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This past Monday, Mike Johnson sat down with MLP Canadian Men's Champion Josh Alexander in advance of tomorrow's MLP Northern Rising 2026 PPV on MyAEW.com. Below is the complete transcript for the discussion, which can be heard at www.PWInsiderElite.com.
Mike Johnson: Hey everybody, it's Mike Johnson in the audio section of PWInsiderElite.com. As we are recording this, it is the morning of Monday, September 28, 2026. I'm very thankful for Josh Alexander to sit down with us. We had scheduled this interview to talk about this Saturday's Maple Leaf Wrestling Northern Rising event, which is going to air on myAEW from Toronto. Josh is in one of the main events, we'll talk about that in a couple of minutes. Obviously, we would be remiss and we'd be disrespectful to not mention the passing of Ben Satterley yesterday, PAC, who wrestled pretty much everywhere. Josh, first of all, thanks for even coming on. I know it's a hard day for everybody, and I feel like it would be disrespectful to ignore what happened and go into just promotional mode and have a little fun conversation about pro wrestling, which is what I hoped we were going to get to do. But do you want to talk about PAC at all? I know you had the chance to be in the ring with him a couple of times in AEW. I don't think anybody listening to this needs to know his resume; we all know how great he was in the ring and how much people loved him behind the scenes. But if you want to speak on his passing or what he meant to you or the business, I'd like to give you that forum first and foremost. And I really thank you for even sitting down this morning, because as I said yesterday, if we pushed this back or canceled, I don't think anybody would have been disappointed. We all know how horrible the situation is.
Josh Alexander: Yeah, yeah, no, obviously a tough time. You know, we lost Andy a few weeks ago, and then we lose Ben. To me, I was sitting... I was flying home last night when I saw the news. So I was in the gate in Atlanta, and I get the news, and it was just like... I just couldn't stop tearing up because you lose the two nicest people, like literally the two nicest people I have met in this business in the past nearly 21 years were Andy and Ben, PAC. And it's just like... it's just life isn't fair, man. And I think about it like, you know, we could postpone this and do all this stuff, and I don't think that either of them would have wanted that. I don't think Ben would have wanted that. Ben had such a... I mean, you're going to hear it from people sharing their stories, but like the only thing you get from this guy is that he took pro wrestling incredibly seriously. You could tell just by looking at him, like he prepared, he built himself up from nearly nothing as like a city kid just trying to make a name for himself to being, to me... I tweeted this, I got into a conversation with a coworker maybe a week and a half ago, and we were talking, some other people that weren't really wrestlers were talking about who's the best of us all. And they were like Mox, or Will, or somebody, you know? And I was just like, to me, it's PAC. And the coworker, you know, I'm not going to mention who it was, but they were just like, "Yes! 100% agree, I've been saying that for years." And it was just because like, we were such big fans of him as a talent. Like to me, he's the closest thing we're ever going to see to an Eddie Guerrero. Somebody that was good at literally every aspect of pro wrestling, whether, you know, what style, what place, whatever it is, he mastered it. And, you know, he was such a better person than anything else, than any other quality that you could have said about him, and he had so many good qualities. But he was just like an unparalleled human being, and I'm going to miss him. And it's just... damn, it's just tough. You say goodbye to friends, and you know that if you were in their place, you would want them to continue, you know, doing the pro wrestling thing and being in the hamster wheel and promoting shows and working shows and building a name for yourself, but it's just... it's just tough. It's that part of life that just sucks, man.
Mike Johnson: Yeah, and our condolences go out to his family and his friends, both in the UK and back here in the United States. Because, you know, the one thing that I thought about yesterday... I had a couple of people like, "Oh, you didn't write a bio yet on him," and I sat there for like an hour. And I'm like, what do you write about someone who in a lot of ways was the perfect pro wrestler? Every pro wrestler, Josh included, every single wrestler, does things that the average mortal, myself included, could never hope to do, and they do it on a nightly basis. But then you look at [Pac], and even if you take all the flying stuff—the Man Gravity Forgot—you take that out of the resume, everything else he did was perfect. The intensity, the timing, the realism... like everything that you want a pro wrestler to be from my perspective on the outside looking in, is what he excelled at. He had all of that. And that's why I think that's why his success in Dragon Gate, and PWG, and New Japan, and WWE, and AEW, and beyond... he was great at everything. He was so good at everything I think that if you weren't inside the business, because all the wrestlers always cheered and celebrated how great he was, I think he was almost like a chameleon where he was so good at everything that the average person watching probably took for granted how great he was as a performer. But all that pales in comparison to what he was as a person, and that's the one thing that's been coming out of this over the last 12-24 hours, is what a person he was behind the scenes and how much everybody behind the scenes loved him. Which is very different from the public persona that he shared with fans in the ring. It's just a tragedy all around.
