At Victory Road, Christian Cage successfully retained his IMPACT World Title against Ace Austin in a hard-fought contest. But it was what happened after the match that sent shockwaves throughout the entire wrestling world. Just moments after the bell, Christian Cage was confronted by dominant X-Division Champion Josh Alexander, who also retained his title over X-Division veteran, Chris Sabin, earlier in the night.
While staring down Christian Cage, Alexander would exercise Option C, meaning that he would relinquish the X-Division Title for an IMPACT World Title opportunity. A match of this calibre could only take place on IMPACT Wrestling’s biggest stage of the year. We can now confirm that the match is official, Christian Cage will defend the IMPACT World Title against Josh Alexander at Bound For Glory.
After an impressive X-Division run, Josh Alexander is coming for the most coveted prize in TNA/Impact Wrestling and could become, on Saturday night, the ninth Triple Crown Champion in 19 years. Josh Alexander not only talked about Bound For Glory this Tuesday on a press pass, but he also shared with the media about his upcoming “Dream Match” against Christian, his X-Division run, transitioning from tag team to singles, and many more.
- On a Dream Match
“This match on Saturday at Bound For Glory is the biggest match of my career. If you took out the fact that it’s a legend not only on Impact Wrestling but in the sport of professional wrestling in Christian, me just being in the main event and wrestling for that World Championship will be the biggest match of my career. It gets even bigger and the pressure gets even higher when you add someone like Christian that I have to defeat in order to have that all materialized.
“The pressure is at its height. Anxiety’s high because I know that Christian has all of the experience, but I have the advantage of being someone that studied his entire career for the past 25 years, I’ve seen him nearly everything Christian’s done, and I know that I’m an advantage because I know he hasn’t quite been paying attention as much to me. So, we will have a good match on Saturday night. We’ll figure out who’s the best.
“People wanna see that IMPACT World Championship brought back home to this locker room, regardless of Christian’s history here in this company, he’s still a member of a different locker room when it’s all said in done. He’s stepping in here as a stranger to our locker room, so I think there’s a lot of fanfare behind me for that.”
- On (Maybe) Becoming a Triple Crown Champion
“In the first two and a half years of me being in this company, it’s something I never would have thought possible, but it’s something that’s definitely been on my mind. I’ve seen it mentioned here and there, and it would definitely be a nice feather in the cap as they say, but I can’t look past Saturday. It can break either way, but it would definitely be cool.”
- On The World Champion He Wants To Be
“As the IMPACT World Champion, you’re kind of the face of the company. You’re the one shouldering all the responsibility not only for the company but for the locker room to lead by example and to go out there and perform every single time. Not that I didn’t do that as the X-Division Champion, it’s always something I’m going to do regardless. That’s why I think stepping into this position as a potential World Champion, I’m ready for that. I wouldn’t have given up Option C to see if I didn’t think I was prepared and ready for this opportunity so.
“I think I’m kind of old school in that sense of the Champion as the one representing everything, and I will certainly try to do that my best by going out there and doing the work but, as far as the stardom and whatever else might come with that, I haven’t thought about that at all.”
- On his Impressive X-Division Run
“I liked so much of what I was able to do. Matches against like Chris Sabin and Jake Something spring to my mind like some of my favourite matches of all time. It was great to be able to do that while I was on the XD run. But the one that’s going to stick out of my mind forever, and it’s going to go down to history as one of my greatest accomplishments is that Iron Man match against TJP. Just being able to do in front of no fans, and then, for it get as much fanfare as it did and to like give back to us for like all the hard work we’re able to do and just having that opportunity to go 60 minutes on a television program. It’s something that none of the wrestlers is going to be able to say they did. So, it’s always going to live as something great in my mind.”
- From Tag Team to Singles Competition
“You always daydream about the possibility of this happening, and I’ve always been confident in my wrestling ability to know that I can be in the main event position. I can go up against the best wrestlers in the world, the ones that hold that Impact Wrestling Championship. So, I’ve always been confident in my ability in that whether or not it was gonna materialize this fast, I definitely never thought that was possible. You could have told me six months ago this was gonna happen, I would have laughed at you, but things have all broken the right way, and I made the best of the opportunity that I was given. I think, and that’s why I’m standing here today.
