A prehistoric war has encompassed All Elite Wrestling. Following Jurassic Express’s tag title loss to the Young Bucks in June, Christian Cage turned on Jungle Boy, attacking the young wrestler in brutal fashion. As he sat on the sidelines with his storyline injuries, Cage charmed the other-half of Jurassic Express, Luchasaurus, into doing his bidding. While Luchasaurus’s allegiances seemed to sway back to his long-time tag partner once he returned, he cemented his status as Cage’s right hand of destruction at AEW All Out by attacking Jungle Boy, costing him his long-awaited one-on-one match with Cage.
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Now minted as Jack Perry, the 25-year-old star got his chance to square off with Luchasaurus on an October edition of AEW Dynamite, but that result was marred due to interference from Cage. Perry and Luchasaurus are set to do battle once more this weekend, but this time within the confines of a steel cage.
Speaking to ComicBook.com’s Liam Crowley, Perry said that this upcoming clash is the biggest match of his career.
“I’ve got to wrestle for some championships. I’ve just been in there with a lot of the best wrestlers in the world, but this one for me has the most history behind it,” Perry said. “There’s an emotional tension in there. The fact that it’s in a steel cage kind of just amplifies the entire thing. I think as far as a singles match in AEW so far, I would say this is the biggest one for me.”
The steel cage setting is a rarity in AEW, as the young promotion has only held a handful of them.ย
“I was talking to The Young Bucks and apparently the way our cage is built is pretty unique because of the size of it,” Perry said. “It’s particularly tall. Everyone says it’s super tall once you get up there. The distance between the ropes and the cage is bigger than usual.”
Beyond studying the physical structure, Perry revealed that he’s been watching cage matches of the past to help prepare himself for AEW Full Gear.
“I watched the first AEW cage match, which was Wardlow and Cody,” Perry said. “I’m not even as big as Cody, but that was a dynamic of a bigger guy taking on a smaller guy, and that’s obviously what’s going on here. I wanted to get a feel of how that went for him. It looked a little rough. I’ve never had a cage match before. I imagine it’s going to hurt a fair bit, but I think it’s going to be worth it because I think this is really the only way that I can accomplish what I need to accomplish.”
While Perry and Luchasaurus have only been directly feuding since September, the entirety of this Jurassic Express implosion storyline has lasted for over five months now. As evident by programs with Chris Jericho and MJF or Kenny Omega and Hangman Page, AEW has never been shy about booking lengthy storylines, but this particular one had a bump in the road due to an ill-timed injury. Regardless, Perry said he has been satisfied with this feud’s pacing.
“I felt good about it. The thing I wish had not happened was that Christian had not got hurt because I feel like that slowed the momentum in a way,” Perry said. “I felt things were getting so hot and it was so fresh then. I personally really wanted to have that match [with Cage], and I think people really wanted to see it. We are going to do it one day, 100 percent. Whenever he’s cleared and ready to come back, I want him at 100 percent and I want to have the match that I think we all deserve. Obviously, it threw a little bit of a curve ball at us, him not really being cleared, but I’m happy with how it’s going.”
As Perry mentioned, that true singles bout with Cage is inevitable, but this AEW Full Gear bout represents the culmination this months-long program. Where the former AEW Tag Champion goes after the pay-per-view is uncertain, but that to-be-determined path will be uncharted territory regardless.
“It’s kind of hard to imagine it being done because I’ve been with [Luchasaurus] for three years. In a way, I still am with him. We’re kind of connected at the hip right now,” Perry said. “But once I finish with him and once I finish with Christian, for the first time since AEW started, I’ll really just be on my own and free to do whatever I want, which is exciting. It’s also scary in a way I guess, because I’ve always had kind of a support net to fall back on.”
In an ideal world, Perry says that lonely road leads him to singles gold.
“I think my goal is, at one point or another, to hold every belt that there is AEW,” Perry said. “I would just like to keep working up. I got the tag team belts out of the way early in the career. I like the TNT belt. I think that would be a cool one. I got to be the first challenger to the TNT champion when Cody Rhodes first won the belt, and that felt pretty cool. So I’d like to circle back around and maybe actually take it this time.”
Perry faces Luchasaurus inside a steel cage this Saturday, November 19th at AEW Full Gear.
