Impact Victory Road, Nashville, TN
Cage recently won the Impact championship from Kenny Omega on an AEW show, of course, and now he’s here in Nashville to defend against Ace Austin, who is looking to become the youngest Impact world champion ever at 24.
I haven’t seen much of Austin in the ring. I do know he does some sort of Gambit for Gen Z character. Austin has Madman Fulton in his corner for the match.
Cage has WWE height and Austin, uh, doesn’t. Obviously Cage isn’t 6’5″ but 6’5″ has never actually been the standard in WWE despite exaggerations. I talked about this sort of thing with the 2005 Matt Hardy-Roderick Strong ROH match; even guys like Hardy and Christian, who were “smaller” for WWE Super Stars at one point, are simply bigger men than most people. We remember 1-2-3 Kid being tiny for his time in the WWF, but he’s 6′ tall, too. When you put them next to indie guys, it stands out, as does the thickness in the body most times.
That WWE has gotten smaller over the years is largely a result of smaller wrestlers becoming the truly dominant force on the more grassroots level of pro wrestling in the last 20-25 years, and the vast majority of the actual talented prospects, while Big Guys just weren’t as sought after or trying their hand at it anymore. Fan expectations for action in matches have also greatly changed. A guy like Omos is an outlier because he’s that big, but most of the bigger guys you see now are fairly lean, too, and they’re really good athletes in an agility and speed sort of way. Baron Corbin and Damian Priest and Donovan Dijak are not The Warlord, for better and/or worse, depending on what you like or how much you’ve talked yourself into big, slow guys being vital to the flavor of wrestling. Someone like Keith Lee is a 1 in 1,000 sort of guy with that thickness who still moves that well, and at the ripe old age of 54, no less.
The idea Striker presents on commentary is Austin flat-out knows and even accepts that he isn’t going to be able to just out-wrestle the veteran, so he will take shortcuts, look to use his speed and youth. Flapjack from Cage gets an early two count.
They get outside, and Austin is allowed to show off his speed, his athleticism, and sort of fluster Cage by simply being hard to catch. Christian gets distracted by Madman Fulton and whacked from behind by Austin, Fulton not touching Cage but providing a distraction just by being there, and being as imposing as he is. Cage didn’t go chasing after Fulton, who isn’t Jimmy Hart out there; he just wound up in his presence and had to keep the eye on him.
Back in and Austin is putting good combination offense together, landing a kick behind the ear for a two count. Austin gives Cage a paper cut, more annoying and nagging and something that can keep Christian distracted from the greater task at hand. Austin working an armbar, but Cage back up to his feet and throws right hands to the breadbasket, then rattles him hard with a right hand to the jaw, only for Cage to run into a “shotgun elbow” from Austin.
Fulton looks to get involved, but referee Brian Hebner catches him before he can actually tough Cage, and Hebner ejects Fulton. It’s now on Austin and Austin alone.
Cage with a tornado DDT for two, and he gets the momentum from there. A 10-punch in the corner turns into a 20-punch, and then they trade quick pin attempts when Austin tries to catch Cage off-guard. Kick combo isn’t finished and Christian hits the inverted DDT for two.
Cage going for the Killswitch, gets blocked, but he doesn’t lose the advantage out of that. Cage up top for the frog splash, but it misses in borderline comical fashion, not comical on purpose. Austin goes for The Fold, but he’s speared down on the charge and that gets another two count.
Austin goes to the eyes, then distracts Hebner by “trying to take a turnbuckle pad off.” Brian has to pay attention to that, and it gives Fulton a chance to sneak back in and interfere, but Cage stays alive, reverses a short whip to the corner, and catches Austin bouncing back with the Killswitch for the win to retain the title.
Post-match, Josh Alexander comes out to exercise “Option C,” which is where the X Division champion can vacate that title and make a challenge for the world title. That’ll happen at Bound For Glory.
The ending and a lot of the match felt a little rushed, honestly, clocking in around 12 minutes. This is far from the greatest you’ll see out of Cage this year or any other year in his notable career, but he’s so solid and so smart of a worker that it turns out well, anyway, and Austin gets plenty of chance to look like a looming, growing threat to the Impact world title, even if he’s not quite at that level just yet to take it. There’s value in having a rising star take a big shot and come up short; WWE did it with John Cena against Brock Lesnar at Backlash 2003, as an example that springs to mind quickly. This is also, apart from the great matches he can deliver with other established current top stars, something great you can do with Cage in his comeback run, have him wrestle young guys, give them that experience against a tremendous veteran, and it’s a fresh matchup that probably is fun for him, too, to give back and do some hands-on teaching in a way.
Rating: 3/5
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