Joe Alonzo details how ended up with the NWA.
Alonzo began working with the promotion in 2022, but before that, the future of 'The Chosen One' wasn't looking very bright after almost burning a bridge with QT Marshall and AEW.
While speaking to Fightful for a new interview, Alonzo detailed QT Marshall's issues with his behavior at the time and how he believed his career was basically finished.
"I kind of like went on a little hiatus with wrestling, just trying to like rebuild up. I did a lot of AEW stuff back in 2020. I wrestled Cody in 2020 and Jake Hager and a couple other things. We should have booked more time for this. I'll try to make that short. In 2020, I'm a person who tends to get very comfortable. I get comfortable fast. I don't care who you are. I don't mean to be arrogant about it. I just look at everyone. You can be Tony Khan. You can be Vince McMahon. You can be whatever, Billy Corgan. I don't care. If I get to know you for like five minutes of us talking, I will kind of just get comfortable fast because I don't look at your status of who you are as a person. We're all human beings. So I tend to pick up mannerisms and I'm like, ‘Okay, this is how he kind of rolls.’ It's not a good thing—it is and it isn't. So at AEW, I got very comfortable with just being myself and there was a time where I remember measuring Ricky Starks and Marco Stunt on the stage because Ricky was calling me short. I was like, ‘Ricky, you're like 5' 10", bro. Don't call me short. You're only two inches taller than me, like an inch maybe.’ He's like, ‘Oh, I'm six feet. I'm six feet.’ Yeah, I'm like, ‘Bro, you're like 5’10 and a half, bro. Get the hell out of here.’ That was like one thing I wore a Patriots hat in a segment, which that really pissed, I think, Tony Khan off because he owns the Jags. Then I was like too much into this Jericho segment, which was my fault. I admit now that was stupid. Then it was just more of like a, ‘Hey, Joe is getting too comfortable. He shouldn't be there.’ Then I kind of had like a falling out with a good friend at the time, Sammy Guevara. We had a falling out. So I kind of did my own thing. The Indies were dead, it was 2020. So nothing was really running. I was really fat at the time and I lost a bunch of weight, got in shape, kind of rebranded myself and I started doing things. Then I was, at the time in my career, I was very angry and I was like, ‘I'm gonna make AEW regret getting rid of me and I'm gonna do all this.’ As I was doing that, I started doing like a little feud with Fuego and like the goal was to talk so much shit about Fuego, saying he was never going to get signed and then hopefully that would make them sign him because Fuego was my boy, and they signed him but then when Fuego got signed we had our feud still and he was kind of forgetting about that because he was doing stuff for TV now. So I get it. He wasn't like promoting our like our match that we had coming up. So I went to like an AEW press conference, like a Q&A panel unannounced and I like asked a question and I like hijacked the panel and went up to the thing. They were like, ‘Dude, this dude's nuts. Lost his mind. Like he's going crazy.’ I think I like, like I messed up and I called Fuego a pussy in front of the whole crowd. You know, I shouldn't have said that. But at the same time, man, like they were all swearing. So it's like, if it was anyone else, it would have been fine. But because I said it, I knew it was bad. So like QT was like, ‘I'll make sure you never work in the history of professional wrestling ever again. You're blackballed,’ yada, yada, yada. So I was like, ‘Alright, bro, do it.’ So the next day, I got the call that Fuego couldn't do the show anymore. So I was like, ‘Damn, alright, bet.’ So I like posted the video of QT saying he'd make sure I never work in this sport again. Then he's like, ‘It's already done.’ I posted the match graphic of it saying cancelled and then I posted Marshall’s photo. Dude, QT was so pissed. He like called me and like he was yelling at me at first and then it turned into like a conversation and then at that point I was like, ‘Dude my career is done. This was the thing that went too far and I shouldn't have done this,’ and I like to always tiptoe on like the border of what's too far. Okay, and that one I was like, ‘Alright, that was too far.’ But I will say like shout out to QT. He’s always up for a conversation like, most won't do that. If you have an issue with somebody, they'll kind of just run away from it. QT will say, ‘Hey, man, like, let's talk.’ He's down to talk. So I respect that. At that time, I had like no self-esteem whatsoever. I'm like, ‘My career is done, whatever.’ QT, at the end of that conversation was like, ‘Listen, man, you're fucking up your life right now, your career,’ and he's like, ‘But I do believe in you and I do believe you're gonna be on TV someday, but you need to go and kind of like fix your reputation, go do other shit and then come back. If you ever need help, like I'll help you.’"
