Christian Cage revealed he wasn’t cleared to wrestle when he fought Randy Orton on Raw in 2020.
During the feud between Edge and Randy Orton in 2020, Christian Cage was brought back to Raw for one night. He battled Orton in an “unsanctioned match“, although he saw very little action.
The match lasted just a few seconds. Orton hit Cage with a low blow and then a punt, knocking him out cold. This was his first match in seven years after retiring due to concussions. However, he wasn’t even cleared to wrestle that night.
Christian Cage spoke with Chris Van Vliet, and the pair discussed the match with Orton in 2020.
Van Vliet asked if Cage was cleared to wrestle for that match with Orton. The AEW star confirmed he wasn’t at that time. He noted that taking the punt from Orton wasn’t “the smartest idea” but there were ways to get around his limitations.
He revealed that he felt like he let fans down who were clearly excited to see him wrestle for the first time in seven years.
“I was not [cleared].” Christian Cage said. [The punt] was probably not the smartest thing to do. There were ways around it at the time in the Performance Center, so that’s what we did.”
“But I was not happy about that day because I felt that I could do more. Then, when the ratings came in and it was the highest-rated show in a long time, I was like, ‘Wow, people really thought I was going to wrestle, and they were excited to see me wrestle.'”
“I felt like I kind of let them down. That was another thing in my head: is this how I want to go out? Do I really want that to be the last memory people have of me being in the ring?”
