On ROH Restarting: I’m excited to get back to work, yeah man. I really am. I’m excited about getting back to wrestling. I’m actually getting back to go roll around the ring on Saturday, so I’m very excited about that. Gotta get my body calloused back to the way it was, because I’ve been off for six months or so.
On who he’s excited to face: All of them. Yeah, all of them. There’s not a guy on that roster who doesn’t have a target on their back – 100%. I do have my eye on a couple of people, but right now they can’t get in the country. They have certain things I want (their titles), and so once the borders open up we’re going to get into it.
On the Pure Championship: A title is a title, man. I’ll take a Pure title, a TV title, Heavyweight title, Tag title, the Left-Right Twisted Title. It don’t matter to me, man. I’m here to take titles and take names.
On debuting for ROH soon: Look forward to me debuting soon. Look forward to me making a very, very big debut. Just keep your eyes peeled, you never know where I’m going to pop up.
Training For His Debut: I have been hitting the gym, man. The first thing I did when I got back – because I just moved back home after graduating from the Ring of Honor dojo, I contacted a buddy of mine about going to the gym because the gyms are open around here. I got back to work. I wasn’t very happy with the way my body had been looking. I was in good shape, but I was on a little bit of the heavier side.
Ready to debut: I’ve been doing interviews like this and so on and so forth. Just kind introduce me to everyone in the wrestling world, but I’ve been around for 9-years. I’ve been on the Steve Austin podcast, I’ve been on Impact, I’ve wrestling for Ten Pounds of Gold. I’ve done a lot of things in the wrestling business that a lot of people don’t know about, so now its time to show the world what Sledge can do.
Fighting with depression: So I was fighting depression, being away from my family and everybody. I really took a risk. I went to Ring of Honor with no guarantee. I really gambled my wrestling career on this. It turned out for the best, but at the same time I left everything I knew. And I got really depressed being in a new place. So one thing that I did was depression eat. I’m a recovering addict, so I didn’t go to booze, I went to food. I got really heavy – Yes, I was in good shape, I was lifting constantly, but I wasn’t real happy. I was 270 or 280 [lbs]. First thing I did when I got back was change my eating habits. Now I’m down to 230 [lbs]. I’m in the best shape physically that I’ve been in, in a long time.
On hitting rock bottom: I lost everything, bro. I was to the point where I never thought I’d wrestle again. My best friend, I love him to death, Jason Turner is the one who really turned my life around. He told me, “hey bro, you need help. You’re going down a bad road.” I was addicted to pain killers. I was addicted to alcohol. I was going through a divorce. I was going down a bad spiral, man. When you have people around you just because they want to party, those aren’t real friends. Once they find out you don’t want to party anymore and you want to go after your dreams, a lot of those people will leave your life. A lot of people will criticize you for wanting to change your life. If you’re doing the right thing, who cares what other people think. What keeps driving me to do what I do is proving to the doubters that I … well, I shoved it right up their asses.
You can follow Sledge on Twitch, Twitter, and even TikTok with the username Sledge805. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon to watch Sledge on his Twitch show, “Coffee With Sledge.”