“I’ve been wrestling for nearly 16 years. So before I came to Impact, I was one of the top wrestlers independently. I got to test myself in a single capacity like many times for a bunch of years. So, I had a lot of experience as a singles wrestler. The only thing I had to really adjust to in Impact Wrestling was, from the moment I started Impact, I was a tag team wrestler. After that near year and a half, two-year run, now, I was on my own, and it’s just that you got to swim by yourself now. You got to navigate those waters by yourself. You don’t have anybody there to share the stresses or the pressure. It’s all on you and all eyes are on you, and it’s just adjusting mentally to that and being prepared for it, but luckily, I had agreed to step into that position. So, I think I’ve made the best of all those opportunities because of that.”
- On The Forbidden Door and NJPW
“We’re all just like chomping at the bit for these opportunities, and when I say that, it’s because the Forbidden Door leaves opportunities for wrestlers to show they can compete with these people from other companies. So, it’s all sort of like a competitive thing. Like, me, as an Impact member of the locker room and we, as the Impact locker room, we want to show that we can compete with AEW, we can compete with new Japan, we can compete with AAA, we can do all this stuff. If you put us on the marquee with all these guys, then we’re going to stack up against them every single time because we have a deep locker room, and we just want to show it. We’re all competitive, and we all want to fly the Impact banner as much we can. So, we embrace it.
“I’ve never wrestled in Japan in my career, and that’s something that eluded me forever, and it’s something I definitely need to do before my career’s all said and done. There’s a ton of talented wrestlers in NJPW that I’m a big fan of that I think that I would have exemplary matches with like Shingo Takagi or Tomohiro Ishii. Like, there’s so many out there, like it’s just a stacked roster. I would love to be able to represent Impact and go over there and compete.”
- On Dreams Coming True
“I quit my job and decided to take that safety net away and just dive all the way into my wrestling profession. The catalyst for all that was what’s going on right now, and just the run I was on as X-Division champion, and the stuff that I knew I could do in the future. I knew I just had to be able to dedicate more time to that, and it wasn’t like I could’ve done it, I couldn’t have done it years ago, but I just figured now is the perfect time to bet on myself and just like go “all in” as they say.
“It’s all unbelievable to me because, six years ago, as I’ve said before, I was laying in a hospital bed thinking that I was never going to get to do this again, and I think that everything I have done up to this point. All brick walls were like putting the way of my journey, and I had to work my way around and figure things out. I think they all did me a great benefit to be in this position I’m in now. They’ve all helped because I just take it day by day. I don’t set this monumental goal that I need to achieve for happiness. I’m enjoying everything I do. Month in, month out. And it’s always just a new opportunity and a bigger and better thing. It is unbelievable, but I’m very happy doing it.”
- On The Fans’ Support
“It’s kind of been earned. I’m a quiet guy, I don’t go out there and ask for everybody’s support, I just kind of focus on what I love to do, and that’s just to have a wrestling match. And I think through the hard work that I put into that ring, I think it’s brought people in to know me more and really get behind me. And the story stepping into the match Saturday night is just like, if you’re on the fence about watching this show or ordering this show or whatever it is, then I don’t understand. Because you have a legend in Christian Cage. Somebody coming in with the majority of people behind him because the majority of people know him. I am the relative unknown in the position. I am the one with something to prove. But if you look at me and if you look at my story, it’s been nearly sixteen years of hurdles and ups and downs … and I’m going to do everything I can to make the best of it.”
- Who will be the next X-Division Champion? Trey, Maclin or El Phantasmo?
“Who can carry the torch, as they say, as my run was pretty substantial? I look at those three, and I’ve been in the ring with ELP, I’ve been in the ring with Trey. I’ve never been in the ring with Maclin. It’s tough. Maclin’s like this X factor out there because I’ve never been in the ring with him. My personal pick, like in my heart, that I want to see become the X-Division Champion and rise on the occasion and really like take that a little bit further is Trey Miguel. I just think he’s supremely talented, and he hasn’t risen to that occasion yet.”
Follow Josh Alexander on Twitter @Walking_Weapon.
Bound For Glory will air live from Las Vegas on Saturday, October 23 at 10 PM EST (3 AM BST) on Pay-Per-View in North America and around the world digitally via FITE TV. IMPACT Wrestling is airing on Thursday at 8/7c on AXS TV in the USA and around the world on IMPACT Wrestling’s new YouTube membership Impact Insiders.
All pics, screencaps and videos courtesy of Impact Wrestling, AXS TV, Fight TV and Dan The JOBR