AEW Nearly Had Impact World Champion Brian Cage Appear at Double or Nothing

From Bret Hart revealing the AEW World Championship to Jon Moxley closing out the show with his surprise debut, All Elite Wrestling had plenty of surprises for its inaugural pay-per-view, Double or Nothing, back on May 25. But according to PWInsider's Mike Johnson, there was almost one more.

Impact Wrestling's Brian Cage, who just won the Impact World Champion in late April at the Rebellion event, was reportedly booked to compete in the 21-man Casino Battle Royale during the kickoff show. However he was stopped backstage at the event by Impact Wrestling officials, who cited that his contract prevented him from appearing.

Cage was one of several Impact wrestlers who participated in Double or Nothing's predecessor, All In, back in September. But with AEW now its own company with a television program on the way, it appears the dividing lines are being drawn.

Johnson also pointed out that while Tommy Dreamer is a member of Impact's creative team (and is listed as a member of the roster on the company website), is not under contract with Impact, hence why he was able to compete in the battle royale.

Adam Page, fresh off having his scheduled match with Pac get cancelled earlier in the week, wound up winning the match to earn himself a spot in the first-ever AEW World Championship match. He'll take on Chris Jericho for the title at the All Out pay-per-view on Aug. 31.

According to Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, the show nearly had 100,000 pay-per-view buys, virtually unheard of for any company not named WWE or WCW.

AEW president Tony Khan recently appeared on Busted Open Radio to discuss the company's future, saying everything has gone according to plan thus far.

"The next step in the plan was to get a TV launch, so everything has gone into plan. I am sure there will be things that won't work out our plan, but everybody that I wanted we have on our roster," Khan said. "To me, I can't believe we did it but we have done it. We got all of the performers essentially that you wanted to get to headline the shows that are going to be the guys that will be there week in and week out for the TV show and we have a deep roster too. I have always talked about not doing a lot of five, six nights a week touring and keeping the wrestlers away from their homes, their families and other things they have going on in their life."