Alex Shelley On How He Celebrated His Impact World Title Win

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Alex Shelley spoke about winning the Impact World title and how he celebrated after he became champion. Shelley defeated Steve Maclin at Impact Against All Odds to win his first World title. He said that he went to Waffle House and ordered the same meal he had when Kevin Nash first took him there in 2006: “four scrambled eggs, two chicken breasts, steamed hash browns and whole wheat toast.” Here are highlights:

On getting back to the grind: “This is a gift. It’s not an obligation. It’s something I am lucky to do. If you want to be champion of a major promotion, you need to outwork everyone. That’s what I want; so I’m grinding.”

On not taking time off: “I think back to Ric Flair and Harley Race defending the belt in multiple cities in one night. Those guys didn’t take nights off. Kevin Nash is another one. That stretch he had as WWE champion was insane. He said something that always stuck with me when he said, ‘I could either sleep or I could work out.’ If you find a gym, you take it. CM Punk took care of me on the road 20 years ago. If he passed a gym, he worked out. That’s part of how he left his imprint on the business. They led by example, and that’s what I plan to do.”

On the outpouring of support after his win: “I was very grateful that people watched the match and shared the moment with me. I’ve heard from a lot of people I was close with over the past 20 years. People from all over, including WWE and Japan and AEW. I didn’t even recognize some of the numbers at first. It was mind-blowing, it meant the world to me and I responded to every single one of those texts.”