Alex Shelley Reveals Why He Missed Impact Hard To Kill

By Marc Middleton

Alex Shelley took to Twitter this afternoon and revealed that his day job as a physical therapy clinician kept him from working the recent Impact Wrestling Hard To Kill pay-per-view.

Shelley was scheduled to team with Chris Sabin and Impact World Champion Rich Swann in the Hard To Kill six-man main event, against the team that ended up winning – AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and Impact World Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers. Impact announced the day before the pay-per-view that Moose would be replacing Shelley, noting that Shelley informed them late the night before that he was unable to travel to Nashville for the pay-per-view due to unavoidable circumstances.

Shelley revealed today that he is unable to travel and wrestle until he receives the COVID-19 vaccine, and this is related to why he missed Hard To Kill.

"Most days out of the week, I look like this. I read theories about why I wasn't at @IMPACTWRESTLING for Hard to Kill. They ranged from injury, to illness, to getting arrested, to harming my family members and attempting to cover it up; I am a physical therapy clinician," Shelley wrote, attaching a photo of him in his work attire. "Physio is my livelihood and career. Wrestling is my livelihood and passion project. At my company, due to the volume of sick and injured patients we are in care of, we modify our COVID-19 mandates as needed. As numbers went up, so did restrictiveness.

"To circumvent the topic, I could not be at Hard To Kill due to my career. I respect the decisions made by our company surgeons and doctors: I look to them for advice and guidance. I am unable to travel and wrestle until I am vaccinated. I took every caution I could before..."

Shelley continued and admitted that he does not want to receive the coronavirus vaccine so soon, but he does want to wrestle and he wants to keep helping people in therapy, so he really has no choice. He pointed to how Impact officials were supportive and understanding, especially to someone who is not under contract right now, and someone who does not want to be under contract. He ended the Twitter statement by thanking everyone for their support.

"But I don't feel right maintaining this duality unless I take every possible safety measure," he wrote. "When the vaccine became available, that required extra security on my end and my company's end for our patients. I honestly don't want to get the vaccine so soon...

"But I want to wrestle very badly while I help people in therapy. So there's no option. @IMPACTWRESTLING was supportive and understanding and as someone who doesn't have nor want a contract at this point, my hands were tied. Thanks for your support everyone."

There's no word yet on when Shelley will be back in action. Impact taped a few more months worth of TV content coming out of the Hard To Kill pay-per-view earlier this month, and Shelley did not work those tapings as his partner Sabin teamed with a returning James Storm. The next Impact pay-per-view, Rebellion 2021, is scheduled for April 24 in Nashville.

Stay tuned for more on Shelley's Impact status. You can see his full tweets below:

(Photo Credit: Impact Wrestling)

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