Alexander clears the air.
Just one month into the official rebrand of TNA Wrestling, company President Scott D’Amore’s contract was terminated by Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Members of the TNA roster would end up sending a letter to Anthem in support of D’Amore.
Several weeks later, TNA announced that they exercised an option in Josh Alexander’s contract to add more time to his deal. Alexander told the Battleground Podcast that he asked Anthem not to pick up the team option. He felt he outworked that contract but he’s not upset about it being picked up.
Alexander said it’s a good deal and shared that at one point, he forgot his deal was coming up. When it comes to comments from those on social media stating that he was kept there against his will, he said that is not the case. Alexander does not rule out re-signing in 2025 and Anthem has expressed interest in that as well.
He went on to add that he was interested in seeing how he’d fare in free agency. Alexander said his option being picked up and D’Amore’s termination are not correlated and just so happened to take place within the same short window of time. Alexander added that he did express that he did not want his graphic to read that he ‘re-signed’.
Rumors on the internet? No, come on guys. This isn’t a real thing (Alexander smiled). Two years ago, I signed a contract, it was two years plus a third-year option which is a team option for TNA and IMPACT Wrestling at the time, Anthem. I didn’t even know my contract was coming up to be honest. All this stuff happened with the termination of Scott D’Amore and stuff like that and I looked at my contract, I was like, ‘Oh man, February 14th? That’s like in three days. That’s weird.’ So, I had to inform Anthem that my deal was lapsed and they had 10 days to pick up the option if they wanted to and you know, if you don’t ask, you might not never find out so I certainly asked if they could not pick up my option and we could negotiate something different, because I feel like I’ve outworked that contract I signed but you know, it was a team option. It’s something that the ball is in their court. I signed the deal and it was totally within their rights to pick it up and I’m completely fine with them picking it up. It’s still a good deal. It’s not something that I’m upset about by any stretch but, just to read tweets and stuff like, I’m being held hostage and all this stuff and forced to stay here against my will, that’s not the case. I signed that deal two years ago, I knew what I was signing when I signed it. At the end of the day, at the end of my career, I wanna be able to look in the mirror, hold my head high and say that I carried myself as a professional first and foremost above anything else I do in this business. I want to say I did things right and I signed that deal, I’m gonna honor that deal and we’ll see what happens in the next 12 months. Something could be renegotiated for something long-term. In the meantime, Anthem has certainly mentioned that they would be interested in something like that. But, at the same time, I thought it would be cool for the first time in my career to kind of hit free agency and see what I was worth on the open market and then renegotiate then and see what could happen then but, yeah, I’m totally cool here staying in TNA. I’ve dreamt of being in TNA since I was a 15-year-old kid and I tuned in on Wednesday nights for the first time. So, for that to happen, finally get the TNA ring at the Palms for Hard To Kill and then the next day against Will Ospreay for Snake Eyes, that’s a dream come true so, I wanna see this thing through and I will for the next 11 months or whatever it is and then we’ll see where we go from there but, not being held hostage. That’s a little too dramatic for me.
I get it, with Scott D’Amore leaving — or sorry, being terminated or whatever and then this happening some two weeks later, it seems like it’s all happening in order for a reason but it’s just my deal was coming up at the exact same time and it was something that needed to be handled and the one thing that I held onto was like, ‘I don’t want you to say I re-signed anything because I’m not signing any new piece of paper’ and obviously, somebody with the graphics department made a mistake with that and then it just all got way worse. But yeah, they picked up my option, well within their rights, happy, here to stay and you’re gonna get the same Josh Alexander you’ve had for the past five years for the next 11 months, if not more than that and I’m gonna continue getting in that ring and just giving everything I have to make sure everybody gets their money’s worth.
At TNA’s No Surrender event, Alexander scored a win over Simon Gotch in singles competition. At the post-No Surrender TV taping, Alexander went one-on-one with Dirty Dango.
The next special for TNA is Sacrifice on March 8th.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit the Battleground Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