Josh Alexander: Yeah, he had this like unmatched humility that like when I first met him, I thought had to be fake. You know, you meet those people and you're like, there's no way this guy who is chiseled from granite, you know, when you say, "Hey man, you're looking really good right now," he's like, "Oh thanks, but like, uh, I still have so much work to do and please don't look at my, you know, my back, it's kind of lacking," you know what I mean? Like, he was just so humble at all times, and then you find out that it's real and it just like compounds the person that he was. Just such an amazing guy.
Mike Johnson: All right, well that said, you know, in the days ahead we'll have more information on how AEW and other companies are going to celebrate him, and obviously we will join in that. If anybody is grieving or hurting in any way, there are all sorts of initiatives and things that you can do to help yourself, and if there's something I can do to connect somebody to anything, please feel free to reach out to me. If you don't feel in your own life, on your own, you don't know which way to turn... like, everybody's hurting today, and it's a horrible situation, and all we can do is just celebrate the good and be there for each other however we can as a group of people who all love professional wrestling and professional wrestlers. We wish PAC/Ben's family the best, and his friends, and his coworkers, and anybody who was ever a fan of him. So, that said, I guess let me talk about the show on Saturday. Northern Rising will be on myAEW for the first time. It's technically the biggest show for Maple Leaf Wrestling, it's got the most momentum of the year for the group. You, sir, are going to return to the ring. You are the reigning and defending MLP Canadian Men's Heavyweight Champion, but you had been injured. While you were out, Stu Grayson won the Interim Championship. In normal cases, myself, I'm not a fan of the Interim Championship thing, but this did lead to some very interesting face-offs on Maple Leaf Wrestling Mayhem. Obviously, you and Scott go back literally to the beginning of your career. What does it mean to you to get in the ring and be part of this big match for this promotion on myAEW this weekend?
Josh Alexander: Um, there's two sides to this answer. There's my personal side, and then there's just the side of the gravity of the situation for MLP, Canadian wrestling, for Scott D'Amore, for all of us as Canadian wrestlers trying to showcase ourselves to the world with this platform that has been provided to us from the hard work of everybody in MLP, including Scott D'Amore. You know, I've been around this territory, you say, like the Ontario area of the indies, for 21 years now, I started in 2005. And I have never seen anything with the gravity and the scope that MLP has with, you know, not just Mayhem, but like this event at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, Maple Leaf Gardens. Like you're talking about the Mecca of Toronto for, you know, not my generation, to be honest, because the place shut down before I was able to go. But like, we grew up, people in my generation grew up with our parents and our grandparents telling stories and talking about attending wrestling and hockey games and everything at that building and how it was just like the center point for everything in Canadian sport. And it was just like, I grew up listening to my dad say that. My dad, you know, sadly passed away nine years ago now, but it still echoes in my mind every time these shows come up that like, my dad never saw me wrestle. He never came to a show, he was never interested in it. He would always tell me to follow my dreams and stuff, and you know, never let up on it because he was a musician himself and he didn't follow them to the best of his abilities at certain times, and I think he had some regret about that, so he didn't want me to have that. But he was never able to attend, so every time these shows come up, I feel like there's some part of my dad that, you know, has a little bit of pride in the fact that I'm doing this, and that really fuels me. And the second part, you know, not just for what it's doing for Canadian wrestling, is just what it's going to do for me, because I mean, I broke my neck tenish years ago, a decade ago, and I thought I lost everything. And I came back, and life went pretty good afterwards. And then this latest injury, it really felt like, you know, I'm a little bit older now, and this injury specifically, the surgery was so intense and painful, and coming back from it seemed so daunting every single day. Like, you're moving millimeters, like fractions of an inch to make progress every day, and it seems like insurmountable, but somehow, you know, I kept pushing and I got to the part where I'm here now. And for me, it's stepping in the ring as, you know, the true Maple Leaf Pro Canadian Champion against the interim guy, you know, Stu, who's done a fantastic job, he's a fantastic talent. But it's more to prove to myself that I still can do this at the highest level, because, you know, it seemed for months this past spring when I was healing from surgery that I was never going to be the same again. I was really concerned about that, so it's something that's been playing with my head, but now that I've returned and gotten in the ring a few times with AEW and stuff like that, things are going well, but the real test... the real test is this Saturday, October 3rd, Northern Rising, against somebody who I have to regard as one of the best wrestlers in Canada, and you know, he's in the conversation for the world as well. We're going to show the world that two of the best are getting in the ring at MLP on Saturday, and if I come out on top, then, you know, you're going to find out that Josh Alexander has got a lot more to do in wrestling. And if I don't, you know, I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board and do some more work.
