AEW's Josh Alexander Discusses Neck Injury

The path that Josh Alexander has walked in order to reach All Elite Wrestling has been an eventful one. At the age of 38, "The Walking Weapon" is a 20 year veteran who has held championships in places like TNA, PWG, and Maple Leaf Pro, but his career was briefly cut short in 2015 when it was announced that he would be retiring from wrestling after breaking his neck. This would actually be the second time that Alexander had broken his neck, something that his long-time friend RJ City brought up in a recent episode of "Hey! EW" as he asked what didn't he learn about breaking his neck the first time around.

"To wait and actually rehab it because I came back after six weeks," Alexander said. The reason he kept his injury a secret was because he didn't want ROH to find out as he was on the verge of joining the company in 2013, and after having his C5 and C6 vertebrae fused, he continued wrestling, only break it again which required another surgery, fusing his C4 and C5 vertebrae, resulting in the doctors telling him to retire. "I didn't really listen to doctors too much obviously...but the doctor told me I had to stop wrestling."

Alexander listened to the doctors and retired before he went under the knife for the second time, but ironically, the same doctor who told him to retire ended up delivering some very good news when Alexander woke up. "Well I woke up from surgery and told me he didn't have to fuse the second level. He was like 'yeah it wasn't as bad' and I was just like 'oh wow.' He's like 'you can go back to wrestling, just actually rehab this time." Alexander rehabbed his neck properly, and aside from tearing his triceps in 2023, has been wrestling full-time ever since.

Please credit "Hey! EW" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.