Impact Wrestling announced that “The Machine” had been rushed to the emergency room and promised to update the fans once more information came out.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirmed that the injury was legitimate as Cage suffered a back injury due to a Spanish Fly spot the new world champion took from the stage onto the floor.
Cage seemed to be moving slower throughout the match after the big move, but he ultimately finished the bout. However, it was noted that Elgin’s powerbomb after the match further aggravated the injury as Meltzer notes that Cage couldn't even walk himself after the segment was said and done. Brian Cage's fiancee Melissa Santos confirmed his back injury shortly after:
Cage joined David LaGreca and Bully Ray on
Busted Open Radio and shared the details of his injury. Cage stated he never felt a pain like that in his life and explained how difficult it was for him to move around the ring (transcript courtesy of
Fightful.com):
“So right away, right when we hit, I’m rolling and I feel the pain shoot down my leg and my… just a feeling I’ve never had before in my life. I’m instantly thinking ruptured disk or whatever. My back is f*cked and I’m gonna have to have surgery or something." Cage expressed.
"Sorry I dropped the f-bomb there but, and [then I’m thinking], ‘Maybe it’ll go away’ and just trying to enter the ring after that moment and I’m bleeding and what not. Rolling into the ring, turning my hip over and trying to get up, I just felt like there was no strength there and the pain shot down my leg again. I was like, ‘Crap’, but it felt almost a little bit better so that gave me a tiny bit [of] help.
"I’m like, ‘Okay, well, maybe it’ll [go away] in a second. Maybe it’s just a flash thing', and then, I think I was in a corner and I evaded Johnny and I was trying to move and I couldn’t. I just felt so slow and no pun intended, so robotic in my mannerisms and movement because of the pain [like], 'Okay, this is serious’, and again, just like I said during the opening of the interview, I didn’t know to what degree. ‘Am I gonna need back surgery now? Like what’s wrong? What’s going on?' I don’t know because I’ve never had this type of pain in my back and also, it felt nerve-related so-to-speak.”
The new Impact World champion reveals that the doctors told him that he might have a severe inflammation and a bone fracture, along with a possible small fracture:
“Yeah it doesn’t look like I’m going out. The way I looked at it, he [the Doctor] goes, ‘Look, I think you’re gonna be fine. I think you have severe inflammation and [a] bone bruise. There could be a small fracture there’. He goes, ‘I would like to rule that out. However, if it’s a fracture, I don’t see it being any major fracture’ and then he goes, ‘Even then, it’s not much you can do for that.”
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