Josh Alexander always knew he was going to stay with IMPACT Wrestling.
Alexander returned to IMPACT Wrestling at Sacrifice, announcing he had signed a new deal with the promotion after he was "sent home" by the promotion on the February 10 episode of IMPACT.
On February 14, Alexander announced that his contract with IMPACT had expired, as did his visa.
Speaking to Sean Ross Sapp and Jimmy Van on The List & Ya Boy, Alexander explained that while his IMPACT contract expiring was a work, his visa expiring was legit.
"This visa stuff is legitimate, 100%, I've seen people comment and say 'that was all a work too just to make it seem more legit.' Like most things in my career, it was a circumstantial thing that happened to amplify this one thing and benefit it. I would never cancel a booking, ever, that's not in me to do. I had to cancel two shows for that because of legitimate visa issues with lawyers and stuff that is way over my pay grade. That was unfortunate. It all got handled now. I'm back in the state and have a new visa and everything else," he said.
Alexander had to miss TERMINUS and AML due to his US visa expiring.
Speaking about the storyline on IMPACT television, Alexander said that he had already agreed to a new deal before his current deal had expired.
"We agreed in principle and when my contract expired, we agreed before I had a chance to talk with anybody else. I knew where I wanted to stay and what I wanted to do," he said.
He also noted that while wrestlers were asking others about what was up with him leaving the company, no one ever asked him.
"I wanted this to happen from the get-go," he stated. "I knew I wanted to stay with IMPACT because I'm clearly happy there, there's a lot stuff going on there, I just want to wrestle, I don't care where I wrestle as long I do what I get to do at the highest level and all this other stuff. It all materialized and came together pretty quickly. The whole work of the whole thing is that IMPACT has had this reputation of losing marquee talent time and time again. Me, being a babyface, I approached management and said, 'If I'm staying, why don't we make a thing out of it that I chose to stay at IMPACT.' I probably could have gone somewhere else and could have gotten a job somewhere else, but I didn't want to, so I wanted to amplify that. Not just for me, but for the whole brand of IMPACT and the fans."
He continued by saying "there was a 1% chance I wasn't going to re-sign with IMPACT. My relationship with everybody there, from management all the way through the locker room, I feel like I'm part of something that's growing and on the ground floor and we've all got room to grow together. I'm a loyal person and a team player, I've been that way my whole life."
Alexander was name-dropped on AEW television by Brandi Rhodes, who said Ethan Page was only signed so they could get to Alexander.
When asked if he knew that AEW was going to mention him, Alexander replied, "I had no idea. I thought it was all a big work between management and IMPACT and they were just helping each other out, trying to make things even more, but it all snowballed. The Brandi thing happened and that was them doing whatever they wanted to do. Even Ethan Page working Christian, whose last match was against me two and a half months ago, was this weird synergistic thing that happened. It was all happenstance and amplified it even more."
Upon returning to the company at Sacrifice, it was announced that Alexander would be challenging Moose for the IMPACT World Title at Rebellion.
Moose won the IMPACT World Title from Alexander at Bound For Glory, cashing in his Call Your Shot Gauntlet Trophy moments after Alexander defeated Christian Cage to win the title.
If you missed anything from IMPACT Sacrifice, check out Fightful's full report on the show by clicking here.
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