An unexpected retirement at a young age is a hard pill to swallow for most wrestlers, including Josh Alexander. The newest face in the AEW men's division never thought that post-2014-2015, he would ever wrestle again after sustaining back-to-back neck injuries. By the grace of fate, "The Walking Weapon" came back more vigorous, lighting up both the singles and tag team divisions of various promotions, including an unbeatable two-time reign with the Impact World Tag Team Championship with long-time partner and now "WWE NXT" star, Ethan Page. Alexander revisits his comeback journey on"AEW Unrestricted."
"Well, I first broke my neck in July of 2014," Alexander recounted. "I had surgery in September. I came back in October, because at the time, Ring of Honor was talking about signing what was then the Monster Mafia. I was really scared that, you know, if I had to take nine months off blah, blah, blah, like, Ethanwould lose his opportunity and stuff, so I'm like, I'll work around it, you know what I mean? I'm not going to take any head bumps...Which turned out to be pretty stupid because I rebroke it in March of the next year, 2015."
To his surprise, the current/inauguralMLP Canadian Champion wouldn't be out of action for long, after unexpected news was announced that the retired star's days out of the ring wouldn't be much longer than anticipated.
"The second time I broke it, the doctors were just like, 'We're going to have to fuse two levels. There's no way you're going to be able to wrestle again,'" Alexander added. "And I was just, by then, I was done...I've been chasing this dream now for, like, I don't know, 12 years or whatever it is...I woke up from surgery and it was just like, 'Oh, we didn't have to fuse two levels.' And I was like, 'Why?' And he was like, 'Oh, you know, it wasn't as bad when we opened it up. It was just like...there was bones in your spinal column. So, we removed it. You should be fine.' Just, you know, do nine months of rehab.'"
Six months after his second surgery, Alexander mentioned to Page that he was coming back, despite keeping his neck status hush-hush from fans, as he feared they would see him as a fraud following the proclamation that his days as an in-ring competitor were over. Luckily, the fans were ecstatic to see Alexander return healthy and ready to compete again. Since his second surgery, Alexander and Page, collectively known as The North, made history, as their first reign as tag team champions was cemented as the longest-ever reign while TNA was under the Impact Wrestling banner (380 days). After Page's departure from Impact to AEW in 2021, Alexander started his solo journey, becoming the X-Division Champion for 151 days before invoking "Option C," which allows that champion to vacate the title to challenge for the Impact World Championship, at the time. He had two runs with the World Championship, with his second run surpassing Bobby Roode's untouchable reign at 256 days with 335 days. Not long after the company returned to its TNA banner, Alexander announced his departure in February of this year.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "AEW Unrestricted" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
