Brian Cage Reveals WWE Once Told Him He Was "Average At Best"

While Brian Cage currently finds himself under contract in AEW/ROH, The Machine previously spent a short time as part of WWE developmental from 2008 until his release in 2009.

Despite WWE letting him go, the company approached him about being on the 2010 edition of Tough Enough and season three of NXT but he wasn't added to the NXT show as Vince McMahon's organisation suddenly told him he was "average at best."

"They did reach out to me and they were going to put me on Tough Enough, the first one they brought Stone Cold back for, and then they took me off the list. And then they came to Fresno when I was living there and they invited me down, and I thought they were going to bring me back," Cage said on Insight with Chris Van Vliet.

"I remember they wanted me to be part of NXT season three, before it became all girls, and then they changed their minds on that. It went back and forth, and then finally I got a message saying 'oh, never mind. We're no longer interested.' I was like 'what do you mean? What happened?' And they're like 'oh, you're average at best and we're no longer interested,'" Cage continued.

"I was so heated. I kept it as professional as I could, but there's a lot I wanted to say. But I was like 'alright, well I think you and I both know I'm better than average. But that's fine. I appreciate you getting back to me and maybe we'll work together again in the future.' That's what made me go 'look, I'm not shutting the door on them.' But that's when my desire to get back there, it went away. I felt like, actually, my life professionally and personally excelled once I finally let go of that 'oh my gosh, I have to be there, I have to be there.' Everything just started working out and getting better and better."

WWE would approach Cage again for a potential tryout but The Machine turned them down since he was signed with Lucha Underground and AAA. 

H/T to Wrestling Inc.