Josh Alexander On Why Breaking His Neck Was Beneficial For His Career

In an interview with Fightful, Josh Alexander recalled breaking his neck in 2015 and how it was ultimately beneficial for his career. At the time, he was forced to retire but eventually came back to be the Impact World Champion. Here are highlights:

On breaking his neck and stepping away from wrestling: “This is like the weirdest thing. I’ve been asked this question many times and it’s always the same answer. Breaking my neck and having neck surgery and having to step away from wrestling was the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire career because I was always talented before. I wrestled for, I think, nine years before I broke my neck. I was always talented. I always got booked. I was a champion around in Ontario. I was very successful, but I never did the work. So when I thought I had to retire and my neck was banged up, I really had time to think. I had all these regrets of not putting in the work where I needed to, to get to that next level. When I came back it was nothing but work to make sure I got better so when I got those opportunities I could hit home runs and here I am, man. IMPACT Wrestling gave me an opportunity and that’s all I’ve been doing since.”

On how his neck feels now: “The neck’s fine. There’s no wood to knock on. But you get bumps and bruises and all that stuff. I’ve had a few injuries along the way, but nothing that’s gonna keep me down. That neck injury is hopefully the worst thing I’m ever gonna have to endure. Now, being a full time wrestler, I do so much more work on my body to keep myself healthy, to make sure that I’m in tiptop shape so I can keep doing this at a high level all the time. I feel younger now at 35 than I did at 25.”