Cedric Alexander appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the popular INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the former member of The Hurt Business faction in WWE spoke about his desire to rejoin The Hurt Syndicate in AEW, the possibility of signing with the company soon, his recent WWE release and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also below is a complete video archive of the discussion.
On the WWE release: “Everything’s fine. You know, once I got that news, I wasn’t even mad. I kind of felt like a pressure was lifted off my shoulders. Oh wow, I’m free to do other things, cool, all right, let’s see what happens.”
On getting the release call: “I was expecting to be angry and frantic. Actually, funny enough they called Friday night. I was in the middle of a leg workout. I’m doing squats, and my phone starts ringing. So I put the weight down, because I have a gym in my house so for me I’m just working out all hours of the day. So I pick up the phone, and I received the dreaded 203 number. I’m like, Okay, what’s gonna happen? I don’t remember the guy’s name. I think he said it was Will from TR. And I was like, Yeah, sure. What’s up? He goes, ‘Sorry, we’re gonna release you from your contract.’ My initial reaction was okay, cool. He goes, ‘Yeah, sorry to get this news on a Friday.’ So I had an NXT house show tomorrow, so I don’t do that anymore. That was my first question, too. He goes, No, you’re all good, just the 90 days and if you need anything else let us know. I was like, okay, cool.”
On his immediate reaction: “So I immediately thought to myself when I was released, I was like, Okay, that’s a job. Wrestling is my career. I may be out of a job, but I still have a career. All thanks to [Mustafa] Ali, he’s one of the guys that called me within the hour of me being released and was immediately like, hey dude, it’s all good. Just being super positive as you know Ali is, but yeah man, it sucked because it’s a dream job. It’s one of those jobs that I’m a kid and I’m like oh my god, I’m gonna wrestle for WWE. Then when it ends, it just ends. You just move on.”
On what’s next: “I felt like I was completely started all over again, because I don’t know what’s wrestling outside of WWE for the last eight and a half years. Who’s hot on the indies? I don’t really know that much anymore, who’s a good place to get work? I am just completely lost, because being in WWE for nearly a decade, eight and a half years, you’re like okay, I don’t have to do anything, bookings just come to you, you get paid, and it’s like you almost get complacent because you’re like, Oh, something will pop up. They have all my booking information. They’ll put me in something eventually.”
On if he is interested in joining The Hurt Syndicate in AEW: “100%. That’s a big chapter of my career that I really felt was never fully explored and I think it’ll be great to finish that out.”
On The Hurt Business suddenly ending: “I knew something was wrong when Bobby won the title on that episode of Raw, and Vince made a very direct comment to not have me and Shelton get it in the ring and celebrate with him. That was when I was like, Oh, that’s not good news. Whatever’s happening next I’m not gonna like it. Then, slowly but surely, think was it two or three weeks later that we did the full breakup the first time of the three times we did.”
On there being more to The Hurt Business storyline: “I think so, definitely. There’s so much meat on the bone that I would like to get to. But if I don’t, then that’s fine too. I’m game to go to New Japan, Mexico. So I’m just ready for things to happen. It’s one of those things where I’ve been sitting so long and I feel like I’m getting a little itchy, something’s gotta happen soon.”
On his relationship with Triple H: “Honestly, it didn’t go past that, funny enough. You would think from that moment I’d be a Triple H guy. So there was a point where we were in 205 Live that he kind of had some say in there a little bit, and kind of took care of me. But I was never really a fully Triple H guy. I was more of a Paul Heyman guy. When he was writing Raw, and they drafted me out of 205 Live into Raw, I was more of a Heyman guy than anything else. Heyman give me a bunch of little sidebar conversations this, that and the other way more than Triple H did.”
On what he thinks he learned from Paul Heyman: “Patience, for better or worse, patience. I remember there was one point I went to Heyman and I was just like, I was probably on Raw for like a year, but they haven’t really done anything with me. And I was like, Hey, Paul, What do you need for me in order to get to that next level? I think this is maybe right after we did the whole thing with AJ and the squash match we did on Night of Champions in Charlotte. He was just telling me just wait. We’ll take care of you. If you gotta wait six months, wait six months. If you gotta wait a year. Wait a year. And I swear I’m going, I will be the best soldier I can be and just wait it out. And every time they called me for something, whether it was the Gary Garbutt thing or any other random thing they asked for. I was, hey, I’m here. What do you want me to do?”
On if his wife Big Swole is still wrestling: “She is currently not wrestling. She’s she’s doing more of the announcer hosting role. She’s trying to get into that more. Wrestling is just rough on her body. She has Crohn’s disease. So it’s not the easiest thing to come back when you’re wrestling. There’s thoughts about, okay, maybe doing one more run, maybe. But she’s pretty content with keeping her body in one piece and just sticking with more supportive roles in wrestling.”
