Impact Wrestling star Josh Alexander, who returned last weekend at Slammiversary to face World Champion Alex Shelley following Shelley’s main event victory over Nick Aldis, is the first episode guest on Cody Deaner’s brand new podcast “Wrestling is Life is Wrestling with Cody Deaner.”
Deaner, the leader of Impact’s The Design, hosts a new podcast in which he speaks with wrestlers about how wrestling imitates life and life imitates wrestling, and all the lessons that can be learned in between.
Highlights from the premiere episode with Alexander are included below, along with full video:
Alexander on how watching wrestling as a young fan taught him that you can like whatever you like and you shouldn’t care what others think:
“For me, because I had the contrast of my stepdad in the room and saying, ‘Why are you watching this dumb stuff?’ [and my grandma being in the room] the lesson I took away from it was – ‘You can like whatever you want if you enjoy it.’ My grandmother, who never said a cross word to anybody would turn [to my stepdad] right away and say, ‘Let me like what I like!’
“If I can say anything from being a young wrestling fan … if you like something, even if it’s weird to the bulk of people at your school… wear that Degeneration X shirt and be the weird wrestling guy if that’s what makes you happy. That’s what I did. … If I can teach a life lesson to my kids it’s not to conform.”
Alexander on his tough upbringing leading to his current positive mindset in life and in the wrestling business:
“My [dad] didn’t have a dream to push himself. He kind of self-sabotaged himself before he could actually fail. Which is something I did time and time again throughout my childhood. The ‘you can’ts’ [in my house as a kid] were far more than the ‘you can do whatever you want.’
“In my house [now with my kids]… can’t isn’t a word you can use. I’m trying to prop everyone up at all times. Like you said with me, my fitness [journey], my wrestling [career], I’ve kind of willed this into existence. But, that [mindset] didn’t happen until I discovered wrestling.”
Alexander on a major lesson he learned from Johnny Devine in wrestling school:
“This is all my responsibility. No one else is going to pick up the slack for me. If I really want something… I gotta take it.”
Alexander on how talented Jake Something is and developing a friendship with Jake Something by going to war in the ring with him:
“I can’t be friends with someone until I wrestle them. We can be acquaintances, but the second we wrestle… it happened with me and Jake Something. We knew each other for years, we were always buddies, but we wrestled each other once and it was so kick ass and awesome. He was amazing. I came to the back and we leveled up in our friendship right away.”
