Christian signs multi-year deal with AEW

Going into tonight’s Revolution pay-per-view, AEW promised to unveil a Hall of Fame-worthy signee.

That ended up being Christian (real name Jay Reso), who has signed a multi-year deal with AEW. He’s using the name Christian Cage in the promotion.

Christian was introduced by Paul Wight at tonight’s PPV. Christian signed his AEW contract and revealed a T-shirt that said “Out. Work. Everyone.” but didn’t speak during the appearance

The 47-year-old Christian had been cleared to return to the ring as an entrant in WWE’s men’s Royal Rumble match this January. He made it to the final four of the match along with Edge, Randy Orton, and Seth Rollins. Aside from a brief “unsanctioned match” against Randy Orton last year, the Royal Rumble was the first time Christian has wrestled since retiring due to concussion issues in 2014.

During an appearance on Busted Open Radio ahead of Revolution, AEW president and CEO Tony Khan said about the Hall of Fame-worthy signee: 

I’ll say one thing, it’s one of my all-time favorite wrestlers, I tipped it on (AEW) Unrestricted, I tipped that it was a male. He’s coming, he’s going to do great things for us. He’s committed, he’s going to sign a contract Sunday at Revolution on pay-per-view, and we’re going to have all these great matches, and we will have this big news coming out of the show.

Christian is a former two-time World Heavyweight Champion in WWE, a nine-time former Tag Team Champion in WWE (including seven Tag Team title reigns with Edge), and a four-time former Intercontinental Champion. He also spent a portion of his career outside of WWE from 2005-2009, including a run in TNA Wrestling where he held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship twice as Christian Cage.