Heading into TNA’s marquee event, Bound For Glory, this Saturday, “The Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander is walking a fine line.
He’s facing Steve Maclin, someone he called “one of my best friends” in his interview with SlamWrestling.net.
Dropping a little bit into his heelish character, Alexander gave warning to Maclin: “He really wants to make something of himself in this and he’s going to have the prime opportunity at BFG, because I am the longest-running champion in company history. I was the heart and soul, the face of the company for the past couple of years before my recent issues with winning matches. He’s got a big chance in a big match, and I’m pretty hyped for it.”
Bound For Glory — or “BFG” to the cool kids — is on Saturday, October 26, 2024, at Wayne State Fieldhouse in Detroit, Michigan. Alexander just stayed local after competing twice at the debuting Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling shows, rare extended time in one place.
Alexander also went back in time, recalling the first time he met Maclin.
It was during the pandemic, when fans weren’t allowed. Maclin had been released by WWE/NXT, and was doing a tryout in Nashville for what was then Impact Wrestling.
“I didn’t know the guy. I knew of him from stuff I’d seen at NXT, and when he was on SmackDown, obviously. But I really had no clue about him. And then I remember his first match happened, and I was glued to the monitor. I always watch all the shows, especially when there’s new people, as I want to see what they have, to see if I can work with them, and stuff like that,” recalled Alexander. “He came to the back, and the first thing I said was, ‘Dude, you keep wrestling like that, the sky’s the limit for you.'”
Unlike Alexander, who has scratched and clawed — and retired/unretired — on the indies, Maclin went a different path.
“He hadn’t been seen by the independents. He went basically straight from wrestling school, where he was trained in New Jersey, to getting signed to NXT, and he spent the bulk of his career there,” said Alexander. “Then he was coming over here to, at the time, Impact, now TNA, and I was just blown away with how good. .. … It’s just stuff that you otherwise wouldn’t know someone would have that early in their career, because it’s only like five, six years in at the time. From the bulk of work and talent he worked with in NXT, it was apparent that this guy put the work in and wanted to be very good at this.”
It took four years before Alexander and Maclin actually wrestled, in September 2023. “I came out on top of that one, and now we’re revisiting at BFG, with a little twist where I’m the heel and he’s the babyface on the rise coming up. We’ll see how it plays out,” teased Alexander.
BOUND FOR GLORY 💀
Oct 26th
Detroit, MI@ThisIsTNA#BoundForGlorypic.twitter.com/TmS54W6Ezy— Steve Maclin (@SteveMaclin) October 18, 2024
Main eventing BFG is TNA World champion Nic Nemeth (the former Dolph Ziggler) defending against Joe Hendry, with Frankie Kazarian as the referee.
Alexander has been watching Hendry’s rise along with the rest of the wrestling universe.
“That’s the thing with wrestling, man. Over the years, we’ve seen it happen, whether it be Daniel Bryan, when he caught fire in WWE and was shoved into the WrestleMania main event probably against the powers that be as well at the time. KofiMania was another one. Every once in a while, the fans just gravitate to somebody, and it’s a happening,” said Alexander. “Joe Hendry went viral. He didn’t go viral just off one thing he’s ever done. He’s been doing that for a decade now, and finally, just one thing caught on, and it’s just made him an overnight sensation, right? He’s lucky in the sense that it took so long to make sure that he’s ready for it right now. But on the other end, that stuff may otherwise never happen. So when it does happen, you’ve got to keep rolling with it.”
The veteran Nemeth is “just a cool, hard-working guy, one of the boys,” said Alexander, noting that Nemeth is still “one of the people in the lobby at the hotel after shows to hang out and shoot the breeze a little bit.”
He chose the next words a little carefully.
“A lot of times you get these guys that come from WWE — he spent two decades there, did everything he ever did there. He never really experienced the independents, or anything like this. So coming down to a smaller company like TNA, where he does have the freedom to do whatever he wants, when he’s not working for TNA. Sometimes these guys are kind of jaded, might be the word, and that’s totally valid given their experience they might have had with these other companies that they might have worked for. He has been a pleasure to like the word go,” assured Alexander.
Having been at the top of the mountain, as Impact/TNA World champion, Alexander understands the extra demands on the top dog’s time. Like interviews with the media, even one he’s talked to often, like SlamWrestling.net. In short, it’s about way more than action in the ring.
