Josh Alexander (@walking_weapon) is a professional wrestler and the current Impact Wrestling World Champion. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his unlikely path to becoming a wrestler, getting discovered in Canada, making a name for himself in Ring Of Honor, becoming friends and eventually tag team partners with Ethan Page, how much interest there was from AEW when he let his Impact Wrestling contract expire, beating Christian Cage to become the shortest reigning Impact World Champion of all time and now being on the verge of being the longest reigning Champion, involving his family in storylines, why Scott D’Amore is good for wrestling and much more!
On a possible move to AEW:
“It was definitely on the table and it was definitely a thought and all this other stuff. But I wouldn’t say it was too close, because with all the stuff that had been happening and IMPACT I really felt like [I should stay]. And like also happening in AEW, with me watching every week, I still watch everything to this day. But I just like for me as a pro-wrestler, my fulfilment of what I do is to go out there and wrestle and show what I can do. I think my benefit is bell to bell, that is where I will gain notoriety, that is where I will show my worth in the pro-wrestling scene. And at the time watching AEW, it didn’t look like a lot of people were getting opportunities to do that stuff outside of like the top 20 people that were on the roster, you’d see people shuffle in and out and shuffle in and out it out there. They get their runs for a few weeks, and they go back to shorter matches on AEW Dark and it was just IMPACT has been so good to me. They were the first company that gave me an opportunity and got me that visa, did this stuff and like it’s all been roses since I got there man, I won the tag belts three months after I signed and got there. And I had the longest running tag team championship run, you know, and then as soon as Ethan left, everything’s like going through your mind. And I was stressing out being like man, I hope I don’t sit on the bench and just have to watch the shows until they figure out what they’re gonna do with me. And immediately, I got an opportunity in the X-Division. And you know, that happened and was awesome and all this other stuff. It was just opportunity after opportunity. I think all you can ask for as a wrestler is for an opportunity to show what you can do. Give me the ball and if I drop it, that’s fine. But you know, they’ve given me the ball a tonne of times, and I don’t think I’ve dropped it yet. So I’m just gonna ride this out and see how it goes.”
On winning the IMPACT World Championship and immediately losing it:
“It was pretty much exactly like that. It was hey, we’re thinking you and Christian at Bound for Glory in the main event that was just like, this probably like summertime, like, August or July, when they said this. I went oh damn, okay, you know, that sounds really cool and like a big opportunity. And they go, but you know, Moose is gonna cash in and take it right off you immediately. Okay, cool, whatever, it doesn’t matter to me. And like, it’s, I don’t write the show, you know what I mean? Like, I trust you guys. And you know, the whole time leading up to that for the next three months, you’re just like hopefully they change their mind, man, that’d be cool if they change their mind. You know, that’s in the back of your head. But then, you know, it all happened how it happened and I think everything you know, I’m not an everything happens for a reason guy, but like, definitely look at the pieces of things that have happened along the course of my career to put me in the place. I’m sitting right now. And I think everything has kind of happened the way it should have, you know, to maximise everything that’s happening my life now.”
On wearing headgear:
“I mean, it all happened by accident of course, I’m very thankful that it did happen. I think I’ve had a lot of conversations about the headgear recently because you know, the evolution of the character and the look and all this stuff. And you think about do I need to wear the headgear anymore? Should I take it off? Is it holding me back from elevating myself to a further platform or becoming a bigger star and wrestling or something like that. But for sure, I was just a talented Canadian wrestler that was booked consistently with no gimmick whatsoever who was just a very reliable wrestler. And when I found that headgear because I injured my ear, it really gave me something for the fans to remember me by. Because you gotta think like 70% of fans that leave a show that aren’t, you know, diehard wrestling fans aren’t gonna remember my name when they leave. A kid might turn to his dad and be like, man, I really liked that crazy guy with the face paint, you know what I mean? Like now they can leave shows and be like that guy with the headphones or the headgear, they know what it is, you know, he was a badass. It’s just a thing for people to notify and remember me by and it built into my look that I’m now you know, known for probably for the rest of my career.”
