Brian Cage Reacts To Reports Of Tully Blanchard's AEW/ROH Exit
As reported earlier, Tully Blanchard is no longer working with AEW or ROH.
Cage, previously a member of the Tully Blanchard Enterprises stable, took to Twitter to react to the wrestling legend's exit from Tony Khan's promotions. As seen below, Cage seemed to insinuate that Blanchard's exit was abrupt in nature.
Ughhhh, well, here today gone tomorrow..... pic.twitter.com/3hSI4B4DrH
— Brian Cage (@briancagegmsi) July 25, 2022
Blanchard did not appear at Saturday's Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, which reportedly led to talents backstage inquiring as to the whereabouts of the original Four Horseman. According to Fightful Select, Blanchard missed the ROH show due to a previous commitment with his prison ministry group.
Subsequently, it was revealed during the show that Prince Nana had purchased Tully Blanchard Enterprises and renamed the faction The Embassy. Although the stable continues to include Cage, Gates of Agony (Toa Liona & Kaun) & Jonathan Gresham as members, there is uncertainty over Gresham's future after the former ROH World Champion reportedly requested Tony Khan for his release.
With Blanchard and Gresham both potentially done with ROH, it remains to be seen if Cage remains a part of Nana's stable.
On a related note, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported Sunday that "there seems to be a lot of lack of communication between talent relations and talent" in AEW, citing stories of Marko Stunt, Cage, Joey Janela and now Gresham "not being able to get answers or responses" when they've reached out to AEW talent relations department.
Although Cage hasn't wrestled on AEW TV since October 2021, he remains under contract with the company. In February 2022, a report confirmed that AEW picked up the option year on Cage's contract, keeping him with AEW/ROH through early 2023.
After purchasing ROH in March, Khan explained his decision to move Cage from the AEW to the ROH roster.
"I really like Brian Cage, I've always really liked Brian Cage," Khan said. "It was funny because when I first started thinking this might be a possibility [purchasing ROH], I hadn't worked Brian Cage back into my plans yet. I couldn't tell Brian Cage [about ROH], especially when it's confidential. Based on where we were going with him I thought Team Taz are in a really strong position right now and with Swerve and Keith Lee coming in, it didn't make any sense having Brian fighting with Ricky and Will because right now Swerve had a great main event with Ricky and this week Will had a great main event with Keith [on Rampage]. It was a kick ass match and a kick ass situation after.
"For Brian, I didn't think it made sense for him around Taz and those guys anymore. I also thought him and Tully here could be a good situation, especially when FTR and Tully were done. It's funny because with the situation of confidentiality and stuff, I couldn't tell Brian I wanted to buy ROH and debut you and repackage you here until about a month ago. It's funny because Brian, gotta love Brian, he told the media I picked up his contract. I was like, 'Jesus Brian, why did you tell people that'? I never told him not to, but I also couldn't tell him what I was doing with it but I should've told him not to. That being said, I think it was good because people wanted to see him come back and it made it that much better."