Impact: Alex Shelley on Staying in Impact, Jake Crist on Impact Return, Against All Odds Fallout TV Tapings

Impact Wrestling

Jun 9, 2023

Alex Shelley on His Decision to Sign New Contract with Impact

As noted before, The Motor City Machine Guns, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, signed new contracts with Impact Wrestling this past March.

WrestleZone held a recent interview with Shelley. One of the topics discussed included Shelley’s reasons why he and Sabin decided to sign new contracts with Impact to stay in the company.

“For years I had this idea that I was going to be depending on wrestling and if wrestling wasn’t there, then I would have nothing. It took a long time and it took a a lot of education, I’ve got two bachelor’s degrees and part of a masters. I had to, for my sanity, exist in the real world for a period of time. I’ve wanted that, and I did that. When I first decided to come back to wrestling, I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got a pretty good degree. I’ve got a good job in medicine, I’ll just dabble in it and see how it goes.’ If you really enjoy something and you’re good at it, you tend to want to do it more. Eventually I started to realize that maybe I’m better than I thought I was. Now that I’ve got this monkey off my back in terms of feeling inadequacy, in terms of existing in the real world. Now that that has been taken care of and I know full well that I can exist in the real world, I can devote myself to wrestling and really love it. Now I can be very open with it.
As I went through that process, I started wrestling more and more and more. Eventually, it got to the point where I think despite how good I am at other things in life and despite what I’ve set myself up for with these contingency plans, I’m probably supposed to be doing this. If I really look at why I exist and what I can do the most good with, and how many lives I can touch with wrestling, it far out ways anything else I could potentially do. That’s when I started to realize that I should probably go back to wrestling full time.
I realized that life is unpredictable. I can’t assume that wrestling is always going to be there. No, you’ve only got now as far as throwing yourself into something and I’ve had that mentality for probably over a year and I signed my contract about two months ago. I was precarious as I could be with trying to manage it and make an educated decision, but wrestling is always changing anyway and IMPACT seemed like the right place at the right now, I love that company very much. That was the first contract I’ve put my name to since probably 2016 when I signed with Ring Of Honor for two years. I’m very happy to do that to do it for a company that I love.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Jake Crist Comments on His Recent Return to Impact

A recent episode of the Callihan Uncensored podcast featured Jake Crist as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Crist’s thought on his return to Impact Wrestling at this past May’s Under Siege 2023 event and being sober from alcohol for the past three years.

“I can’t even put it into words. I can’t even express the meaning. Three years of hard work, dedication, going to the gym, dieting. I know it’s cliche to say all those things, but that’s exactly what I was doing. I’m telling you, I came out the better person in the end and I’m very, very happy that I got that opportunity. Not only was I happy that I was able to overcome all the odds that I’ve overcome, but to do it by my best friend’s side was just the icing on the cake.
Three years sober and I’m very, very happy and proud to say that. It’ll be three years this October. I kind of forgot the date to be honest. I forgot what it’s like to be drunk. I forgot what it’s like to be hungover. I’ve just loved the feeling of forgetting what it was like to be that drunk.
I do not recommend that at all because going back during the research, you know, and actually suffering through withdrawals. The day before, I was with a small group of people and we decided to have a few drinks and I actually told my wife, ‘You could do most of the drinking if you feel like it. I’m only gonna have one. I’ll drive us home.’ Well, one ended up being a whole bottle of vodka. I was like 240 pounds at this time. I just let myself go. I didn’t know what was going on. It was in there in the middle of the pandemic. I just didn’t know where my life was headed. So I just started throwing them back. Next thing you know, one became the bottle. She’s carrying my 240 pounds. She gets me out of the passenger seat and I fall face down, ass up in my front lawn. She’s trying to get me up and I’m telling her, ‘No, no, leave me. Please leave me.’ She’s trying and then I legit turn my head and I just vomit. Like violently vomiting. It was bad.
I wake up [not knowing if he was asleep for 5 seconds or 5 hours]. Travel back into my house and I go to my bathroom to do the normal hangover ritual which was throw up, take a shower, throw up, take a shower. Do that, repeat, recycle seven times. So that was like my home remedy of curing my hangover. So in the middle of me going to do this this process, I walked past my mirror and I didn’t even recognize who that guy was. Just like, ‘Who is this guy?’ That’s when I was living in rock bottom’s basement. I was trying to crawl crawl up and every little thing would send me back down to the basement. So I literally put both hands on each side of the mirror and I had a heart to heart with myself. I remember one of the last things I said to myself is, ‘You’re not the best wrestler in the world, but you’re one of the best wrestlers in the world. It’s time to get your shit together. The two things that held you back your whole career has been your ability to talk and your body. Now it’s time to become unstoppable.
Last time, I took a shower, get ready, throw some gym clothes on start walking out. My wife goes, ‘Hey, where are you headed?’ ‘I’m headed to the gym.’ She’s like, ‘Well, you don’t have a membership. What are you talking about?’ ‘I’m about to!’ Walking to the gym ever since for three years.”

Crist also gave his thoughts about the reception backstage to his return to the company.

“It was overwhelming. I can’t even put it into words how much every single person that came up to me and said something amazing about how great I looked or how young I look or how fantastic of shape I was in, it was awesome. It was the best feeling ever. It made every bit of those three years, every second of that, it made it all worth it. There were days that I literally made myself go to the gym, like I made myself quit drinking and put down the bottle. Anything that you can think about that would set you over the edge and make you want to do those things, I literally had to block those things out to get to this point in my life and I’m so happy and grateful that I’m at the end now.
That’s 100% fact. If I didn’t do that, if I didn’t make a change, I wouldn’t have had these opportunities. I know that for a fact. I’m on the best run of my life.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Impact Announces Full Card for Against All Odds 2023 Fallout TV Tapings

Impact Wrestling recently announced the full card for their Against All Odds 2023 Fallout Impact television tapings, which takes place on June 10th at Ohio Expo Center and State Fairgrounds in Columbus, Ohio.

Steve Maclin & Bully Ray vs. Frankie Kazarian & Eddie Edwards
Joe Hendry vs. Yuya Uemura
oVe (Sami Callihan, Madman Fulton, & Jake Crist) vs. Brian Myers & The Good Hands (Jason Hotch & John Skyler)
Moose vs. Rich Swann
Street Fight – PCO vs. Deaner
Killer Kelly vs. Taylor Wilde
The Design (Kon & Angels) vs. Johnathan Gresham & “Speedball” Mike Bailey