Victory Road (2021)
Victory Road (2021) was a professional wrestling event produced by Impact Wrestling. It was taped at Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee on August 17 and September 17, 2021, and aired on Impact Plus and YouTube on September 18, 2021. It was the 12th event under the Victory Road chronology, and the first Impact Plus special to stream on YouTube, following the launch of the "Impact Wrestling Insiders" membership program on the platform. Ten matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Christian Cage defeated Ace Austin to retain the Impact World Championship. In other prominent  matches, Moose and W. Morrissey defeated Eddie Edwards and Sami Callihan, The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) defeated Rich Swann and Willie Mack to retain the Impact World Tag Team Championship, Bullet Club (Chris Bey and Hikuleo) defeated FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson), and Josh Alexander defeated Chris Sabin to retain the Impact X Division Championship. Production. Background. Victory Road was an annual professional wrestling event produced by Impact Wrestling (then known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) between 2004 and 2012. In 2013, TNA discontinued most of its monthly pay-per-view events in favor of the  new pre-recorded One Night Only events. Victory Road would be revived as a "One Night Only" event in 2014, and a special edition of Impact's weekly television series in 2017. Storylines. The event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches. Storylines were produced on Impact's weekly television program. At Emergence, Ace Austin defeated Chris Sabin, Moose, and Sami Callihan in a four-way match to  become number one contender to the Impact World Championship. In the main event later that night, Christian Cage defeated Brian Myers to retain the title, after which the title match between Cage and Austin was announced for Victory Road. Since winning the X Division Championship at Rebellion, Josh Alexander retained his title against multiple wrestlers. On the September 2 episode of "Impact!", Alexander issued an open challenge to any former X Division Champion, and his challenge was answered by Jake Crist. After defeating Crist, eight-time X-Division Champion Chris Sabin came out and issued his own challenge to which  the title match between Alexander and Sabin was announced for Victory Road. On the August 19 episode of "Impact!", Sami Callihan saved his old rival Eddie Edwards from an attack by W. Morrissey. The following week on "Impact!", Edwards saved Callihan from an attack by Moose. Moose and Morrissey then formed an alliance against Edwards and Callihan on the September 2 episode of "Impact!", where they attacked Edwards. On the September 9 episode of "Impact!", Callihan saves Edwards' wife Alisha from an attack by Moose and Morrissey, then Edwards and Callihan join forces to beat them. Later it was announced  that Edwards and Callihan would face Moose and Morrissey at Victory Road. At Emergence, The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) defeated Rich Swann and Willie Mack, and Violent By Design (Joe Doering and Rhino) in a three-way tag team match to retain their World Tag Team Championship. On the August 26 episode of "Impact!", Swann and Mack defeated them in a non-title bout, but the Good Brothers took them out and planted Mack with a double powerbomb through a table. On the September 9 episode of "Impact!", Anderson defeated Swann in a Bunkhouse Brawl match. The  following week, Anderson explained how having Gallows by his side helped him during that match, and Mack was in the hospital and couldn't assist Swann. The two came across Mack using crutches but revealed that he was fine, and attacked them alongside Swann. Impact EVP Scott D'Amore met with Swann and Mack to announce that they will face the Good Brothers for the tag titles at Victory Road. At Emergence, Matt Cardona defeated Rohit Raju, but was attacked by Shera afterwards. On the September 2 episode of "Impact!", Raju and Shera defeated Cardona and Chelsea Green in a tag  team match, after Raju took out the latter with a knee strike. On the September 16 episode of "Impact!", Cardona attacked Raju and Shera earlier in the day, and was berated by Scott D'Amore when he came to him later that night. D'Amore announced that a no disqualification match between Cardona and Raju would take place at Victory Road, as long as the former does not lay his hands on the latter until that day.