Alex Shelley reflects on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted his career.
Alex Shelley returned to IMPACT at Slammiversary 2020, and he became a featured member of the roster. He and Chris Sabin won the IMPACT World Tag Team Championship, and they later lost the gold. Shelley missed IMPACT Hard To Kill 2021 due to unavoidable circumstances, and he revealed that his career outside of the wrestling world required him to do so. He then stepped away from wrestling, but he returned to the ring in September 2021. Shelley came back to IMPACT in March 2022, and he has been an active competitor ever since.
Speaking with Steve Fall for WrestlingNewsCo, Alex Shelley was asked about stepping away from IMPACT Wrestling. He noted that he did what he had to do. Shelley then recalled how he got offers from multiple companies ahead of the pandemic.
“I just did what I had to do. At the time, pre-COVID, I was offered contracts from multiple companies and I probably would have signed one of them, but COVID happened. When I saw the entertainment industry take a hit, a pretty brutal hit, I thought this would be a poor time for me to put all my eggs in the entertainment basket. So I was working as a physical therapy clinician at the time, and a lot of people needed help, that’s for sure. So our clinic stayed open throughout the pandemic. I worked all throughout the pandemic, and as regulations changed, as the COVID situation changed, my company basically mandated that we got vaccinated, but that was gonna take a period of time, and I had to cancel wrestling bookings because of that. It broke my heart to do so, but physical therapy was my livelihood, and I had patients to take care of, and I did what I had to do. So COVID was strange times for everybody," Shelley said.
Shelley previously praised ROH for paying him during the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to see what he had to say.
Shelley is set to defend the TNA World Championship against Moose at TNA Hard To Kill. Check out the card here.
Fightful will have live coverage of TNA Hard To Kill as it airs on January 13.
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