Nick Gage certainly had an eventful debut in AEW. He was the 2nd Labor of Jericho and created one of the most notable moments of accidental product placement in wrestling history. Gage appeared on Sean Waltman’s “Pro Wrestling 4 Life” podcast and spoke about his experience.
“I was fired up. I was born for that moment. The AEW locker room is awesome. The boys are great. I never felt like I was unwelcome or anything, so that was cool. I was able to focus on what I wanted to do. Then, they were able to let me be…I’m gonna be Nick Gage. They brought me in to be Nick Gage. If you don’t want me to be Nick Gage, I’m going to leave. I felt great and I was fired up. That match was great. Shoutout to Chris Jericho for being a tough dude. It was awesome,” he said (transcriptions via Fightful).
Gage then spoke about what Tony Khan said to him backstage.
“Tony came up to me all fired up. As soon as I got to the back, he came up to me, I looked that man dead in his eyes and I said, ‘You’ve got something awesome going here. Thank you for making me feel at home.’ I was fired up. He said, ‘Thank you, what an awesome match.’ He showed me nothing but love.”
The following day, Gage carving up Jericho in picture-in-picture during an ad for Dominos made a lot of headlines. Gage said he wasn’t even aware of the situation until much later. When he did find out he thought it was a funny coincidence.
The 3rd Labor of Jericho will take place tonight on Dynamite. Jericho will take on his old rival from WCW, Juventud Guerrera.