Mike Johnson: Obviously, getting hurt, there's never a good time for that, but I mentioned a few minutes ago, I'm not a fan of the Interim Champion thing. I don't like it in UFC or anything else. What was your thoughts when the promotion announced they were going to crown the Interim Champion, knowing that, hey, you're out, you can't be part of the promotion right now or AEW, and they've still got to move forward and everyone's got to do business. But what were your thoughts when they announced that they were going to crown the Interim Champion, and then it ends up being Stu Grayson?
Josh Alexander: I'm... I'm typically a fan of the interim tag if the injury isn't going to be long. So the first reports coming out of my injury were, you know, you're going to be out for two to three months, and then they did the surgery and I came out and they were like, "It's looking like more of eight to a year" because of how serious it was. And, you know, between that, I think we already kind of crowned an Interim Champion at MLP. So it was up to me to make sure that, you know, I rehabbed as much as possible to try to shorten that eight-month span, because I had this show in the back of my mind from the moment I hurt myself back in March. So it was all a race to get here. I'm a fan of the interim tag and what it's done because, you know, we've highlighted Stu Grayson for the world to see, for Canadian wrestling to see, for everybody to see what he's capable of, and I think that's great. I think there's a lot of Canadian wrestlers that haven't gotten their opportunity and their just due to show the world, and I'm very happy that Stu's been able to do that. But at the same time, you know... I'm still here, I'm still around, and I can't just stand by and let my spot be taken away from me. So I'm happy we have the interim tag so I can still prove that I'm the best around here.
Mike Johnson: One of the things we've talked about over the years when we've done conversations like this is the difficulties Canadian wrestlers often have to get to the United States, get a work visa. With the formation of MLP and now that it's on TSN2, for those that don't know, it airs every Wednesday at midnight, Wednesday into Thursday at midnight, and then it airs on myAEW TV, they put it up on YouTube as well. Like, how has MLP existing changed the trajectory, at least short-term, for Canadian wrestlers who don't have the opportunity to go and ply their trade outside of Canada in the United States, given the difficulties of getting that sort of permission. You know, how has MLP existing and having that TV deal changed things for Canadian talent who are trying to find their way the same way you did back in the day?
Josh Alexander: Well, there's a few things. MLP now, if you're a roster member, they have a visa program that they run once a year, so they have been able to secure visas for a lot of Canadian talent that otherwise wouldn't be able to get visas. Because usually you need a major company like the WWE, like the AEW, to secure that kind of visa. So that's one door that MLP's already opened for several talents. The other door is, you know, just giving them the platform to be seen. There's been so many wrestlers that have competed on MLP Mayhem that I guarantee the wrestling world has barely, if ever, seen before, and they're all very talented, they're all very hardworking, and they're all chomping at the bit for an opportunity. And I've said it for, you know, probably at least half my career since I matured into being an adult in this industry, is just I think all wrestlers need is an opportunity. So MLP with Mayhem, with all these other shows, with the growth of the company, the opportunities are just coming more and more. And the other, the one last thing, and I think this is the most important thing that MLP has provided to Canadian wrestlers, is something to strive for. Because when I started in 2005, we had some major independent shows, much like you guys did in America. In America, it was like you want to climb the ranks of the indies until you can get to the Super 8, then CZW, then IWA Mid-South, and then if you do all these in collection, maybe the PWGs as well, then you get to Ring of Honor, which was the Mecca of the independents in America when I was starting coming up. And Canada hasn't really had that. When I started, we had UWA Hardcore, which was a very big independent promotion that ran here, but other than that, there wasn't anything with much production value that would get traction throughout the wrestling world, it would just kind of be something that happens in Canada. And now with MLP here, with this television show on TSN, with these shows that go on myAEW that are showcase for the world to see, you have wrestlers in Canada now with something they can set a goal, and they can work towards this. They can be like, "If I work my butt off and I get in the car and I go to all these indies and I build my brand and I build my name and I become more skilled in the ring, when I get an opportunity at MLP, I can make the best of it, and if I make the best of it there and become a roster member there, then that's the real platform for the wrestling world, for the AEWs and all these other companies to see me and possibly give me an opportunity there to where I can live my dream, right?"
