Impact Wrestling: Is Brian Cage the Next World Champ?

Impact Wrestling made their debut on Pursuit and Twitch last night, but fans are clamoring for one more big change. At both Homecoming and last night on Pursuit, fans showered Brian Cage with chants of “next World Champ.” How soon could we see it happen?

Impact Wrestling Homecoming was another top-notch pay-per-view to start the year. While the show itself had some flaws and the main event had a less than satisfactory final moment, there was one thing that simply could not be hindered. The fans want “The Machine” Brian Cage as World Champ.

At Homecoming, Brian Cage was unleashing his undeniable power against Impact World Champion Johnny Impact from the moment the bell sounded. As Cage plowed through Johnny’s offense and started to gain momentum, the crowd could feel the change coming. They began chanting, “next World Champ!”

The chant echoed throughout the arena, and Brian Cage was feeling it. You could see it in his eyes and feel the energy coming from the broadcast. Change was in the air, but it simply didn’t happen.

After a hard-fought match, we saw two Survivor castmates of champion Johnny Impact make their presence felt at ringside. As the referee tried to keep them under control, Brian Cage hit the champ with The Drill Claw and had him pinned for a count of ten, but there was no referee to count.

Letting his frustration get the better of him, Cage got rolled up to Johnny Impact and found himself on the losing end of things. Cage grabbed the title from ringside and threw it down at the feet of Johnny Impact.

Brian Cage didn’t win at Homecoming, but he left as the Impact World Champion in the hearts of fans both in the arena and at home. When Impact Wrestling made their debut last night on Pursuit and Twitch, “The Machine” wasn’t shy about telling Johnny exactly what was on his mind.

Distracted by a personal grudge stemming from Killer Kross attacking Johnny and wife Taya Valkyrie at the end of Homecoming, the Impact World Champion started the night looking only for revenge. He wanted Kross, but Brian Cage was not about to be pushed aside.

After a confrontation between Cage, Kross, and Impact broke down into a brawl, Brian Cage confronted the Impact World Champion backstage. Cage made it clear he doesn’t care about Johnny’s personal vendettas. When he was standing tall in the ring holding the title, the crowd was pretty clear too.

After a brief war of words backstage, Johnny Impact relented and promised Brian Cage another shot at the title as soon as Johnny could deal with Killer Kross. Brian Cage reluctantly accepted this promise, but qualified with an ominous warning. “Don’t screw me, John.”

Unfortunately for Brian Cage, it seems that nothing was solved between Kross and Johnny Impact this week. Instead, an assist by Moose helped Kross choke out the champion and pick up a non-title win, firmly putting him in line for a future title shot as well.

We could be on the way to a spectacular triple threat match, but you can bet it’s something Brian Cage won’t be happy about. When he was standing in the ring with Johnny Impact to open the show, the crowd felt the rise of “The Machine” once again.

They belted out more chants of “next World Champ!” With the support of the fans and an increasingly rage-fueled focus on Johnny Impact, we could be seeing Brian Cage as Impact World Champion any day now.