Christian Cage retains Impact World Championship at Victory Road, next challenger emerges

Christian Cage defended the Impact World Championship in the main event of Victory Road. The challenger was a talented speedster in Ace Austin, who was looking to become the youngest world champ in Impact history at 24 years of age. Cage has wrestled longer that Ace has been alive, and that veteran experience proved to be the key ingredient to success in the end.

Ace tried to use his speed early, but Christian stifled him with crafty movements for early control.

Ace was able to create space with amazing agility to unleash kicks. It also helped that Madman Fulton was ringside as an imposing presence deserving of Christian’s attention. Ace went dirty with eye gouges and card tricks to slice between Christian’s fingers. When Ace knocked Christian out of the ring, Fulton was ready to put hands on the champ. The referee noticed impending physicality and preemptively ejected Fulton.

Back in the ring, Christian rallied with a tornado DDT, flying European uppercut, and punches in the corner. The champ ducked a head kick to counter with an inverted DDT. Christian charged for a spear, but Ace leapfrogged over the top and unloaded a springboard kick.

Christian still maintained the upper hand and climbed for a frog splash. Ace rolled away as the champ crashed to the mat. Ace pounced for The Fold finisher, but Christian exploded for a spear. 1, 2, Ace shockingly kicked out.

On a referee break in the corner, Ace poked Christian in the eye. Fulton returned to crank Christian’s neck on the ropes. That set an opportunity for Ace to connect on a twisting corkscrew senton. 1, 2, Christian surprisingly kicked out. If there was going to be a new champ, that was the moment.

Christian reversed an Irish whip to send Ace smashing head first into the turnbuckles. On the bounce back, Christian ended the match with the Unprettier to retain.

The night wasn’t over yet for Christian. During his celebration, Josh Alexander’s music hit. The X-Division champ was fresh off a defense against Chris Sabin. He grabbed a mic to declare Option C.

That means Alexander is trading in the X-Division strap for a world title shot. The match was made official as the main event for the Bound for Glory PPV on October 23.

That was a nifty contest between Christian and Ace. I went in thinking Ace had no shot at winning, then they sucked me in to believing a title change was a fraction of a second away. Ace would have been a quality candidate for Christian to pass the torch, however, Alexander is an even better choice. That is going to be a fantastic main event at Bound for Glory. I’m siding with Christian as the favorite, but it is a close call. Alexander has racked together a string of amazing contests to show he is ready to carry the ball as the face of Impact.

Is Christian versus Alexander a good choice as the main event for Bound for Glory? Who is your early pick to win?