Christian Cage is currently on the run of his life, putting on some of the greatest heel work AEW has ever seen.
Now at the twilight of his career, many fans are expecting Christian to retire from wrestling soon, but with the incredible work he is putting on, he could go on for years and years as a main event star.
Hopefully he has many years ahead of him, with many more matches as the faux-TNT Champion in his future.
However, his WWE career ended nearly a decade ago, when an errant kick by a former WWE Champion forced Christian to retire for nearly a decade, before an impossible return.
Christian’s Last WWE Match
Before he retired from wrestling in 2014, Christian wrestled his last WWE match on the March 24th, 2014 episode of Monday Night Raw.
Christian had been a constant presence on TV up until that point, wrestling in matches most weeks on Raw and Smackdown. He even competed inside the Elimination Chamber that year, battling Randy Orton and four other men for the WWE Championship.
He faced off in a fatal-4 way match against Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler, with the winner earning themselves a shot at the WWE Intercontinental Champion Big E the following week.
All four men in the match were former World Champions, making it one of the most star-studded matches on Raw in 2014.
Christian won his last match in WWE by pinning Dolph Ziggler following a Killswitch, and shook hands with Intercontinental Champion Big E after the match.
He may have become the number one contender, but that would be the last singles match he would ever wrestle in the WWE.
WWE announced Christian as being absent the next week due to injury and kept very quiet over the years about his absence. His match with Big E would never take place.
During the match, Christian had Dolph Ziggler down for the pin after a powerbomb, before Alberto Del Rio came up from behind and kicked him in the back of the head.
In a rare mistake from the former WWE Champion, he didn’t pull his kick early enough and hit the Canadian star full force in his skull. He suffered a huge concussion that WWE never mentioned and would eventually lead him to retire from wrestling for seven years.
Christian would never outwardly retire, although later that year Jerry Lawler did refer to him as “retired” on an episode of Monday Night Raw.
Captain Charisma stayed away from the ring for many years, only returning to the WWE to take part in episodes of “The Peep Show”, his WWE talk show which is used to help further storylines.
It was revealed that concussion issues were the cause of his retirement. The kick by Del Rio, while not deliberate, was what ended the career of Christian in the WWE.
He did “wrestle” a match againt Randy Orton in 2020, although he did not take a single bump, perform any moves and it can barely be classified as a match.
And that was that… except it wasn’t. Despite all odds, and like his friend/fake brother the year before him, Christian made a shocking return at the 2021 Royal Rumble match, wrestling his first match for 7 years and his last inside a WWE ring.
He entered the Royal Rumble match at number 24 and put on an impressive display, lasting 18 minutes. Christian reunited with long-time tag team partner Edge during the match. It was an emotional moment for both men, who had come back from injuries that forced them to retire within the past year.
He looked good in the ring by WWE elected not to sign him. Christian left the WWE immediately after his big comeback, signing for AEW and making his debut as Christian Cage at AEW Revolution 2021.
He has since turned heel in AEW, and currently manages TNT Champion Luchasaurus on a weekly basis.
Infuriatingly, Christian Cage now claims himself to be TNT Champion, despite failing to win the title on multiple occasions.
The former World Heavyweight Champion is doing some of his best work, nearly a decade after his last WWE match before retiring from wrestling.