Indie wrestler Matt Cage wasn’t in the mood to let something slide. During a Zero1 Pro Wrestling USA event in Illinois on July 31, Cage says a fan, a white woman, called him a racial slur loudly, twice, while he was performing at the show. Rather than let it go, Cage grabbed the mic before his own match and gave her a direct, unfiltered response in front of the entire building, one that ended with her apologizing on the mic herself. He’s since made clear he isn’t accepting it.
“She Fixed Her Lips to Call Me a N*****”
Cage, who is Black and an out gay man, opened by naming exactly what he wasn’t going to tolerate.
“If there’s one thing that I can’t stand, it’s some bigotry,” Cage said. “If there’s one thing that I can’t stand in the year of our Lord 2026, it’s somebody that has the gall to open up their toothless, stank-ass, halitosis breath to say anything to me with some bigotry.”
He then turned and pointed the fan out directly.
“That brings my attention to this woman over here, and it’s so interesting that you have a cane, which means that you probably have trouble walking. But let me walk you through this real quick, sweetheart. I’m about to make y’all uncomfortable; she just made me uncomfortable. She fixed her lips to call me a N*****.”
Cage wasn’t finished. He stated his pride in who he is, then challenged the fan to repeat herself to his face.
“I’m proud of who the f*** I am. Can you say the same? Well, why don’t you stand up without that cane and say it to my face again? Call me a N***** again,” Cage said. “Because I guarantee you this: if you do, it’ll be the last time that you ever fix your lips to say those words to anyone of any race in this building.”
According to those in attendance, the fan didn’t respond while Cage was speaking directly to her. He gave her a chance to make it right, and she took it, offering only two words back: “I apologize.”
Not Ordinary Heel Heat
Cage later posted his own video of the confrontation to Instagram (@yourkingcage), and his caption laid out the full context, including a distinction he wanted to make clear. Cage works as a heel, wrestling’s term for the villain, and drawing a crowd’s anger is part of the job.
“As a performer in wrestling, if you’re the heel, you want to get the most reaction from the crowd for the work you’re doing as possible,” Cage wrote. “I’ve had fans, even that night, ready to fight me because I am damn good at my job.”
Then he drew the line. “But no matter how you cut it, racism just isn’t gonna cut it,” he wrote. “There’s never a rhyme, reason, or excuse.”
He also made clear this wasn’t the first time he’s faced this kind of abuse in the ring. “This is just one of many I’ve dealt with,” Cage wrote. “I’ve been called a n*****, a f***** and everything in between.”
Why He Turned Down Having Her Removed
According to Cage, Zero1 management offered to have the fan thrown out of the building as soon as they found out what she’d said. He turned it down.
“Kudos to Zero1 management for immediately asking if I wanted her thrown out, but I wanted to make a statement about this to her face,” Cage wrote. “Throwing her out is easy. Making her feel embarrassed and sit in silence looking like a disheveled heap during my match with another Black talent, Jalon Strong, after chastising her in front of the whole crowd was a much better victory for me.”
On why he pushed for the apology in the first place rather than just walking away, Cage wrote that he “made the entire audience listen and understand that who and what she is, said, and how she exists is wrong,” adding that she “cowered into a scared little puddle” once the mic turned on her. “She apologized, and I made her do it because it’s the right thing to do,” he wrote. “But trust me, I do not accept it. That’s who you are.”
Cage closed his caption with a message to other performers: never hesitate to take control of your own situation. Given how this one played out, in front of a full crowd, with the fan sitting through the rest of the show having to watch him wrestle right after, it’s hard to argue with the results.
