Christian Cage back to TNA

On Thurdsday 2nd May, TNA Impact held a press conference from the Exhibition Centre in Glasgow.

In attendance was both Jeremy Borash and TNA President, Dixie Carter. The reason for the whistle stop tour to Scotland was to announce a first for wrestling in the country - a live taping for TNA on foreign soil that was going out "live" (well on a time delay of a few hours).

Not only this but the event was being held at the yet to be opened Glasgow Hydro venue, which made this a triple "first" - first live event from the Hydro, for TNA outside of the US and the first time the Hydro had held a wrestling event.

All in all, some big announcements for both TNA and the Scottish wrestling fans.

However, this was not the biggest news. for my money, that came out of the event.

Q&A with Dixie

As part of the announcement, the audience were invited to ask Dixie questions.

As with many fan based press conferences, the questions were of a mixed quality and fairly obvious in the main (you know the type - "Whats your favourite TNA moment etc"). Each of these questions was answered with a enthusiasm and a collected manner, even if she had answered them a thousand times before at every press interview she has done.

However, there were a few questions that stood out.

First up was about the onscreen persona of Dixie. Would she ever reconsider reinventing herself as "Miss Carter" in the same way that Vincent Kennedy McMahon became "Mr McMahon"? The reason it stood out was the reception it got from the crowd (who loved the idea) as well as the answer that was given - it was largely ignored! Maybe, she just didnt care for the question but my hunch in the way she avoided it, suggest to me that there might be something in the off! But this answer was only a prelude to the other question that merited an uncharacteristic answering style.

Someone asked Dixie about which star she would like to see return.

Unlike every other question (bar the Miss Carter one above), the cool, calm and collected response went out of the window. Without a moments pause, Dixie blurted out "Christian Cage". The answer was given with a real passion and excitement - it was like a school girl telling a friend a secret that they couldn't hold in any longer.

She talked about how Christian was part of the TNA family and how he was welcomed back (and enjoyed) his brief appearance at last years Slammiversary.

But other than the delivery of the answer is there anything else to this suggestion?

What has Christian been up to lately? For starters, he hasnt been on WWE programming since July of last year - 10 months is a long time in wrestling, especially in a promotion that has never valued him as a star. Yes, he won the World Heavyweight Championship but does anyone truly believe that he would have been in this position if it wasnt for his good friend Edge retiring? Yes, Christian was over and talented (and had paid his dues for that matter) but the way he was booked by WWE showed that he was not someone who was respected by management.

Will he ever get another shot in WWE for the top titles? Theres more chance of the Brooklyn Brawler taking the streak, in my opinion.

Reports have stated that he has been fit for some time, so other than being at Wrestlemania Axxess, do we truly believe that he is happy to sit around doing nothing?

What of his greatest opponents? Well Jeff Hardy and Bully Ray have just had a World Title match in a variation of the infamous TLC match. Surely this is tailor made for the Cage Coalition to return to save TNA from the Aces and 8s?

The next Impact PPV is Slammiversary, which is coincidentally 60 days after the last sighting of Cage in WWE (at Axxess). Add to that the excited Dixie response, the protagonists of the World Title scene, a 60 day no compete clause, the complete lack of direction within WWE and I would suggest that the stars have aligned for the Cage Coalition to make its way down the ramp in Boston on June 2nd.

http://v2journal.com/17/post/2013/05/christian-cage-back-to-tna.html

(could you all try and leave a comment on the Journal article to draw some new people to the site - thanks!)

I could be wrong but is Christian not contracted to December ?

He signed a 3 year deal in December 2008 and I think I remember he signed a 2 year extension on top of that, that's not to say that he couldn't get an early release tho

I've got to say, and bear in mind I'm a huge Christian fan, I think he would be a horrific signing for TNA at this point in time.

At 39, he probably has what, another 3-5 viable years left as a performer, he's injury prone, and frankly TNA don't need another 40+ ex-WWE guy, bearing in mind that many of the one's who are there already are considerably bigger draws than him, the only demographic that Christian would appeal to are TNA's hardcore fanbase who remember his last run there.

On top of this, (this is just speculation) as a former world champion, who's been in WWE a considerable amount of time I doubt he would come cheap, TNA could probably land a couple of indy guys for what they'd pay Christian.

Honestly, I think WWE's recent signing policy should be putting the fear of god into TNA, the indies is no longer their exclusive market, if there response to this is to re-sign Cage (particulary if he can't get early release from his contract and they are just ring-fencing money until February next year), then I think they are woefully misguided.

IMO TNA should forget about Cage and take steps to sign up guys, lets just say for arguments sake, Ricochet and Uhaa Nation, and I have no doubt TNA could get both these guys if they were willing to part with the money they'd use for Cage, TNA could sell themselves as the alternative, let word of mouth spread that they have a guy who can do a double moonsault or a 6.0ft 250lb powerhouse who can do a shooting star press, I think these would do a lot for the company than boasting they have 4 of the 6 guys who were in a TLC match 10 years ago.

Finally I'll just say again this is coming from a guy who loves Christian.

I fully agree, where TNA excelled in their early days was as a platform for guys not brought through the WWE factory process and had unique looks to them, not the bodybuilders but guys like Joe, Daniels and AJ. They lost sight of that over recent years and there has only really been Austin Aries brought in successfully from the Indys whilst WWE have brought through Punk, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Antonio Cesaro whilst having Kassius Ohno, Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn waiting in the wings (and Sami Callihan on the verge of signing)
It's hardly like the Indys have nothing left either, imagine instead of the shambles of the guys they put together to make Aces and Eights you had the following coming in as a stable to run roughshod over the company:

Kevin Steen
Sami Callihan (was part of the Gutcheck list)
Uhaa Nation
Richochet
Jack Evans (has appeared in the past in TNA)
KENTA
Colt Cabana
And a returning Jay Lethal

Those 8 coming in would have had the Internet abuzz, the IWC fapping over their keyboards and would have had TNA really shown to be moving in a positive forward direction.

Christian would be a decent signing, fued with Bully Ray then heel turn then fued with Jeff Hardy prob get a few more viewers in the short term.

But in the long term TNA need to open a relationship with 1 or 2 of either Dragongate USA, CZW or Chikara and get their relationship with AAA to start bearing some fruit.

I re-posted my comment on the journal for you Adam

Does anyone know if TNA still have a relationship with NJPW?

If they could somehow persaude a couple of their top stars over it could be a massive coup, they have their own following (in terms of audience attraction and PPV buys they are a bigger company than TNA) plus Hiroshi Tanahashi is IMO probably the best wrestler in the world right now