OUR SERIES OF TNA INTERVIEWS KICKS OFF WITH THE “INSTANT CLASSIC”.

Christian Cage is a man who’s willing to go first. His match with Edge against the Hardys was the first tables, ladders, and chairs match in then-WWF history — now the match has become a staple.

Years later, he became the first young WWE star to leave the company for TNA, a move which paved the way for guys like Kurt Angle and Booker T to see the company as a viable proposition. Christian’s now become a TNA mainstay and, as he would call himself, an “Instant Classic”.

Our interview with Christian started, as with many conversations with him, with making fun of ex-WWE star and former tag team partner Lance Storm.

Christian Cage: Somebody said that they’d gotten my tattoo on themselves, and their friend had told them that it had scarred their body, and I said that that’s not scarring — getting Lance Storm’s face tattooed on your body, that’s scarring.

IGN: Didn’t you break a bone in Lance Storm’s body that no one’s ever heard of before? [Cage broke Storm's hyoid bone, a bone in the throat, with a clothesline]

Christian Cage: Yeah, it was one of those things where he got hit with the right amount of force in the right spot at the right time. It’s one of those things where if it happened a million times, it might never happen again.

IGN: So, who do you pattern your clotheslines after? Stan Hansen?

Christian Cage: Hmmm…more like Wendi Richter.

IGN: This is the first TNA game. What’s it like being such an important member of the company and seeing the game come out?

Christian Cage: When I came here, one of the reasons I came was to join a company that was growing, and being able to step in right away and be a piece of the puzzle. I looked at it as a challenge, and to see how far its grown and how it’s still growing seemingly by the day…with the video game market being what it is, it’s bigger than the movies, so this is a huge step for the company and the young and upcoming superstars of the business who are immortalized in a game.

IGN: What about this game specifically makes you excited relative to the WWE games you were in?

Christian Cage: It’s exciting because it’s the first one. It’s exciting for the young guys who have never been in a game before. To come from a company that, in its first year, didn’t know how long it was gonna be around, all the way to a company that’s in primetime on Spike with monthly pay-per-views and international shows, it’s pretty special.

IGN: What was your favorite wrestling game growing up?

Christian Cage: I had a couple of video games — my earliest memory was playing the old NWA game on Nintendo, that had four or five guys in it that all wore the same tights, and there were three moves. It’s funny because I’ve never been, really, a big wrestling gamer. This Midway game is unbelievable, though — the gameplay is unlike anything before it, so I’m really looking forward to actually playing it.

IGN: You haven’t played the game yet, but what has it been like seeing yourself in the game?

Christian Cage: It’s amazing — even the way the videogame industry has evolved and keeps evolving blows my mind. It’s so realistic, and they have the little ways and movements you don’t even realize you do down to a tee.

IGN: What games do you enjoy playing?

Christian Cage: Of course, I love hockey games.

IGN: Who was your favorite person to control?

Christian Cage: I always played as the Maple Leafs, so it was Mats Sundin or, before him, Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark and guys like that. Of course, when you could make yourself, I’d always put myself on the Leafs.

IGN: What position did you play?

Christian Cage: Center. Always a center.

IGN: The Leafs already have Sundin at center, though. You moved Sundin to the second line?

Christian Cage: No, no, no. I moved Sundin to wing.

IGN: So, then, you and your talents moved a 500-goal scorer and sure Hall of Famer out of position?

Christian Cage: He’s been known to play a little wing.

IGN: At your peak, how many goals do you think you could score with yourself in a single, 82-game season?

Christian Cage: [debates with himself for a minute] Anywhere from 52-65. Ovechkin’s got nothing to me. I’d challenge him to a game anytime.

IGN: That would be a license to print money. We’d have to do it like the Summit Series, though, where you play Ovechkin in TNA Impact here in Florida, but then you have to go play Ovechkin in NHL in Russia.

Christian Cage: Hey, that’d be sweet.

IGN: Who do you like to watch now? I’m sure you have the Center Ice package.

Christian Cage: Of course. The Leafs still let me down every year, but I love watching them. They’re painful to watch, but I hope they turn it around.

IGN: Should they have let Sundin go?

Christian Cage: I don’t think so. How can you say that when he’s your team’s best player and has been for several years now? He scores 30-40 goals, how do you get rid of a guy like that? I think it’s a mistake. It’s funny because, growing up in the town I grew up him, there was a guy named Dan Ellis who plays for Nashville. His mother was my phys ed teacher and guidance counselor. Dan was three, four years younger than me. I was a goalie growing up, and he used to come to all my games and my practices and watch me play. He would draw pictures of me playing and give them to his mother to give to me, and I’d put them up in my locker at school. Of course, years pass, and the guy’s a goalie in the NHL. We actually hooked up through Don West because he has a sports talk show in Nashville, and when Ellis was on the air, they actually had me call in and surprise him. So I follow his career too. He just signed a new deal with Nashville, which is good for him, he’s a good guy.

IGN: What do you play nowadays, game-wise?

Christian Cage: Lately, a ton of GTA. I like Hitman, Call of Duty 4…I’m mostly a sports game guy, but I heard a lot about GTA – I actually heard a lot about Rainbow Six: Vegas, so I went and bought it, played it for fifteen minutes, hated it, and brought it back. GTA, though, I bought it and loved it.

IGN: Who’s the best video game player on the video game roster?

Christian Cage: Other than me – AJ and Joe are pretty good. The only time I’ve gone to head-to-head with Joe was Fight Night, and I knocked him out in the last round. It was an epic battle, he had me down three or four times, I didn’t knock him out once – but it was a storybook ending.