The Ex-WWE Champion Ready To Follow Christian Cage Out The Door
Christian Cage has spread his wings in several top companies and there was one major WWE star ready to follow him out for pastures new.
In 2005, Christian reached the height of his popularity as a WWE star but despite that, he could not break through to the top echelons of the company which at the time revolved around John Cena. Cutting his losses, Christian Cage left WWE in late 2005 and joined TNA less than two weeks later.
Cage’s run in the company only lasted three years but he captured the NWA World Championship twice and was certainly a headliner. But TNA was not always a steady ship during this time and Cage could have left the company earlier but if he had AJ Styles would have followed.
AJ Styles Ready To Walk Out With Christian Cage
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, AJ Styles recalled a meeting with TNA boss Dixie Carter where she told anyone unhappy in the company they’d be free to leave. According to Styles, his eyes were firmly on his Christian’s Coalition stablemate as if Cage had walked so would he:
No one ever really said anything to me (about interest from WWE when I was doing my best work in TNA). But I’ll tell you, there was an instance when Christian (Cage) — and Dixie (Carter) came out and kind of made — it was a big meeting, and Dixie came out and said, ‘Listen,’ and basically said something to the fact, like, ‘If you don’t want to be here, we’ll let you go,’ and at that moment, I looked over at Christian to see what he was gonna do.
This gotta be 2009? ‘8? ‘10? I don’t know, somewhere around there. But I was watching him because I looked up to Christian. He’s amazing too. This guy, he’s a ring general for sure, and I was watching him to see if he got up because if he had gotten up… I don’t know when she expected us to leave (Styles responded when asked if talents would’ve had to leave at that exact moment).
But I kind of felt like she was saying, hey, you can go now, and I was seriously — if he would have got up, I would have got up too, and hopefully, he would have gotten me in the WWE or something.
As it stood, AJ Styles stayed with TNA for another five years after Christian Cage’s departure. Styles went on to conquer New Japan Pro Wrestling before ending up in WWE in 2016. But it seems AJ Styles is also counting down the days to his in-ring retirement.