Brian Cage says WWE once dangled a comeback right in front of him — then yanked it away with a text telling him he was “average at best.” Cage still remembers the message from John Laurinaitis, and safe to say, he wasn’t exactly impressed with WWE’s assessment.
Cage told the story during a conversation with The @smoothvega Podcast, explaining that he was desperate to get back into WWE after being released from developmental. At the time, Cage said losing that opportunity hit him so hard that he felt like his life was over.
“And then I was so desperate after I got released, and that was a whole bunk story, to get back to. I felt like my life was over.”
Getting another shot wasn’t exactly a smooth process either. Cage said WWE re-signed him, rescinded it, cast him for Tough Enough, then pulled him from that too. Things finally seemed to be turning around when he ran into Laurinaitis in Fresno and was told WWE planned to bring him back after WrestleMania.
“And after a lot of ups and downs, like I got re-signed, then I got rescinded, then I got casted for Tough Enough, then I got taken off that, then I saw Johnny Ace in Fresno when I was living there and he said, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring you back after Mania.’”
Then came the text. Cage said Laurinaitis suddenly told him WWE had changed its mind — and didn’t exactly sugarcoat why. Cage’s internal reaction was about as subtle as you’d expect.
“Then they said, ‘Oh, never mind.’ I’ve said this quote a lot of times, too. He texted me out of nowhere and he goes, ‘Uh, never mind. We changed our mind. You’re average at best.’”
“I go, ‘Average at best? This motherf*cker?’”
He didn’t just think it either. Cage said he responded to Laurinaitis and made it clear he wasn’t buying the idea that WWE actually viewed him as some middle-of-the-pack wrestler.
“And I go, ‘Okay, let’s really face it. You and I both know I’m better than average, but thanks for getting back to me.’”
Funny enough, that insult ended up doing Cage a favor. He said the rejection finally snapped him out of feeling like he needed WWE, and once he stopped obsessing over getting back there, everything started going better.
“But after that, that’s when I finally said, ‘You know what? I don’t need to go back there. I’ll do what I need to do.’ As soon as I let go of that ‘I have to be back there’ feeling, everything in my life got better professionally, personally, financially. Everything improved once I let go of that.”
Cage made it clear that doesn’t mean he would never work for WWE again. He simply stopped treating the company like the only place where his career could count.
“Now, doesn’t mean I’m saying like, ‘Oh, I’ll never go back there.’ It was just like, ‘You know what? If I don’t go back there, it’s okay.’ And then I feel like that just, that freedom of releasing that just improved my life.”
WWE telling Cage he was “average at best” clearly stuck with him, but it also appears to have killed the idea that he needed their approval. Instead of spending the rest of his career chasing that one door, Cage went elsewhere and built his name without it.
Do you think WWE badly misjudged Brian Cage when they told him he was “average at best?" Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
