Various: Josh Alexander Confirms He Asked Anthem to Not Pick Up His TNA Contract Option Year, El Hijo Del Vikingo Knee Surgery Update, Indies

Mar 1, 2024

Josh Alexander Confirms He Asked Anthem to Not Pick Up Option Year in His TNA Contract

As noted before, TNA Wrestling recently picked up the option year for Josh Alexander’s contract pushing back the expiration date from February 14, 2024 to now a new date of February 15, 2025.

A recent episode of the Battleground Podcast featured Alexander as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Alexander confirming the reports about him asking Anthem officials to not pick up the option year on his contract. Alexander also stated that the reason for his request was due to him feeling that he had outworked his contract and had been interesting in testing free agency but he is not upset at Anthem for their decision to extend his deal.

“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.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

El Hijo del Vikingo Knee Injury Update – Vikingo Underwent Successful Surgery

As noted before, El Hijo del Vikingo suffered a serious right knee injury at an indie event for Alianza Universal De Lucha Libre (AULL) earlier this month in Mexico. Vikingo was scheduled to undergo surgery for his knee on Thursday.

Lucha Libre AAA provided an update on Thursday on Twitter stating that Vikingo’s surgery was a success. It was also announced that they will be making an upcoming announcement regarding how long Vikingo will be out of action and the status of his AAA Mega Championship reign.

Comunicado oficial: HIJO DEL VIKINGO. #FuerzaVikingo 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/cY23dcCc2v
— Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (@luchalibreaaa) March 1, 2024

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Thursday’s ROH TV show for Ring of Honor featured Queen Aminata advancing to the Semifinal round of the on-going ROH Women’s World Television Championship tournament.

Thursday’s Intimidation Games 2024 event for Major League Wrestling in New York City, New York featured Mistico defeating Rocky Romero to become the new MLW World Middleweight Champion.

Thursday’s MLW Intimidation Games 2024 event also featured WTF (“Filthy” Tom Lawlor & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) defeating Second Gear Crew (1 Called Manders & Matthew Justice) to become the new MLW World Tag Team Champions.

MLW recently announced that New Japan Pro Wrestling talent Kosei Fujita will be making his official debut for the company at their War Chamber 2024 event on March 29th in St. Petersburg, Florida.

WrestleCon announced that Nic Nemeth, Shun Skywalker, Titan, and Matt Riddle will be making an appearance for the company at their Mark Hitchcock Memorial SuperShow 2024 event on April 4th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

WrestleCon also recently announced that Ricky Starks, Thunder Rosa, “The Bounty Hunter” Bryan Keith, and Bryce Remsberg will be making an appearance for the company at their WrestleCon 2024 on April 4-7, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

TNA Wrestling announced that Starrcast’s upcoming Starrcast Down Under event this April in Australia will be featuring some of their TNA Championships being defended at the event.

VICE TV recently announced that the first three episodes in order for Season Five of their Dark Side of the Ring series on the network are John Tenta on March 5th, Buff Bagwell on March 12th, and Terry Gordon on March 19th.

Dark Side of the Ring recently released a teaser video for their upcoming Season Five premiere episode featuring Haku, also known as Meng in WCW, watching a clip of The Shockmaster’s infamous debut in WCW for the first time ever and erupting in laughter over The Shockmaster’s botched entrance.

In a recent interview with Puroresu-Today, New Japan Pro Wrestling President and talent Hiroshi Tananashi gave his thoughts about the future of his in-ring wrestling career. Tanahashi stated “In terms of timing… it was 50-50 (as far as whether I was surprised about becoming NJPW President). I was surprised. As a wrestler, I challenged for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title once, but lost and was never crowned. I believe that as a wrestler, when you stop aiming to be the best, that’s the time to step down. When I asked myself, do you want to wear that belt? I thought, I want to wear it, so I think it’s still a long time before I retire.” Tanahashi also stated that one of his goals is to have a venue built to be a home base for the company and have it be named the Inoki Arena in honor of the late Antonio Inoki. Tanahashi stated “As a wrestler, Hiroshi Tanahashi, I want to win the IWGP World Heavyweight belt. As president, one of my goals is to build a permanent venue… So it could be music or theater. I would like to have an arena that is always in operation, with events held by other groups. If people gather there, there’s food and drinks in the area, which energizes the whole city… I would like to build an arena for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. I’ll name it the Inoki Arena… Then, 100 or 200 years from now, when today’s wrestlers are gone, the name of the arena will still be there… And they may go back through history and find out that he (Antonio Inoki) is the founder of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, or maybe they’ll meet Tanahashi in the process. Having a permanent venue is a dream come true.” (English translation via PostWrestling.com)

Prestige Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Roseland 8 event on April 14th in Portland, Oregon:

Miyu Yamashita vs. Kylie Rae