Mike Johnson: Mhm.
Josh Alexander: And like, just having something to strive for is it, because when I was coming up, it was like, "I'm striving for Ring of Honor, and it is illegal for me to wrestle in America." So, you found an easier path for these Canadian wrestlers to, you know, get seen.
Mike Johnson: And, you know, we don't know in terms of viewership how the show has done thus far, but what has been, when you're out in the street and you're out amongst the public in Canada, the sort of reaction to Mayhem airing on TSN? Do you notice that people are coming up to you and talking to you about that show as opposed to, you know, TNA, which you were a big part of, or AEW, which you're part of now? Do you feel like there's a groundswell of interest in MLP even thus far in its young run on TSN?
Josh Alexander: Yeah, absolutely. I've been at the gym or I've been at Costco and stuff, and I've had people come up and recognize me and be like, "Hey, are you Josh Alexander?" I'm like, "Yeah." And they're like, "Oh yeah, we're catching you on these MLP shows and stuff, things are awesome." And I'm just like, that's fantastic to hear, you know, that people, like not just these wrestling fans, are investing in MLP, in their homegrown Canadian promotion and stuff like that. And they're going to discover, you know, talent like myself and other people along the way, but just to hear them say, you know, instead of the TNAs and the AEWs like you mentioned, just to be like, "Yeah, I saw you on MLP Mayhem," or "I saw your match with Konosuke Takeshita," and, you know, it was awesome and stuff. I'm just like, great man, keep tuning in, if you can't, PVR it, it's on myAEW, you can watch it however you want. But, you know, please keep supporting it and keep enjoying it, and they always say the same thing, they're just like, "We love it, we love that there's a homegrown promotion for us to believe in now." Because, and you know, some of them have mentioned that it's gotten so tribal with the other two companies that they kind of avoid it, and MLP seems like a safe place for them. Like I've had two different people mention that, and I was just like, "Oh, that's fantastic," you know? Like you can just invest in something and love something and not have to hear about why it sucks or why the other one's better, you know?
Mike Johnson: I don't know that you have this in Canada, but I almost feel like the WWE/AEW stuff has turned into Boston vs. New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox, where they're so entrenched in their love of their own personal thing that they have to attack the other side, which is ridiculous. To me on the outside, I'm like, it's baseball, it's all baseball. I feel the same way about wrestling: if wrestling does well, it's good for me and I'm happy to watch good wrestling. The tribal stuff drives me nuts, because the better one side does, the better the other side will do, it's the yin and the yang. But, you know, when you get to—and obviously you're a proud member of AEW as you should be—but when you get to see something and you get to help use your own credibility to help build up something like an MLP, what does that mean to you given your roots start with Scott D'Amore and training in Canada and all that?
Josh Alexander: It's just like give back to the people that have helped me and given me opportunities along the way. Like nobody's done any of the work for me, I'm not going to say that, but like I've had people that have guided me along the way, you know, you're talking about the Scott D'Amores and many, many other people that I can name. But it's just to be able to... like this is how I can repay all the favors that were done for me. I can go out there and I can bust my ass and do everything I can to make sure I'm putting on the best show possible, you know, every time do exact what, you know, execute whatever I need to execute to the best of my ability. And that's the way that I always try to give back, because there's no way I can thank, you know, Scott and all these other people that have helped me along the way build my name to the point now where I can support my family with pro wrestling. Other than that, like there's no monetary value I can put on it, I'm just going to give you everything I have every single time. And it's another thing I do for the Canadian fans because, you know, when I say Scott and everybody else that has helped me along the way, these Canadian fans that I've wrestled in front of for 20 to 21 years, you know, they've helped build my brand, they've helped champion me along the way, they were the ones cheering at shows when someone like a Scott D'Amore was there eight years ago and been like, "Hey, this guy's getting pretty over and his wrestling's pretty good, maybe we should give him an opportunity." Like that... it all goes back to the fans at the end of the day, those people that believed in me and pushed me and cheered for me, you know...
