In a recent interview with Renee Paquette as part of her Oral Sessions podcast, newly-signed All Elite Wrestling superstar Christian Cage discussed the process of getting cleared to make his in-ring return, noting that it effectively started with the Unsanctioned Match that he had with Randy Orton on WWE RAW in 2020 and that he was not pleased that he could not get physically involved in the match, which led to him deciding that he needed to visit a concussion specialist.

“The whole thing kind of started when I had the Unsanctioned Match with Randy where I couldn’t get physically touched and it was a real thing and I was like, really, this is where I’m at that I can’t get touched and so I kind of took it upon myself and I made my own appointment and all those sorts of things and I went to, there’s a place in Tampa called the University of South Florida Concussion Center and I saw them before I was retiring and all those sorts of things, so it’s all the same doctor.

I made the appointment, went in on my own, didn’t tell anybody I was doing it, my thought process was if I go in and they tell me that they think I’m good, it opens new doors, if they say no, you shouldn’t do this, I’m in no different situation than I was when I woke up that morning, so I went in, did the tests and I sat down with the doctor after and he’s like, you crushed these tests.

It was earlier than October, it was like June, end of June and he’s like, you’re average or above average on all these tests scores, you didn’t fail in anything and then, all your physical scores were good. Then, we just had a conversation, I just told him where my head was at and I was like, if you think I’m crazy and you don’t think I should do this, that’s fine, I just needed to know and he’s like, I don’t think you’re crazy at all, I think you can do this.

I’m coming back to prove that I’m one of the best, in my mind, to ever, I hate saying these kind of things, but I feel like I’m one of the best to ever do this and that’s what I was born to do, so I’m coming back to prove that and to prove to the fans and in a weird sense, my body’s kind of been preserved for 7 years, yeah I’m 7 years older, but also, I haven’t put any damage on my body in 7 years and I think that’s saying something.”

The interview is available in full at this link.