IMPACT world champion Josh Alexander recently joined Fightful for an in-depth conversation about all things wrestling, which included the Walking Weapon discuss his love of the Canadian independent scene, and how he continues to give back to that circuit to this day. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On the struggles that Canadian Wrestlers face trying to break into the scene:
“For me, specifically, when I started wrestling, we used to have a wrestling commission in Ontario and it shut down. So my first year in wrestling, I had over a hundred shows. It’s nearly unheard of for independent guys. I’ve averaged a hundred shows a year pretty much my entire career. Which is insane. Other than nine months off for neck injuries. I think it’s so hard for Canadian wrestlers to get notice on a global scale, even though we have IWTV and Fite and all these things for promotions to host their stuff around the world, it still doesn’t get as many eyes as the American indie scene. So once you do break through and once you do get notice, you do get the opportunities like myself and Ethan Page and Uno and Dos and all these people that break through that ceiling, you’re ready for every opportunity you get. That’s why you can hit homeruns.”
How much he tries to give back to the Canadian independent scene:
“I’m not trying to pat myself on the back here, but I think anybody like myself that does go on to make a name for themselves somewhere else, being able to come back and give back to that scene is very important. It’s something I’ve tried to do a lot because when I started it was people like Eric Young and Bobby Roode and other people that had just left the independent scene and they didn’t really come back. It was like once every five years they’d come back for maybe an independent show. Me? I’m trying to give back at least once every three months for something so that I can try to get more eyes on the scene so the next generation of people get noticed a little bit easier.”