Mike Johnson: Yeah.
Josh Alexander: ...other people heard it and that's why I got these opportunities, so, yeah.
Mike Johnson: You get a chance to work with Don Callis now since you started in AEW. What's that relationship been like, the world's most fabulous curmudgeon?
Josh Alexander: I love Don. I think Don is, for lack of a better term, a genius. I think he's been around this business for a very long time, he's a wealth of knowledge. When he references things to me, and I'm someone that has watched a ton of wrestling and studied a ton of wrestling over my days, but he will reference specific matches between Nick Bockwinkel and somebody that I probably have heard of but have forgotten along the way, and he'll talk so passionately about it, and you know that he has this... like Don has a love for professional wrestling. He just hates other wrestlers and other people that don't have that same love. And I think that's how we've come together: he realizes that I have a respect for this business, and that I want to do well, and I've come under the learning tree of Don Callis and fully embraced it because it's gotten me this far, and I think there's a lot further we can go together. And to see just when things happen like MLP Mayhem, when Stu Grayson, he just cold-cocked me for no reason. Anybody that was watching, I was just standing there, he just sucker-punched me. I gave him one, I rolled out of the ring, but the first person to come check on me was Don. Other people can hate him, he can say whatever you want about him, but that guy, he'll be there for me, I'll be there for him, we're along this along the way, and if I need any help, I know there's always somebody I can turn to. I just have to kind of vet the advice he gives me from time to time because it might be a little too diabolical.
Mike Johnson: Well, you know, when you make your comeback and you get back in the ring, and we might have talked about this in the past with the broken neck, how much does that time off and that sort of ability to rebuild yourself from the ground up and recalibrate the body, how much of there is a pull either one way or the other to change up what you do in the ring so that it's a little less impactful, which sounds crazy because everything you do is pretty hard-hitting, or lean more into it to make sure that the body is where it needs to be? Like mentally, it takes time for you to get over that hump, a million wrestlers have told me that, but physically, you know, when you're out and you've got to start from the base again to get yourself back to where you're happy with your own work in the ring, what's the give and take of figuring out how to make that happen, or just to recalibrate everything so maybe you change things up and try to prevent yourself from having similar injuries?
Josh Alexander: So with the neck, this taught me a very good lesson when I was coming back. I was cleared, everything was fine, you're not going to hurt yourself again, blah blah blah. I stepped in the ring, and for the first three months, it was in the back of my mind. Everything I was doing, I was trying to over-protect my neck or over-compensate in one direction, and it ended up hurting myself in several other different ways because I wasn't doing what was natural to me, you know, the muscle memory of my body, of how I would fall or all these other things, I was trying to alter them along the way to avoid injury, and it ended up hurting myself more. So I learned that lesson, luckily, a decade ago now. So when I came back from the tricep, I think it was like four or five years ago now, and the same thing with this knee right now, it's like you said, it's full force right ahead, the exact same thing you got before. I wouldn't try to alter anything that I do in the ring anymore because I've altered it so many steps along the way to get to the point where I'm at, and I think the Josh Alexander that was in the ring right before I hurt my knee was the best Josh Alexander you've seen up until that point. And the Josh Alexander that has returned now, 100% healthy, is the best Josh Alexander, because every single day, this is all I'm working for. I'm working to... progress is the only thing I care about. Every single morning I wake up and I'm just like, I just need to progress a few increments today to this, and then the next day it starts all over again, and that's the hamster wheel I live on because I'm just obsessed with... you're never going to be perfect, you're never going to love everything you do. Like, I'm going to hate every match I've ever had for one certain thing that happens in it because I'm a perfectionist like that. But you'll never achieve perfect, but me, it's the battle to work towards being perfect every day that really fulfills me, so.
