Former TNA world champion comments on a potential appearance in the 2025 men’s WWE Royal Rumble match
Former TNA world champion Josh Alexander did an interview with Chris Van Vliet and here are the highlights courtesy of ChrisVanVliet.com…
On approaching free agency: “February 15 I’ll be a free agent. I mean, TNA announced they extended me, picked up my year extension on February 14 last year. So yeah, heading into free agency for the first time. [I’m] equal parts nervous, equal parts excited. Obviously, there’s the one end of the spectrum where you’re like, nothing might come of this. You have to be realistic. I have kids, I have a wife, I have a house I pay for and stuff like that. I can just do wrestling because I love it, because that’s all I’ve ever really done. That’s what kind of what’s led me through this business the entire time, just getting fulfillment out of it is the most important part to me. As long as I get to do it at some level, I’m happy. I do indies, still to this day, where get tons of fulfillment, very happy to do it. And that might be it. I might just be doing Indies. Might be back doing construction to feed my family and stuff like that. But every so often you gotta bet on yourself. Five years ago it was Santana, one of my very good friends, and he was finishing up with TNA, at the time Impact Wrestling, we had an indie date, and he actually debuted the next night, but I didn’t know that. He never told me anything like that. So we’re just chilling out of the hotel. It’s just like, what made you want to leave or really look at it as an option because he’s very happy at Impact, they were very successful, obviously. And he was like, we just didn’t know what more we could do. We’ve held these Tag Team Championships this many times. We’ve had this many amazing matches with this tag team and this tag team. It’s just like, every once in a while you got to think about what’s coming next and what’s going to excite you. Because he kind of alluded to the fact that he hadn’t been excited in quite some time. And I was just like, man, that really hits. Because now I’m thinking about my own thing. I’m just like, I’ve done so much in TNA over the six years. I’m very grateful for it. Because opportunities are the one thing wrestlers need, and TNA has given me tons of countless opportunities to prove myself and show what I can do, but I’ve also done everything and worked with the bulk of the talent that’s in that company right now. So it’s just all about what’s going to get me excited beyond this point?”
His immediate future: “That’s the big question mark because I don’t know what the next step is. I’ve been ragged on in the past for saying I never had the dream of main eventing WrestleMania. And I know Hunter himself has had the quote being like, if you don’t want to be the top guy here, then you’re in the wrong business. It’s not that I don’t want to be the top guy, or don’t think I have the ability to be the top guy or anything like that, it was just never my childhood dream. Because I honestly never thought anything that I’m doing or have done was even possible. So this is all this amazing trip I’ve been on the entire time, and it’s just been setting little goals along the way, like you said. I want to win this Ontario indie promotions World Championship too. I want to get paid a certain amount to wrestle too. I want that contract to kind of validate all this work and all this travel. Running cars into the ground for little and no money to drive to Chicago and back, and one night make it back for work the next day and stuff like that, and then you achieve that contract, and all this other stuff I’ve been able to do. Now I’m sitting here going, what could I possibly do next that’s going to be the next step, and it’s just like, I need to grow my name. I feel like I’ve established myself as a top guy in TNA, and whatever might be next after that. I mean, I’ll find out, and then I’ll set those other goals.”
What could be next: “I’m looking at everywhere right now, like. Both my sons are wrestling nuts, especially my six year old. So, Monday is Raw, Tuesday is NXT, Wednesday is Dynamite, Thursday is Impact. I’m watching everything with my kids all week long, which is awesome, because I get to share this passion with them, but at the same time I’m watching the product, looking at NXT being like, man me and Ethan could tag up and we can face that tag team, that’d be awesome. I’d really love to have a match with Pete Dunne or Gunther, the list goes on, Then you watch Dynamite, and I’m just like, man, I’ve torn it up with Will and Takeshita in the past, I would sure love to do that on a bigger stage. And one bucket list thing I might have, a wrestler that’s stil out there wrestling that I would really love to get a chance to wrestle is Edge. He’s in AEW, you know what I mean? And there’s Japan, Shingo is the one guy on my bucket list, this is doable. I’m gonna make this happen. Him and Ishii were neck and neck, and I made the Ishii match happen. Shingo is the other one. So I just look at the landscape of it, where I can go and where the talent is I want to work with everybody’s kind of stacked, roster-wise. To be able to tell stories and stuff like that with these people, the options are all open.”
Potential Royal Rumble appearance: “I mean, unless TNA and their relationship with WWE work something out, I guess anything’s possible. Yeah, we can do that all day long—anything can happen in WWE. You never say never in the wrestling business, right?”