After an enormous amount of hype regarding a mystery signing, Christian Cage showed up at AEW’s Revolution pay-per-view and inked a multi-year deal with the promotion. A few weeks have gone by since then without an official match for the man who claims to out work everyone.
He finally made his in-ring debut for AEW on tonight’s (Mar. 31) episode of Dynamite against Frankie Kazarian. This was Christian’s first singles match in seven years, according to the AEW commentary team.
This match was definitely not a dominant showcase for Christian. Kazarian mopped the floor with him for the early portion of the match, until Christian briefly came back with a swinging DDT to stall Kazarian’s momentum. For some reason there was a “this is awesome” chant at about the 10 minute mark. Maybe they should have chanted “fundamentally sound” instead. There’s nothing wrong with having a good, fundamentally sound match, after all.
The two men picked up the pace after that point with several exciting near falls, including a top rope frog splash from Cage. Kazarian ultimately did himself in by getting overzealous and running into the post after Christian escaped a chicken wing. Cage capitalized with the Kill Switch for the win.
There was no major angle following this one. It looked like AEW wanted to show Christian work his ass off for the better part of the 20 minute time limit, and deliver on his “Out. Work. Everyone.” mantra in the process.
Overall I’d say it was successful on that front, but I’m not buying him against Kenny Omega just yet.
Did Christian vs. Kazarian live up to Excalibur’s hype as “one of the most highly anticipated debuts” in AEW history?
Get complete Dynamite results and coverage here.