Mike Johnson: I feel the mark of a great wrestler is that they never like their own stuff. Every great wrestler that I've ever been impressed by, whenever you compliment them, it's always deflected. The wrestlers who want to think they're great are usually the ones who are not really all that awesome in the ring or never grow beyond what they are in the ring. Just my opinion from the outside looking in at the ring, that's just always seems to be the thing. So, obviously, I think you're great then, you can deflect that all you want. I do want to ask you this: when you were in TNA, obviously there was a pressure of being the top guy when you were the champion, and in a lot of ways, you were holding that company together. What's the pressure like for you in AEW where it's a new place, obviously a packed locker room, top-caliber elite athletes—no pun intended—are there, you're also part of the Callis family where there's a lot of strong antagonists and strong wrestlers there? How did the pressure change from shifting from one place to the other for you personally?
Josh Alexander: For me, it was just like it was changing from having external pressures, like the pressures of being relied upon. In TNA, people were legitimately looking at me like this show really hinges on this match being really, really good. So hopefully you go out there and it's at least a 7.5 out of 10 or whatever people are expecting. I felt that tangible pressure every single time I showed up to like... it was mainly on the pay-per-views, but you show up to No Surrender or Sacrifice and stuff, and you're like, "Well, I got to do 30 minutes with Rich Swann tonight," or something with this guy. And they were all, like I had all fantastic opponents along the way, but you really feel that pressure. Now in AEW, I'm not being relied upon to do the things I was doing in TNA. I am certainly capable of it, and I've shown that, and you know that opportunity may come in the future, and it's just kind of waiting around to see what happens with that. But the pressure changed from an external pressure to me putting the pressure on myself to look around that locker room now. Because you go into a new environment, this is how things work, I've done it several times: I did it when I showed up to TNA, I did it before that when I showed up to major indies like Ring of Honor and the PWGs. I look around the locker room, I always go, "Who's the best guy here? What are they doing? What do they have that I don't? I will outwork them. I will make sure that I have all those things." It might take me six months, it might take me two years, but I will be on the same level as them so that if anybody puts a side-by-side on a depth chart, they'll be like, "It's a toss-up." And that's the only thing I can control in this business. I say it all the time to my students and anybody else, I'm just like, wrestling, this business is not fair. It has nothing to do with talent most of the time. It does once you have a job like I do, but before you get a job, it has nothing to do with talent. That can only get you so far. It's right time, right place, right scenario. It's really catching lightning in a bottle or winning a lottery ticket to get the opportunities to get to AEW. And once you're there, it feels like you've got this thing, so I'm not going to sit on my laurels, I'm not going to just chill out. I'm looking around, and I look at Will, I look at Mox, I look at anybody that I regard in a high degree in that company that has found success, from Swerve Strickland to MJF, and I go, "What do they have that I don't? Well, I'm going to start working and make sure that I have all those things."
Mike Johnson: I wanted to ask you, you mentioned training, as the head trainer at the MLP Academy, how has standing in that role and helping to train talents from the ground up, helping them figure out what they need to work on and polish them, and all the other roles that you have as a trainer, including almost being like a therapist for some of these talents, how has that helped you as a performer in the ring for yourself?
Josh Alexander: You just answered the question for me, honestly. I was going to... I always kind of revert to being like, I end up being more of a therapist for these young wrestlers along the way. Whether they've been trained and then they come to get retrained, or the ones that want to wrestle from the ground up, I've been around long enough and seen every scenario of this stuff long enough that I just think I have heard enough advice, stolen enough, and grown enough on my own that I can share that with them along the way. And it's helped me mature more. To become a coach is very difficult. You need a level of patience, and it's the same thing as being a father. When I became a father, I had to change my personality to become more patient and certain things like that. Same thing with being a wrestling coach, and almost to a further degree than being a father, because these questions don't stop coming. My kids can ask me stuff four or five times, and after half an hour, that question is out of their mind and it's gone forever, but these guys are going to come ask me how they get a bigger opportunity every three days. And it's just trying to manage how to tell them that they have more work to do and they're not ready yet, even though they want it so bad. Because everyone that steps in a wrestling ring, this stuff hurts. This stuff will take years off your life, or injuries along the way so that you have a limp when you're 65, we all know this and we willingly do it. But you're only going through that because this is the dream, this is what you want so bad, and if you want it that bad, I am more than happy to help you along the way every step of the way.