On the injury that caused the headgear to be necessitated:
“Yeah, I actually injured myself at AIW in Cleveland for the JLIT tournament, the first one I was ever going to, I think it was 2013. I’m really off with years, especially since the pandemic, but it would have been around that ballpark time where we first met and yeah, I took a kick in the ear from an ACH and my ear just blew up off my head. I filmed a promo that night, draining it with a syringe myself. And the next day, I got hit again in it and it blew up and it actually, like exploded off my head. So it’s like my ear split in half, and it was like dangling down. So I had to go get it surgically, like pinned to the side of my head. And like the doctors, they don’t care about pro-wrestling and they look at me and be like, well, whatever you do, whatever, do what you have to do to have it heal, you can’t touch this for six months or three months or whatever they said. And I was just like, I got a booking in two weeks in Ottawa like I gotta make it. So I went on eBay and ordered headgear and put it on for that show, and I felt like such a goofball. I remember I went out and I wrestled Mike Bailey and a guy named Hacker Scotty O’Shea in a threeway for C4 wrestling in Ottawa and walking out I’m getting like Princess Leia chants, I’m getting nice headphone chants. I’m getting chirp like crazy, still stuff that I hear to this day every so often for people that don’t know me. But you know, I felt like such a goof and I came to the back and by the end of the match, they were just standing and applauding the match because it was an awesome match, right? And I came to the back and I remember Ethan Page pulled me aside he was just like you’re keeping that headgear man. You look like a badass with it. I’m like, really? I feel like I look like a complete goof. But he was like, nope, it’s badass, you’re keeping that. I’m like okay, cool. And I haven’t taken that off since.”
On being compared to Kurt Angle in a wig:
“That’s the thing that I read it on social media all the time. It’s like fans are like ‘Man, I love Josh Alexander, but I can’t get over that headgear. [It] Just reminds me of Angle with the wig and it’s just so goofy, I just can’t see past it…’ and stuff like that. And I read it I go, if that’s really a thing that you can’t see past like, I can’t I can’t please everybody, you know what I’m saying? So it’s definitely the thing that I’m going to remember forever because I think you know, other than Rick Steiner, I’m the only one that’s pulled it off since and I think a lot of people have tried.”
On being compared to Kurt Angle:
“It’s insanely humbling. To me, you’re talking about one of the greatest of all time, you know. It’s a subjective list that you know, everybody can have their favourites. But to me, I think it’s undeniable that Kurt Angle is if not the best ever to get the ring for how fast you know, he just took to wait and stuff like that. As a personal fan of his forever to get those comparisons from not just fans, but from people that worked with Kurt, especially since I’ve started at IMPACT, like people that have worked with Kurt closely during the years that IMPACT that have come up to me and drawn these comparisons, like it’s insanely humbling.”