“This business is about way more than that. It’s been built upon doing stuff like this for so long. It’s something that I always knew about. I just never knew kind of how much went into it and all that other stuff,” he said. Not everyone wants to invest the extra time. “You’ll see somebody like Joe that’s just ready for all the responsibilities that come with being in that position.”
A recent position that mattered was Alexander’s ranking in the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500. He went from #14 in 2022, to #9 in 2023, and is now #43. He swore it didn’t really matter to him.
“I don’t think you can let it bother you, that’s for sure. I’m sure it bothers some people,” he chuckled, “but for me, it’s cool to be recognized. … I found out very early, I think the first time I was in the PWI, or one of the first times I was ranked in the 300s and the person right below me was Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger and I was just wrestling in legion halls in Oshawa and Ottawa and Hamilton. I thought, ‘This list is crazy. I don’t know what goes into these rankings. I’m definitely not better than Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger, right? It’s just like recognition for what you’ve done. I had a crazy year, the year I qualified for #9, and for me to be able to show my kids that I’m Top 10, or show my family that I’m in a magazine ranked in the Top 10 wrestlers in the world, that’s certainly cool. I would never say it wasn’t.”
Down the road, maybe there is a Hall of Fame induction for Alexander; for now, it’s celebrating the two 2024 inductees: Former world champion Rhino/Rhyno (Terry Gerin) and Bob Ryder, the late backstage key player in the history of the company.
Alexander never worked with Rhino on the indies. “He was always a guy, like, every six to 12 months, regardless of which card he was on, he was popping up and being there and just seeing him in the locker room, interacting with him that way, you just see how much of an amazing guy he is, and how much he loves wrestling,” raved Alexander. “For the stuff he’s done in TNA, I was a fan watching every Wednesday night, every pay-per-view thereafter, every FOX SportsNet, everything.”
In 2005, Rhino arrived in TNA. “That was the Rhino that I was the biggest fan of,” said Alexander. “Rhino’s remembered a lot for his ECW stuff and his early WWE stuff, but for me, it was ‘The War Machine’ Rhino in TNA, just running through people, having crazy matches. The man’s afraid of heights, and he did elevation acts — you’ve got to give him just due — that alone gets him into the Hall of Fame. Everything else is just like a cherry on top, I think.”
He never knew Bob Ryder as well, though he did help Alexander with travel arrangements before Ryder’s death in November 2020.
“I’ve heard so many stories over the years, and I saw the impression that it had on everybody when he passed away, sadly, well, even before that, when he was sick, and people knew he was sick,” said Alexander. “It just speaks volumes to the content of his character, who the guy was, because he made this impression on so many wrestlers that I respect and have come to respect over the years and working with them. He was just such a good guy and a hard worker and would help everybody out so much.”
Alexander is a believer in TNA and, like with Hendry riding a wave, he thinks the promotion is too, and not just because of the association with NXT. The company has found some good venues, which helps with morale too.
“Probably last January, when we rebranded TNA, when we came back with Hard to Kill and, but all that stuff from The Palms of Vegas, the crowds have been amazing,” he began. “Not to speak to like other companies, but specifically for TNA, finding their buildings and stuff like that, it’s incredibly difficult to do sometimes. It’s not a home run, but some of these buildings we’ve gone to, whether it be San Antonio recently, the first time we’ve gone there in like six years, since I first started, the fans are packed in there. They want to see really good wrestling. They’re there for TNA specifically, not just because they saw wrestling on a poster, or on a ticket website somewhere. They’re fans of the product, which is something that, five or six years ago, wasn’t always the case.”
When the fans know your character, your gimmick, your music, it helps the wrestlers too.
“I think that’s just a testament to the working relationship has happened with NXT — it’s gotten more eyes on TNA,” he admitted. “And the rebrand of TNA also, because before we rebranded, man, like, I’d be crossing the border in Detroit here to go to the airport. ‘What do you do for a living?’ I’m like, ‘I’m a wrestler.’ ‘Oh, what company?’ I go, ‘Impact.’ They go, ‘Never heard of it.’ I go, ‘Have you heard of TNA?’ They go, ‘Yep.’ And I go, ‘That’s the company.’ Just the brand power that is behind TNA versus Impact Wrestling, I think that has led us like a huge hand in being able to get back out in the public eyes.”
TOP PHOTO: Steve Maclin vs Josh Alexander at TNA Bound For Glory 2024
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