Posted on 6/30/126 by Colin Vassallo
Brian Cage sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast
Creative Studio in Los Angeles, California to discuss
winning the Mr. Nevada bodybuilding competition, being cast
in the new Steven Spielberg movie “Disclosure Day” with
Lance Archer, recovering from a knee injury, his AEW return,
wanting to become AEW World Champion, giving Sting his first
bump in AEW, how close he came to signing with WWE, and
more!
So you’re in the new Steven Spielberg film Disclosure Day.
How’d you get cast for this?
“So Chavo [Guerrero] hits me up for this TV show… And Chavo
is the guy in Hollywood when it comes to any wrestling
scene. He’s like the liaison for wrestling in Hollywood. So,
he hits me up for this TV show. It doesn’t happen. Well, it
was gonna happen. It gets postponed. And then he goes, ‘Hey,
I think you would fit really great for this role. Contact
this guy and get him everything he wants.’ So I email him. I
get everything he requests. Typical kind of like audition
situation, where after a few weeks go by, you don’t hear
anything, whatever. Easy come, easy go. So I’m in the gym
and all of a sudden, I get an email, and it’s, ‘Hey, I just
sat down and watched everything with the director. He
absolutely loves you, your look, your persona, your
charisma, and everything you do. He says you’re exactly
perfect, and exactly what he wants.’ Great email to get. And
he goes, give me a call immediately. So I call him, and
again, I don’t even know what the project is.”
You don’t know who the director is?
“Nothing. [They say] ‘Yeah, I was watching it, and Steven
loves you, loves you. He just wants you on the set, blah
blah blah.’ He keeps saying, Steven, I go, ‘Who’s Steven?’
He goes, ‘Oh, the director, Steven Spielberg.’ I went, wait,
what? Steven Spielberg’s watching my stuff and is like,
‘That’s it, I need Brian Cage in my movie.’ I go, this is
amazing. He goes, ‘[Spielberg] likes you so much, we want
you to work somebody else, preferably another big guy that
looks a different type of big than you. But instead of
casting it, we figured he just wants you, so you could just
pick whoever you want.’ So I was like, what about my buddy
Lance [Archer]? Because he was in some of the photos they
sent, my tag partner, and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, we did see him.
We thought he looked good.’ I go, I mean, I’m fine with
that. They’re okay. So then that’s how Lance got in the
movie, too.”
What are the goals now that you’re back in AEW?
“I definitely want to branch out and do more on my own, for
sure, because I know we’ve had a couple squash matches. I
did stuff with Lance, I just did that one tag match with
[Jake] Doyle, I do have a couple of different ideas. I do
want to incorporate more of this winning this bodybuilding
show. I mean the whole while too, I’ve always wanted to do
more like solo stuff, because I feel like that’s how I get
my stuff in. I feel like that’s how I stand out more, and
there’s a plethora, and I think I said this on the last
interview, too. There’s so much I feel like I haven’t done
in AEW, especially compared to my time in Lucha Underground
and Impact. Anywhere else, I feel like I’ve done so much
more.”
So, is the AEW world title something that you want?
“Oh, of course. But I mean, I guess even then, well, we have
so many titles there. I mean, I’ll take whatever I can get.
You know what I do really want to be part of this year, for
sure, is the Continental Classic. Obviously, that’s not
until the end of the year, but that’s something definitely I
want to. I would love to build up enough repertoire to have
an awesome Continental Classic run by the end of the year. ”
You recently re-signed a contract extension with AEW in 2024
and I know you talked about you were going back and forth.
Were you going to re-sign with AEW or were you going to go
to WWE? How close were you to going to WWE?
“I mean, there was a lot of interest, and it’s funny,
because I wanted to go there. I mean, you don’t know what
you’re gonna get either place. There’s no guarantees. They
could say that, you know, we’re gonna use you this way, that
way, whatever. But obviously, you don’t know anything. And
after going back and forth, all the different pros and cons,
a lot of stuff with AEW just seemed safer, if you will. It’s
pretty hard to have some sort of security in this business,
but I’m like, I’ve been here for a while; they just randomly
release anyone. A lot of the perks, so travel is way
[easier]; he [Tony Khan] pays for all the travel, so hotel,
ground transportation, and airfare, whereas WWE is just
airfare. We’re an actual independent contractor, so I can do
anything else outside of AEW, which is a plus too. Then I
felt like I don’t have a fear of getting released if I stay
here too long. The longer I feel like I can just keep
staying to have longevity.”
But ultimately it came down to job security?
“Big time, that’s the main one, and just longevity. It’s so
much more chill there. I mean, obviously, I haven’t been in
WWE for a long time, was there developmentally years ago,
many years ago. But it’s like if it’s not broke, don’t fix
it.”