Brian Cage

Brian Cage
Birth name Brian Christopher Button[1][2]
Born February 2, 1984 (age 30)[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Brian Cage[3]
Brian Cage-Taylor[3]
Cage[4]
John Cage[3]
Kris Logan[3]
Night Claw[3]
Billed height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[5]
Billed weight 230 lb (100 kg)[5]
Billed from Chico, Ca[5]
Trained by Norman Smiley[6]
Tom Prichard[6]
Chris Kanyon[7]
"Old School" Oliver John[8]
MR. Prime Time[9][10]
Debut July 15, 2005

Brian Christopher Button[1][2] (born February 2, 1984)[1] is an American professional wrestler and body builder,[11] best known as Brian Cage.[3] He performs regularly for the Southern California-based promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he is a former one-time World Tag Team Champion with Michael Elgin. Cage also wrestled under the name Kris Logan at Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW),[2] and has made appearances for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

Professional wrestling career

Early career (2004–2008)

Cage's love of professional wrestling and desire to be a wrestler began with watching it on television as a kid. During those early year Cage became friends with the late Chris Kanyon following a show that was held in Sacramento at Arco Arena where he made a sign that Kanyon noticed. Kanyon then became Cage's biggest advocate in his decision to pursue professional wrestling as a career.[7] This eventually led to him and his friends starting their own Federation in 2004 called Main-Event Wrestling Federation (MWF).[2] Cage's wrestling debut happened at an MWF show, against Kanyon.[7] This eventually lead to a second show where Kanyon once again faced Cage. Cage ended up winning both matches against Kanyon. During this time, Cage had been training at Pro Championship Wrestling.[2] Also, Cage competed at All Pro Wrestling.[2] This continued until Cage, under Kanyon's advise, left to move to Atlanta to be in WWE's then developmental territory Deep South Wrestling.[2]

While not officially signed with Deep South Wrestling, Cage competed in matches with others WWE wrestlers.[3][2] When WWE ended its ties with DSW, Cage left to come back to California.[12] However, before Cage left Kanyon asked Cage to become Mortis so that someday if Kanyon ever decided to make a come back that he could still have his name out there.[7] Cage is the only person other than Kanyon that has portrayed the Mortis character.[7]

Cage again came back to California and worked with promotions such as All Pro Wrestling, Supreme Pro Wrestling, and Fog City Wrestling.[2]

World Wrestling Entertainment (2008–2009)

In June 2008, WWE signed Cage to a developmental contract and would then report to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling.[2] When Cage first started with FCW he was using the name Brian Cage but was eventually asked to change it and came up with the name Kris Logan.[3] The name Kris Logan was made to give homage to Chris Kanyon, with the Logan part due to his similar appearance the Marvel Comics Wolverine, along with the outfit that he wore which sported yellow tights with claw marks.[7] On July 23, 2009, Logan and Justin Gabriel defeated The Dude Busters (Caylen Croft and Trent Barreta) to become FCW Florida Tag Team Champions. However, they lost the title that same night against The Rotundos (Bo Rotundo and Duke Rotundo). Later, Cage would then come up with a new character Night Claw. The Night Claw character was seen in a few matches and was supposed to be used during the time that Hurricane was still active in WWE. However, this did not occur as Cage was eventually released from his contract in mid September 2009 for unknown reasons.[2]

Return to independent circuit (2009–present)

Upon his release from WWE, Cage returned to the independent wrestling circuit and even competed in Asia. Cage would return to the Main Event Wrestling wrestling promotion where he would win the Main Event Wrestling California Cup where he beat Ryan Taylor, Joey Ryan, and finally T.J. Perkins.[13] In October 2010, Cage wrestled and won a match against Kenny Dykstra at Main Event Wrestling in internet pay-per-view.[14]

Cage would then join the NWA Hollywood promotion where he would team up with Shaun Ricker to form the tag team Natural Selection managed by Percy Pringle III.[15] Towards the end of 2011, the team would split as Cage would feud with Ricker and would leave Cage as a single competitor.