On crossing the border from Canada to USA:
“Probably the most stressful thing in the world I’ve ever done is just driving up to the border to talk to border guards. Because like I started wrestling after 9/11, and that’s when all the border things changed. Before you could cross like, I hear stories from Scott D’Amore and Eric young, and anybody who was wrestling before 9/11. And they’re like, hey, just go up with a birth certificate. Like, it might not even be yours as long as they just go oh sure, and they like keep going. Like that is so insane to me, because by the time I was crossing the border, it’s passports, it’s interrogation. Like they want to know everything and they have ultimate power, whether they believe you or not, you know, they could totally believe you and just not like the way you look that day and have a bad feeling to be like that turn around, get out of here. So like, it’s very stressful because you have these opportunities and these bookings that you’re talking about where you’re gonna get notoriety and be seen because of the American wrestling independent scene. And there’s just way more notoriety and eyes on it than in Canada. Regardless of talent, I think Canada has some of the most talented independent wrestlers, and some of the best shows in the world, from what I’ve seen travelling around. But I don’t know why that is, especially with the influx, the internet and streaming and stuff, I don’t know why Canadian promotions have a cut off. But you have, like all these opportunities that you might be crossing into America for and you don’t even know for sure if you’re gonna make it. So like, that’s a stress not just for the wrestler, but for the promoter booking these talents they want to give opportunities for and like, that’s why like as Canadians we have to be so thankful for like promoters like the AIW promoters and the AAW promoters and all these promoters that really wanted to give Canadians a chance to showcase themselves because without them, like myself, Ethan Page, we might never have gotten where we’ve got. But driving up is insanely stressful. We didn’t do it the best in the beginning. You know, the advice was always be like, oh just say you’re going training, and that’s why you have your stuff on you and whatever, because you have no name value. If they Google you, they’re not going to see anything. So did that for a while and you know, eventually it doesn’t work out because you get enough name value to where they Google you. They’ll see that, you know, Ethan Page and Josh Alexander are wrestling at Ring of Honor against homicide and Eddie Kingston in Baltimore. And we are just standing there going yeah, that’s us. And that’s when we get turned around and flagged for the first time and you know, your heart sinks because you think your career is completely over. And we continue to cross after that for years and just telling the truth, which is basically that we’re not going to make enough money to take away income from an American, we’re going to spend it all in America pretty much before we get back on gas and food. So you know, it’s just a crapshoot of which border guard you get and who sympathises with you or not, because some of them think that you’re crossing for these independent shows and it’s the biggest thing in the world. You’re gonna make a million dollars. So yeah, so stressful.”
On not being strong in the beginning:
“I remember going to the gym, just the local like school gym and like the monsters of human beings that were absolutely just tossing around weights, deadlifting. I’m an 18 year old kid, I couldn’t do a push up when I started wrestling at this time. The reason I started going to the gym was because I found a wrestling school while I was at university, right? But I’m looking around, I’m seeing these like grown monsters much like you know, the Kurt Angle’s and the Scott Steiner esque, you know, picture whatever they would be in college. These guys are deadlifting like 500 plus pounds, just getting ready for the wrestling stuff. And it’s like, I ended up talking to them and stuff but like I guess Brock and there’s a school in Victoria Vancouver that’s well known for amateur wrestling, right?”
On a passion for progress:
“Yeah, and I, as I did that show this last past Friday evening at that school where I dropped in. It was run by the programme, the sports management programme, as like a final like, project for one of the students who is a wrestler now kind of doing the same thing I did, but not dropping out. And I had like 100 different people all chanting ‘Schema drop out’ ‘sports management drop out’ to me the entire time I was wrestling. So after, after the match, I beat the guy, obviously, because I’m you know, the world champion. But I grabbed the microphone, I cut this promo saying listen guys, I was in your shoes. On the first day of school, my professor told me 99.9% of us aren’t going to work for Nike, aren’t going to be big sports agents, we’re going to be serving hot dogs and minor league baseball games for the rest of our lives. And you know, we better be happy with that, because that’s the brakes of this job. And you know, it was enough to turn me off pursuing sports management. But really, I had such a passion for pro-wrestling. Once I started, I said this in the promo too, it was just like, I needed to give myself no other options, I needed to take all these other things off the table to make sure that I put everything into this wrestling thing it was really gonna make a go at.”
On going all in:
“That’s the difference maker. I know, hundreds, if not thousands of people that had beer in their hand are like, I’m gonna give this a go. And they get the ring and they try it, you know, if they actually have the balls to actually get the ring and make that happen. But, you know, really, if you’re going to be successful at this, you just got to be, you know, one direction the entire time and one mindset, as hard as that is to maintain sometimes.”
On what Josh Alexander is grateful for:
“My wife, my health and opportunity.”
Featured image: F4WOnline