Alonzo then talked about how he scored a match with Gunther on SmackDown in August 2022 before noting that he also had a meeting with John Laurinaitis a couple of weeks later.
"At the time I'm like, ‘He's just saying that because he doesn't want me to do anything wild.’ But then I'm like, ‘Nah.’ I thought about it and I got to WWE. Like I had my trainer, Robert Anthony and a couple other people helped me out to get that. Then that landed. I did a good job with that and then they gave me the Gunther match. I did a good job with that. They called me specifically for the Gunther match. Like they were like, ‘Can you be at Smackdown tomorrow in Milwaukee?’ I'm like, ‘Yeah,’ and I was there. Then like I got the good job from Vince and John Laurinaitis and then like a couple weeks after that, I had a meeting with Laurinaitis and I cut a promo. I did that and I like shot my shot. I was like, ‘Listen, man, everyone tells you watch their stuff. Like you've already seen me wrestle like and I did with Gunther.’ I'm like, ‘Let me cut a promo for you right now,’ and I did and he was impressed and had me go cut another one. Then a week or two later he stepped down and I'm like, ‘Shit man.’ It was what it was."
Alonzo went on to talk about how things started to pick up for him again, as he made amends with QT Marshall shortly after starting to work for the NWA.
"But then I started doing NWA stuff, like little things here and there. Nothing was signed. It was just, ‘Hey, show up to this taping, get this match, get this match.’ Like I was just getting beat up by everyone and then right before I knew, I kind of feeling that they were going to sign me. I hit up QT. I was like, ‘Listen, man, like, I'm doing shit. I'm getting out there. I’ve really grown up a lot.’ Which I did, man, like from being 23, 24, being an idiot to like 27 year old me today, man. I don't regret it. I think like, if I didn't do that, I'd still be an idiot and like, who knows? Who knows what I would have done? But I pretty much just shot my shot at QT and was like, ‘Hey, man, like I feel time heals everything. I'm not trying to ask you for a job or to get like a huge spot. Just for myself I need to do this and go back. I mean, see how other people feel about it.’ He did and he got back to me. He was like, ‘Alright, be there.’ I didn't think I was going to get a match. I'm like, ‘I'm just going to hang out. This is going to be like shaking hands and whatever.’ Then I remember Robert Anthony comes up to me and he's like, because I'm getting ready to walk by the board just to check if my name's on it, which I'm like, ‘It's not.’ He just stops me, grabs my shoulder and, he's like, ‘Joe, anything is possible.’ I turn and I look at the board. I'm like, ‘Holy shit, like my name is on the board.’ So it was like it was a cool moment that we had, too. I'm glad you brought that up. As he's walking backstage, I'm walking out to on the side of the ramp and he just like looks at me and he goes, ‘Make sure you kill it.’ I'm like, ‘Absolutely.’ It was just like that moment, that teacher student moment where it's like, you made a lot of your mistakes, but you're not your mistakes, you learn from them, and this is an opportunity to redeem yourself."
Alonzo went on to state that he almost broke his neck in his return to AEW. Then, Alonzo shifted focus to his NWA run and how he was offered a contract.
"I got really hurt in that match, I almost broke my neck, if I'm being honest with you, like that was a real, real bad bump that I took from Satnam Singh. That was ugly, but I'm okay, I'm walking. Just little neck issues here and there, but we're good. But I needed that, and then literally two weeks later, NWA is like, ‘Hey, we want to offer you a contract.’ I signed with them and with NWA, it took me a long time to show them that I'm like, ‘Hey man, I'm very confident in what I can do.’ I didn't ask for permission. I just started doing my thing. I had a feud with Homicide and I started like, doing wild promos on him and everyone thought I was crazy for that because he's a killer and he'll mess me up if I disrespect him. I actually earned his respect and now Homicide is like a mentor of mine because of me having the balls to do what I did with him. So, yeah, man. It's been a wild ride, but for it to get to AEW, ruin that, go to WWE, go to NWA back to AEW, get signed with NWA and then now to be able to better myself and walk away because I know I can get better. It's a gamble, but we'll see what happens from like here on, here on out. I'm trying to do like a little bit of Indies right now in the meantime, but it's been a journey. It has been one wild ass ride. I know I kind of crammed all that at you in that."
Alonzo recently left the NWA, as his contract with the company expired on July 1.
Elsewhere in the interview, Alonzo detailed his departure from the NWA. Learn more about those comments by clicking here.
Fans can check out Joe Alonzo's full interview with Fightful in the video linked at the top of this article.
