Is Josh Alexander the guy to beat Kenny Omega?

Following another successful Impact Wrestling World Championship defense at Slammiversary, fans didn’t have to wait long to find out who would “The Best Bout Machine’s” next opponents could be.

Given how the Pay-Per-View ended, we already know that New Japan Pro Wrestling’s “Switchblade” Jay White will likely be one of those opponents, but the July 22 episode of Impact Wrestling planted the seeds for another possible adversary: X Division Champion Josh Alexander.

The champion-to-champion confrontation only lasted for a few seconds, but that was more than enough time to let fans know that a match between the two is on the docket.

Is Josh Alexander the Impact Wrestling star who can unseat Kenny Omega as world champion?

It’s a testament to Alexander’s talents and Impact’s booking that an Omega/Alexander match is even on the table. In the 90 days that “The Walking Weapon” has held the X Division Title, he has gone from someone who thought it would be a while before Impact used him following the breakup of The North to arguably the top babyface in the promotion.

Alexander has also become a great foil for Omega, establishing himself as a fighting champion who takes on all comers. Compare that to Omega, who — along with Don Callis — tried to do everything he could to avoid facing Sami Callihan.

The brief interaction between the two gave us another glimpse of this dichotomy, with Alexander asserting his goal to become a champion that the fans are proud of (typical babyface stuff) and Omega

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as a “lightweight” and an “X Division guy”.

However, that clip also showed Callis pulling Omega away from Alexander and telling Omega to let the X Division Champ to “do his thing”, indicating that Alexander could not only become a future opponent for Omega, but also the guy who could wrest the title away from him.

Given the makeup of the rest of the Impact roster, two obvious candidates to beat Omega stick out, and Alexander is one of them (Chris Bey is the other, in case you were wondering). This isn’t a “by default” situation, either; Impact has presented Alexander as one of the most dominant wrestlers in the company, and he has backed that push up with his confidence on the microphone and performances in the ring. If he (or Bey) isn’t the guy to defeat Omega, than no one in that promotion is, all due respect to that talented group of wrestlers.

No one should expect it to happen right away — the storyline with White and Bey will likely play out first. But Omega’s throwaway line about Alexander “maybe one day” getting a world title shot could turn out to be prophetic, and it could lead to the end of his title reign.