the wingmen aew
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling / Cezar Bononi

JD Drake Claims Christian Cage Pitched The Wingmen Gimmick

JD Drake talks about how Christian Cage formed the genesis of the idea of The Wingmen stable.

For quite a while, The Wingmen, a faction consisting of JD Drake, Ryan Nemeth, Cezar Bononi, and “Pretty” Peter Avalon, was a staple on AEW Dark programming. As it turns out, Christian Cage was the original mastermind of the faction, believing that the other three members should help JD Drake to feel sexier and act as his personal wingmen.

“From what I hear, it was an idea Christian had,” JD revealed on the most recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast. “Christian was talking to Tony and was like, ‘You should put JD and Ryan Nemeth together. Those two and Cezar; Cezar is with Peter. They should try to be JD’s wingmen and try to make him sexier and help him get girls.

“I said, ‘You realize this is not how it’s gonna work out.’ And they said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘I promise anything you give me, I’m going to make work.’ And that was where the ‘I make it work’ catchphrase came from,” he said. “It was wild. Ryan came up to me and said, ‘Hey, Tony told me to sit by you to be seen with you on camera, and to do this, and to do that.’ I said, ‘What the hell are you talking about? He said, I don’t know. It’s just what the boss said.’ Well, if the boss said it, I guess we’re gonna do it. And then they were supposed to do a beatdown after a match. I was supposed to be involved. I didn’t know. Nobody told me. Thanks, Ryan. Throw me under the bus. But he jumped the rail, jumps in, and starts whipping up on people, and I’m like, I’m just gonna sit here because I don’t know. But then, we started cutting the vignettes and stuff during the Daily’s Place episodes of Dark, and that was some of the most fun that I’ve ever had.”

SEE MORE: Ryan Nemeth’s AEW Debut Almost Happened By Surprise, Says Being There Is Like A Huge Reunion

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a H/T and link back to Robert DeFelice of WrestleZone for the transcription.

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