Brian Cage
Brian Christopher Joseph Button, better known by the ring name Brian Cage, is an American professional wrestler and bodybuilder. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling, where he is a member of The Don Callis Family and one-half of The Murder Machines with Lance Archer. He is currently out of action due to a torn quadriceps tendon. Button is a former one-time FTW Champion. He also performs in AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor, where he is a former ROH World Television Champion and a former two-time ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion. He also competes on the independent circuit.
Button signed with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2008 and was assigned to their farm territory Florida Championship Wrestling, where he worked as Kris Logan. He left the promotion the following year and began working in the American independent circuit, most notably Pro Wrestling Guerrilla as Brian Cage-Taylor. In 2014, Button was hired to appear in El Rey Network television series Lucha Underground, where he performed as Cage. Since Lucha Underground was created by Mexican promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, he appeared on several AAA shows. Also, Cage appeared on AAA's American partner Impact Wrestling where he is a former Impact World Champion and a former Impact X Division Champion.
Early life
Brian Christopher Joseph Button was born on February 2, 1984, in Chico, California. He is a 2002 graduate of Pleasant Valley High School, the same year as Aaron Rodgers.Professional wrestling career
Early career (2004–2008)
Cage's love of professional wrestling and desire to be a wrestler began with watching it on television as a child. During those early years Cage became friends with Chris Kanyon following a show that was held in Sacramento at Arco Arena where he made a sign that Kanyon noticed. Kanyon then became Cage's biggest advocate in his decision to pursue professional wrestling as a career. This eventually led to him and his friends starting their own Federation in 2004 called Main-Event Wrestling Federation in Chico, California. Cage's wrestling debut happened at an MWF show, against Kanyon. This eventually led to a second show where Kanyon once again faced Cage. Cage ended up winning both matches against Kanyon. During this time, Cage had been training at Pro Championship Wrestling. Also, Cage competed at All Pro Wrestling. This continued until Cage, under Kanyon's advice, left to move to Atlanta to be in WWE's then developmental territory Deep South Wrestling.While not officially signed with Deep South Wrestling, Cage competed in matches with other WWE wrestlers. When WWE ended its ties with DSW, Cage left to come back to California. However, before Cage left, Kanyon asked Cage to become Mortis so that someday if Kanyon ever decided to make a comeback that he could still have his name out there. Cage is the only person other than Kanyon that has portrayed the Mortis character.
Cage again came back to California and worked with promotions such as All Pro Wrestling, Supreme Pro Wrestling, and Fog City Wrestling.
WWE (2008–2009)
In June 2008, WWE signed Cage to a developmental contract, he reported to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, based in Tampa. When Cage first started with FCW he was using the name Brian Cage but was eventually asked to change it and came up with the name Kris Logan. The name Kris Logan was made to give homage to Chris Kanyon, with the Logan part due to his similar appearance to the Marvel Comics character Wolverine, along with the outfit that he wore which sported yellow tights with claw marks. On July 23, 2009, Logan and Justin Gabriel defeated The Dude Busters to become FCW Florida Tag Team Champions. However, they lost the title that same night against The Rotundos. Later, Cage would then come up with a new character Night Claw. The Night Claw character was seen in a few matches and was supposed to be used during the time that Hurricane was still active in WWE. However, this did not occur as Cage was eventually released from his contract in September 2009.Independent circuit (2009–2020)
Upon his release from WWE, Cage returned to the independent wrestling circuit and even competed in Asia. Cage would return to the Main Event Wrestling wrestling promotion where he would win the Main Event Wrestling California Cup where he beat Ryan Taylor, Joey Ryan, and finally T.J. Perkins. In October 2010, Cage wrestled and won a match against Kenny Dykstra at Main Event Wrestling in internet pay-per-view.Cage would then join the NWA Hollywood promotion where he would team up with Shaun Ricker to form the tag team Natural Selection managed by Percy Pringle III. Towards the end of 2011, the team would split as Cage would feud with Ricker and would leave Cage as a single competitor.
