwards overshadowed how awesome of a fight they had,” said Cage. “We’ve had a hell of a time, especially from Slammiversary on. [Bound For Glory] was solid. Their match was awesome. Johnny is the new champ, that’s awesome. Now all of that is kind of getting pushed aside because of that five second isolated incident. Obviously, everybody wants to know what’s going on. I don’t know. Do I agree with it? No, I don’t. I don’t want that to be the memory of Bound For Glory.” 

Khabib Nurmagomedov dominated Connor McGregor at UFC 229, but no one remembered the fight 30 seconds after McGregor tapped out. Instead, all anyone could talk about was Khabib inciting a brawl between the two camps. The UFC 229 brawl remains the biggest topic in the MMA world.

When asked how he personally felt about the incident, Cage was more confused than anything.

“My first thought was, ‘That was worse than Shawn and Bret.’ A lot of stuff was happening. I guess it was Austin being Austin. I didn’t see him after the match. Literally, I’m just dumbfounded,” said Cage. “It’s obviously not professional. Knowing Austin, he’s such a traditionalist. Had it been done to him, not even done to him, him just seeing it. I think he would equally feel like he was being crapped on as part of the locker room. It’d be hypocrisy not to feel that way.”

Cage continued, “He’s got his own mentality. I don’t want to say his own agenda like he’s out to go into business for himself all the time. The tweets between John and him, I even got involved in a couple of them because they shoot made me laugh. Obviously you’re building the match and working your persona. There’s a little bit that comes across very real with Austin. I don’t dislike Austin at all. Just his demeanor within the professional realm. I told my fiancé back home what happened and she was like not surprised.”

It has since been reported that Aries and IMPACT Wrestling are working a “loose cannon” angle and that most backstage were not clued in as a result. Petey Williams, who was the agent for the match, stated that Aries’ contract has expired. 

Aries was not at the television tapings on Monday and is not scheduled to be at the tapings on Tuesday.