Brian Cage Admits PED & Steroid Use

Candid comments from Brian Cage.

The latest episode of The @smoothvega Podcast is an extensive interview with Brian Cage. As the conversation moved along, he shared that he has used performance-enhancing drugs.

Cage feels people look at PEDs in the wrong light. He then dove into why he thinks steroids get a bad rap and added that there are a bunch of people who pass away from alcohol and even fast food.

“I’ll even just throw in this too because I know people will all say this — I don’t care — I wanna be more open about this. Everybody goes, ‘Oh! You just take steroids!’ If you just did a one-shot cycle like I call it, like Captain America… guess what? Gyms wouldn’t exist and everyone would be on steroids. Do steroids work? Absolutely. Have I taken PEDs? Absolutely. I’ve never said I haven’t. People try to judge me. I feel like that’s a thing too. People try to call you out as if you would keep it a secret. (Have) PEDs got me to where I am? Absolutely not, and when people say, oh! I’m so gassed up — even my return. I’ve only been on T.R.T. forever now. I’m 42 years old. T.R.T. too has been phenomenal, has been a game-changer for so many people as far as — not in the athletic realm — but just in day-to-day practice. Why everyone looks better, moves better, feels better, everything, and that’s why they lower the classification — I’m just going in right now — on the scheduled drug list.” Cage continued, “I feel like there’s a very taboo thing with PEDs where it’s ‘cheating,’ and people act like it gives you all this magical abilities, just overnight, without doing anything and I feel like they’re just looked at very wrong, and definitely misrepresented, and then also, people act like they’re so horrible for you, which again, there’s definitely health risks involved. I mean, there’s health risks with everything you do and take. But it’s funny how, ‘Oh, if you take a steroid, you’re gonna die. Oh, your heart’s gonna explode at 40’ or this, that, whatever the case… You ask somebody, ‘How many people do you personally know have ever died from any steroid?’ They probably aren’t gonna know anybody. ‘How many people do you know have died from alcohol? From cocaine? From this drug, from that drug, from this, from that? From freaking fast food?’ Copious amount. But again, since that’s ‘normal,’ that’s not looked at as bad as steroids and I feel like because there’s just this taboo and this, ‘You’re not supposed to do it and it’s cheating –’ I don’t know.”

The AEW talent would go on to confirm that he has used steroids. The first time he did it was after a bodybuilding show, and it was his coach who encouraged him to indulge. Cage then shared his thoughts about ‘roid rage’ and said he thinks it’s ‘kind of bullsh*t.’

“Let me just dial this back too: It’s funny because — so everyone thought I was on steroids for so long, when I was coming up, even on the indies in Northern California, because I was in shape, I looked the part and funny enough, so many people were on steroids — just on the independents, right? And they looked like absolute dog sh*t so since I looked good and they looked bad, they’re like, ‘Well, he must be on all the sh*t,’ and I’m like, ‘No, I’m just doing everything you’re supposed to do…’ and because I’ve always been straight-edge for everything, I don’t wanna take it. I knew if I was gonna do anything, it would be eventually that… I didn’t even take my first shot until after my very first bodybuilding show — it’s actually after the show that I did it — to post-show rebound because my coach was like, ‘Oh! You should do it! You should do it,’ and I go, ‘Man, I don’t know. I don’t know,’ and I had a really bad temper in high school and stuff when I was younger, and that was one of the reasons too why I never wanted to do it… because of roid rage. Which also, sorry to tell ya, it’s kind of bullsh*t. I’ve never had any sort of — if anything, I’d have more rage prepping for a show and just being hungry. Now, I think more with that, just like how some people could be fun drunks or asshole drunks or whatever else, I think they just let their guard down… You become more of an asshole when you’re drunk because you are just an asshole, and you just go, oh! You justify being drunk to be able to be a full asshole so I think it’s the same thing. If people are on some sort of cycle, and they’re just already an asshole, they just openly just do whatever the f*ck they want to be an asshole because, like, oh! It’s okay — not that it’s just okay but, oh, it’s not my fault; I’m on steroids, you know what I mean? I’ve never taken anything where I’m like, oh! I’m gonna kill somebody! I don’t believe in it.”

That led to the subject of the Chris Benoit double murder-suicide coming up. Cage shared his opinion that steroids did not have much to do with Chris taking the lives of Nancy and Daniel Benoit.

He spoke about wrestlers from the 80s and 90s who passed away and said people are quick to blame steroids, but do not consider the drinking, pills, and other factors that led to the deterioration of those individuals’ health.

“Even when it happened… I wasn’t taking any steroids then but right away, I go, ‘That’s not a roid rage thing,’” Cage said about Chris Benoit’s double murder and suicide. “First of all, like I said, I don’t fully believe in it but also, a roid rage thing wouldn’t be a three-day, premeditated setup; kill your wife, kill your son. A roid rage thing, on paper, would have been (that) they would have been in an argument and he would have beat the f*ck out of her. That would have been a roid rage moment, you know what I mean? That would have been the end of it. Because then still, you would have, like, aw sh*t, what I’d do? You have a comedown from it. But yeah, obviously, there was a lot going on, especially with the autopsy and this and that but everybody just blamed it on steroids… Of course steroids gets attacked and I’ll see it and I’m like, ‘That had nothing, nothing to do with steroids,’ and even all the deaths in wrestling, obviously again, you’re gonna have effects from stuff from taking steroids. But even from all the 80s and 90s guys who have had so many different health issues and who have passed away, did steroids play a role in it? Ah, maybe, but also, let’s not forget about all the drinking and all the drugs and all the freaking painkillers and uppers and downers and Xanax and all this stuff that they’re taking and mixing together. Pretty sure they probably had a bigger thing to do with it than everything else. They all were partying like rockstars… and you just mix it all together; of course it’s not gonna go well.”

The 42-year-old Cage was last in action for AEW on the September 5th episode of Collision. He teamed up with fellow Don Callis Family member Jake Doyle, and they fell in defeat to The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson).

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The @smoothvega Podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.