Cage has also competed in other various promotions such as Future Stars of Wrestling. Cage had a feud with Brandon Gatson who would then compete against in a match on January 21, 2012, that was called the Match of the Year.
In May 2017, Cage started working for Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling Noah. On July 27, Cage unsuccessfully challenged Katsuhiko Nakajima for the GHC Heavyweight Championship.
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
Fightin' Taylor Boys (2010–2012)
Cage made his Pro Wrestling Guerrilla debut on July 30, 2010, against Brandon Bonham at Seven in a losing effort. In his next match, he lost once more to Bonham in the opening round of the Battle of Los Angeles tournament. Soon after, Cage would form a stable with Chuck Taylor and Ryan Taylor known as the Fightin' Taylor Boys, adding the last name to his own and becoming Brian Cage-Taylor. The group found occasional success, but were never challengers to the World Tag Team Championship. Brian also competed in various singles matches during the time including a Joey Ryan Invitational at Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament on March 4, 2011, but was eliminated by his teammate Ryan Taylor. The group quietly ended after losing to The RockNES Monsters in the opening round of the 2012 DDT4 tournament, and went their separate ways.At Death to All But Metal on May 25, 2012, Cage received his first PWG World Championship title shot against champion Kevin Steen but lost. At Threemendous III on July 21, Cage defeated Eddie Edwards before interfering in Steen's title defense against Willie Mack, attacking both men. On September 1, on the first night of the Battle of Los Angeles, Cage defeated B-Boy to advance to the quarterfinal round before interfering in yet another Steen match, causing a non-title loss against Ricochet. The following day, Cage was eliminated from the tournament by Michael Elgin, following interference from Steen. At Failure to Communicate on October 27, Cage defeated Willie Mack, with whom he had been feuding since July.
Unbreakable F'N Machines (2013–2017)
On January 12, 2013, Cage and Michael Elgin formed a team called the Unbreakable F'N Machines and participated in the 2013 Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament. In the opening round, they captured the PWG World Tag Team Championship by beating the previous year's winners, the Super Smash Bros.. However, they lost the championship to the eventual tournament winners The Young Bucks in the semifinal round of the tournament later that same day. Unbreakable F'N Machines were regular fixtures in PWG's tag team division, competing in various tag team and six-man tag team matches throughout the year. Cage also continued to participate in singles competition, participating in that year's Battle of Los Angeles tournament, in which he defeated Tommaso Ciampa in the first round but lost to Drake Younger in the quarter-final.Unbreakable F'N Machines participated in the 2014 Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament on January 31, 2014, by defeating PPRay in the quarter-final but lost to The Inner City Machine Guns in the semi-final round. At Mystery Vortex II, Unbreakable F'N Machines defeated Inner City Machine Guns and African-American Wolves in a three-way match. Following that, the team quietly disbanded as Cage and Elgin went their separate ways. After winning three back-to-back matches in late 2014 and early 2015, Cage earned a PWG World Championship title shot against Roderick Strong in a three-way match, also involving Chris Hero at Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament on May 22, 2015. However, Cage failed to win the title as he was pinned by Strong. Cage continued his domination in singles competition, leading to him participating in his fourth Battle of Los Angeles tournament in the 2015 edition in August. Cage defeated Aero Star in the first round but lost to Jack Evans in the second round.
Unbreakable F'N Machines reunited in PWG at All Star Weekend 11, winning their matches on both nights of the event, defeating The Wolves on the first night, and [|Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa] on the second night. Cage sporadically competed in PWG in 2016, wrestling only twice that year. Unbreakable F'N Machines returned as a team in PWG again in 2017, wrestling three more matches. Cage would then participate in the 2017 Battle of Los Angeles tournament, marking his fifth appearance in the tournament. However, he was eliminated by Dezmond Xavier in the first round. Cage's last appearance to date in PWG occurred at All Star Weekend 13, where he lost to Morgan Webster.