IMPACT World Champion Josh Alexander recently appeared on an episode of Brian Hebner's "Refin' It Up" podcast to talk about a variety of topics such as when he felt like IMPACT realized he could be their champion as well as the face of the company.
Josh Alexander said:
"There's two separate answers there. I think the face of the company thing happened a little bit later. But they knew from the second they signed me that I was what I think you need to be to be a top guy, at least the main event star in any wrestling program, which is dependable and reliable and consistent. You need to be those things. You need to be able to work with anybody at any time on a moment's notice and be able to go out there and produce a match. That's something that when they signed me, they started trusting me with those things. Even when I was in a tag team, if you look at our tag run as The North in that year plus run as tag team champions, anytime they had a marquee singles match when they needed one of the Impact guys to go under, I was the one chosen. Marufuji, Vikingo, you know, there's several other marquee singles matches I had during that tag team run. But I was always the one chosen and given the trust of that. I always say they gave me the ball, they gave me the opportunity, and I didn't drop the ball, so I've kept getting more.”
“So when my singles run materialized, they're just like, this guy goes out there every time and regardless of who it's against, or what we give him, or what we tell him to do, he does his job, and he does it well, and he over exceeds our expectations. That's all I ever try to do. I just tried to bust my ass and work hard. At some point during that X-Division run, it was pretty early on, I think it was right after the Ironman match that they they thought they had something in me as a babyface that could maybe lead the company going forward.”
Josh Alexander also talked about how he had opportunities to go elsewhere, but it didn't really cross his mind because he felt like he still had unfinished business in IMPACT Wrestling.
Josh Alexander said:
"I had opportunities to go elsewhere 100%. If I would have not agreed to a new deal or something like that, but like it didn't really cross my mind because I felt like I had unfinished business here at Impact. I felt like there was so much more I could do and offer and show not just Impact, but the wrestling industry as a whole, all these other companies, what I'm capable of.”
“Impact was the first company that gave me an opportunity. Scott D'Amore called me up and offered me a contract. They were the company that gave me an opportunity. That's all you can ask for as a professional wrestler.”
“Since I got here, it's been nothing but roses for me man. I was here for like two months and then I was tag team champion. I lost the tag belt and I was without a belt for three months and I was X-Division champion. I never lost that belt. I won the world championship. Six months later, I won the world championship again. For me, the thing that I get out of wrestling, it's not winning all the time, it's not the championships, it's the challenges. I want to be challenged. I want to feel like I'm in an uncomfortable position where I have to better myself and improve. It's been nothing but that the entire time I've been here and that's all I could ask for so I'm very happy to say."
Josh Alexander then talked about his condition after his Bound For Glory Match against Eddie Edwards.
Josh Alexander said:
“I'm only three days removed and my nose still hurts a lot and my eye still hurts a lot. My chest is all ripped apart like it's never been before from wrestling. It might have been the toughest match I ever had to be honest, physically. I broke my nose and I had no idea where I was for a second. Then once all the tears fell out of my eyes and I could see again, I was just like, I don't know what's going on. I was like, just hit me, dude, and he just hit me. He was hitting me just trying to wake me up so I could get through that thing.”
You can check out Josh Alexander's full comments in the embedded audio player below. H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.
