Brian Cage says he’s cleared to return to in-ring action
Absent from in-ring action for nearly a year, AEW wrestler Brian Cage recently announced himself cleared for a return.
In an interview with Muscle and Fitness, Cage opened up about his in-ring clearance and the details behind it (H/t Fightful).
“I haven’t made my return yet. I just got cleared fully from everyone to be able to come back so then, there’s the hopes of that too, of like, okay, this is a perfect way to press restart and start new and come back and re-debut in a good way, in a new way, bigger way, whatever, and make the best of a bad situation,” Cage said.
“I had the match to get cleared yesterday, and one of the things he wanted me to do was get up to just the second rope and jump off. The other guy, he moves, and I just have to land on my feet… which is, like, nothing, right? But in my head, I go, can I do that? I’m like, I don’t know. It’s not that crazy, but you don’t know… I have post-surgery knees. I’m like, wait, can I? I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out, and yeah, I did it. It was totally fine.”
Cage, 42, underwent three knee surgeries in 2025 and has not wrestled a match since his last one in March 2025 against Chris Masters. Speaking about his potential AEW return, Cage addressed the possibilities.
“I can’t wait, and I don’t know when or where or even how. There’s a few different possibilities… It’s almost too much now because the longer it is and the more I get hyped up — I said I’m listening to music — I don’t wanna have too high of expectations. I’m almost worried about that, like, hyping myself up too much to be let down where it won’t be as good as I want it to be.”
While still not made his official in-ring return, Cage also reflected on having a strained back after performing box jumps before his comeback.
“My first day back in the ring, I was rehabbing with my physical therapist while we were doing box jumps, all different jump stuff and I’m feeling good, and out of nowhere, for no reason, on a box jump, somehow I strain my back… Which makes no sense, right? I feel like maybe because I did so much glute and hamstring-heavy leg day beforehand, they were so sore, so maybe there was just no, my posterior chain couldn’t absorb the impact, so my lower back — I don’t know.
“It made no sense. It was like I did a crazy heavy deadlift… And now my knees aren’t killing me, but my back is killing me, and I’m like, ‘Well, I can’t not go,’ and of course it’s gonna happen now,” Cage continued. “So for the next two days, I had to go through that, and my back was killing (me), holding me up. I’m like, ‘No, I’m still gonna go through, I’m still gonna push through.”
Over 40 years of age and two decades of wrestling experience, Cage also detailed the chances of changing his in-ring style and potentially scaling back the high-flying moves to reserve them for bigger occasions.
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
Shounak takes particular interest in soccer, closely following top clubs like Real Madrid and Arsenal. Beyond sports, he enjoys fiction writing, photography, gaming, and cinema.