Cage has also competed in other various promotions such as Future Stars of Wrestling.[16] Cage had a feud with Brandon Gatson who would then compete against in a match on January 21, 2012 that was called the Match of the Year.[17] Cage also competed in Pro Championship Wrestling which during his first few months there Cage began a feud with A.J. Kirsch of WWE Tough Enough TV fame. The feud between the two occurred due to a match from a PCW and a rivalry that started when the two of them trained together at the PCW training facility called the Workfarm.[18][19][20] Cage and Kirsch wrestled for 10 minutes which lead to a time limit draw.On Feb 19 2015, Brian Cage beat Matt Hardy in a TLC match to capture the Future Stars Of Wrestling Heavyweight Championship

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (2010–present)

Cage made his Pro Wrestling Guerrilla debut on July 30, 2010, against Brandon Bonham at Seven in a losing effort. In his next match, he lost once more to Bonham in the 2010 Battle of Los Angeles opening round.[21] Soon after, Cage would form a stable with Chuck Taylor and Ryan Taylor known as the Fightin' Taylor Boys, adding the last name to his own and becoming Brian Cage-Taylor. The group found occasional success (with Brian and Ryan doing most of the teaming), but were never challengers to the PWG World Tag Team Championship.

At Death to All But Metal on May 25, 2012, Cage (no longer using the "Taylor" moniker) received his first PWG World Championship title shot against champion Kevin Steen.[22][23] At Threemendous III on July 21, Cage defeated Eddie Edwards before interfering in Kevin Steen's title defense against Willie Mack, attacking both men. On September 1, on the first night of the 2012 Battle of Los Angeles, Cage defeated B-Boy to advance to the quarterfinal round before interfering in yet another Steen match, causing a non-title loss against Ricochet.[24] The following day, Cage was eliminated from the tournament by Michael Elgin, following interference from Steen.[25] At Failure to Communicate on October 27, Cage defeated Willie Mack, with whom he had been feuding since July.[26]

On January 12, 2013, Cage and Michael Elgin formed a team called the Unbreakable F'n Machines (a name derived from both wrestlers' nicknames) and participated in the 2013 Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament. In the opening round, they captured the PWG World Tag Team Championship by beating the previous year's winners, the Super Smash Bros. (Player Uno and Stupefied).[27] The Unbreakable F'n Machines then lost the championship to The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) in the semifinal round of the tournament later that same day.[27]

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2012, 2013)

On August 30, 2012 Cage competed in a dark match against Robbie E in a losing effort. Cage appeared on the January 10, 2013 edition of Impact Wrestling in a TNA Gut Check match in a losing effort against Jay Bradley. Cage appeared again in TNA On June 26 Destination X tapings but lost in a three way match.

Lucha Underground (2014–present)

On October 5, 2014, it was reported that Cage had signed with Lucha Underground.[28] He debuted under the ring name Cage at the October 18 tapings winning a 4-way Elimination Match against Aero Star, Argenis and Angélico which was broadcast on January 14, 2015.[4] Though he started the night seemingly as a dominate face, by the end of the night he attacked Prince Puma, cementing his status as a dominant heel.[29] On the January 28 broadcast Cage received a shot at Puma's Lucha Underground Championship, but lost by disqualification, laying out both Puma and his manager Konnan afterwards. Weeks later, Cage defeated Puma in a non-title match to earn himself another title opportunity. The title match took place on the March 25 episode in a street fight, which saw Puma retain his title against Cage.[30]

Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (2015–present)

On February 27, 2015, Cage made his debut for the Mexican promotion Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), pinning AAA Mega Champion El Patrón Alberto in a six-man tag team main event.[31] On April 1, Cage defeated Alberto again with help from La Sociedad in a match that was originally scheduled to take place at Rey de Reyes. After the match, Cage demanded a shot at Alberto's title.[32]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

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  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 Brian Cage Profile, Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 6-19-2010.
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External links