As we previously reported here on eWn, TNA Wrestling exercised its option to extend the contract of former World Champion Josh Alexander.
In a recent interview with Pwinsider, Alexander discussed the extension of his TNA contract for another year and shot down rumors that he is being “held hostage.”
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his TNA deal getting renewed: “First and foremost, when I started out in this business 18 years ago, all up until 14, 14 years then when I signed my contract, I was never a Scott D’Amore guy. There’s a lot of people in Canada, Canadian wrestling that are Scott D’Amore guys. I never broke through that veil or whatever it was to become a Scott D’Amore guy. Our relationship was something that grew over working together in Impact over the past, five years and I’m very fortunate for that. I value everything I’ve learned from Scott as a coach, the mentor, as my boss and stuff like that for the past five years, I couldn’t imagine, working for a better boss, which is, the tough thing to say when this business, gives you a kick in the teeth and, things get changed around and moved around, but, that’s business at the end of the day. I never…I never in my wildest dreams thought I would work for Scott D’Amore my entire career. It would have been cool, the realism of the fact that this is a business at the end of the day, and I, might never always work for TNA or Impact is just a reality of it.
“As for the contract and stuff like that, I didn’t even know. My contract was coming up until all this stuff happened and I actually read it over and looked at it again because it’s been two plus years since I signed the thing and it actually, it expired on Valentine’s Day and they had 10 days to pick up the option and I signed that contract. I see all the tweets and stuff like that of people saying I’ve held hostage and stuff and just to dispel that narrative, like I signed that contract two years ago. I knew there was a third year option. Sure, it would have been better for me if they didn’t pick it up. I’m sure, so I could renegotiate something new and probably, for more money and for a longer term or I could go out and free agency and see what I could get elsewhere. But yeah, at the end of the day of all things in this business, I want to remain and be a professional up first and foremost, and that’s very important to me and, I signed that contract and I’m not being held hostage. I’m here, for at least another year unless something, is negotiated before then for me to stay for a longer term and stuff like that, which is, Anthem Management has said that is an option and stuff that we’re going to discuss in the future, but for right now, it’s business as usual. I’m going out there every single time, like I said, with No Surrender, trying to give the crowd something different, something good, every single time I get in the ring, 100%.”
On fans upset with recent changes: “I think it all falls…there’s several aspects and departments and all these different people that make the show run and happen. Other than President Scott D’Amore being terminated and stuff like that and being replaced with new management and a new vision and all this stuff, at the end of the day, it comes down to who’s getting in that ring. We’re the ones that are giving the people what they paid to see, and for the most part, man I can’t say any of that’s changed from No Surrender, Bayou Blast, these past weekend, having three weeks between the announcement and then shows just left a lot of time for people to be twiddling their thumbs, making phone calls, assuming the worst, from the locker room all the way to the fans, and I think it served a really good message to everybody, both the locker room and the world and every fan of TNA and, everybody that might not be a fan of TNA, but especially the worst that once we do get in that ring, once we do put on shows, it’s going to be much of the same and our locker room, like I’ve always said, we are a collective group of people with a chip on our shoulder that want to go out and show the world Impact Wrestling, TNA has always been what I’ve called the land of opportunity. If you never got an opportunity elsewhere, you’re going to come here, and I guarantee you’re going to get one, and it’s up to you to make the best of it, and that has served me very well over the past five years, and I think there’s a lot of people in that locker room that share the same sentiment that, once they get their opportunities, they’re going to make the best of them, so we’re going to continue to go out and just, do what we do best, work hard, try to put on the very best show possible. I think our PLEs especially stand up against anything in the pro wrestling world whether you’re a WWE fan, an AEW fan, a New Japan fan, from bell to bell, from the first match all the way to the main event we’re putting on, an amazing in ring product and that’s not going to change.”
On how Anthem can improve the company: “For me personally, it doesn’t depend on, bringing in outside talent, getting more eyes in the company. I think that we have an amazing core group and locker room and stuff like that. There’s guys out there that I think might be lesser known, up and coming young wrestlers that I think I would like to see brought in so that, we can build new stars and stuff. There’s some super talented people that still are not under contract with WWE, AEW and all these other companies, But I think. deserve an opportunity. So I would like to see that happen. I think it just all boils down to getting on a mainstream network, somewhere where people can consistently watch us. And it’s more accessible for the viewer because the shows aren’t the problem. I really don’t think that I haven’t thought that for years. I think we’ve, through you. Scott D’Amore’s vision through the first five years of this company. The thing I could agree with most is that we were doing this slow build. We weren’t trying to rush anything like, TNA might have in the past and we built this locker room that is so dependable, so consistent that just, whenever we get more eyes on this company, I think that it’s just the sky’s the limit at that point. So I think we’re ready for that. I think it’s going to slow build to this point. But now that, something like that might materialize, I think the second it does, I think TNA is that’s the next step to get, even bigger than it has ever been.”
