If he was banned, Alexander had a plan in place that he was content with.
After being sidelined since March 2023 and having to relinquish the IMPACT World Championship due to a tricep tear, Josh Alexander returned to IMPACT at Slammiversary.
Throughout Alexander’s career, he’s suffered two major neck injuries and that came up during his chat with Cody Deaner on the ‘Wrestling is Life is Wrestling’ podcast. Alexander stated that before his neck injury, he was having problems with Canada’s border agency. After his neck injury, he was served with a letter from the agency which read that if they caught him ‘with anything wrestling’ as he was trying to cross, he’ll be banned for life.
Alexander stated that the idea of the ban did not bother him because things were going well at the time. He was comfortable being the well known wrestler in ‘niche markets’ and wrestling top talents that came into the country. Alexander said he’d be content knowing he could hang with them and would’ve went on to open a wrestling school.
I had a bunch of issues with the (Canada) border before my neck (injury) but then my neck happened and then I got served with this letter saying if I cross and they caught me with anything wrestling, I was banned for life and I was like, ‘Life? I thought it was like five years’ and they’re like, ‘Oh, we can ban you for however long we want to’ and I was just like, ‘Oh, okay.’ So to say a rug was pulled from under me, I could say that but, I remember talking to my wife at the time and I was just like, ‘Even if I just wrestle in Canada for the rest of my life, I can still do this two, three times a weekend, every weekend no matter what and I’m gonna get that fulfillment and all this other stuff.’ I did accept that I was probably never gonna wrestle on television, I was probably never gonna get that contract that I wanted so bad just to, you know, give me that validation that all of this work meant something but I could be a well-respected professional wrestler. Known kind of in those small, niche markets around the world or whatever and I could get fulfillment in that and I can open a school and I could teach people how to wrestle and try to help them fulfill their dreams and stuff like that so it never really bothered me and as much when the border happened that last time because I was in a good place in my life where I still got to do this and sure, I wasn’t wrestling the biggest name in professional wrestling on television in front of 20,000 people but, I could go tear it up in front of 300 people and against anybody that is regarded as one of the best wrestlers in the world that’s flown into Toronto to wrestle and I know that I’m on the same level as them, you know what I mean? And that was fine for me. That was fun.
Coming up for IMPACT is their Emergence pay-per-view on 8/27 and Alexander is going to be in an eight-man tag. He’ll be teaming with KUSHIDA, Chris Sabin and IMPACT World Champion Alex Shelley to face X Division Champion Lio Rush, Moose, Bully Ray and Brian Myers.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Wrestling is Life is Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