Mike Johnson: When you think about everything you've endured and put your body through, how has your love of wrestling changed? You've got to have moments where you're like, "What am I doing with my life? Why have I done this to myself?" We all have those moments no matter what we're doing. Everybody has those moments where we look back and kind of go, "Maybe I should have made the left instead of the right." That's just part of human nature. But I was curious, everybody gets in the ring, in my estimation, out of love. Nobody wants to fall and take those bumps unless they truly love that art of storytelling of pro wrestling. I'm curious how the love of it has changed over the decades as you've gotten older and better at it and found yourself in different positions and different roles?
Josh Alexander: I mean, it hasn't wavered at all. There are times certainly where I won't watch wrestling, I'll take a break for one, two months, just kind of reset and come back to baseline. But I become more of a fan the more I go. And it's not just because of the stuff I get to do and the bigger and bigger things I'm doing. You talk about these giant shows that AEW does or even MLP coming to the Mattamy Athletic Centre, stuff like that, like that all makes me love this and love participating in it. But I love this business, I love being surrounded with other individuals that love this business, and the more I am at companies like AEW and MLP and you're surrounded with these people, it just makes you respect the business more. Like every injury I've had along the way from the neck to the knee to the tearing the pec and the bicep and all these other things, these are all like tolls that you pay to be able to do the thing you love. And I'm very fortunate and I will never forget it, I will never for a split second during the day not be thankful and grateful that I'm able to support my family and myself by doing the thing I love. Because I know so many people, best friends from high school that I still talk to this day, they're very successful people, they've got a house and a family and they're comfortable, but they hate going to work every day. And I'm just one of these lucky people that gets to love what I do, and if there's a limp when I'm 65 or a sore shoulder here or there, that's just the toll you got to pay to be able to live this life that so many people would kill to be able to live.
Mike Johnson: And that is the upside. I do want to ask you, going to this weekend into the former Maple Leaf Gardens, what has been the reaction of your friends and family that did live through the point in time where that was THE building in Toronto? What's their reaction to you getting to wrestle in there? Because even like in the United States, a lot of stuff that aired here for WWF Prime Time Wrestling did air from Toronto. That was the first time I ever saw like a ramp to the ring as a kid, and I was like, "Oh, that's such a cool thing." Later WCW and other places incorporated that, but I always thought it made the building look different and cool, and it was a different place for the wrestlers to fight and added a little bit more oomph to the entrances, especially in the '80s. But locally amongst friends and family who know the importance of that for Toronto, what's been the reaction of MLP going there and you getting to wrestle in that building?
Josh Alexander: Well, the first thing is I have these friends and family that aren't in the wrestling bubble, they're contacting me being like, "Hey, I heard about this show." And that's like the first test, that's like, "Oh man, we're doing something cool here," because these people would not hear about any wrestling shows typically. So that was pretty awesome, but it's just this thing, man, it's in our culture. These people that grew up in Ontario and the area that I grew up in, it's just like that place is the Mecca. If you're in New York, Madison Square Garden's the spot, you know? It's the same thing in Toronto for this. And for me, I have all these wrestling fans that stop me and talk to me, and every time we talk about MLP, they will give me a memory they have from their dad or their grandpa or their grandma taking them to a show at Maple Leaf Gardens and watching Roddy Piper walk down that ramp and how larger than life he looked because he was five feet above where they were sitting. Just talking about the ramp specifically is something that comes up all the time because that was like their calling card for MLP for such a long time. But yeah, my family's pumped. I have people coming to this show that haven't been to shows... I think I was talking to my cousins, they hadn't seen me wrestle since 2007, and they got tickets to this show and they're going to be there. So it must be important if you're getting my family out to this stuff because it's been so long. But yeah, we're all hyped around. It's always a pleasure to be able to wrestle in that building, it's like legendary ground. Other people have competed in that building and done some amazing things, some of the legends of our business, and it's just to add to your own personal legacy along the way to say that you were able to wrestle there and stuff like that, it's just like a little tip of the cap.
Mike Johnson: One of the main matches on the show is Adam Copeland, WWE Hall of Famer, former AEW Tag Team Champion at one point, but someone who's got an incredible list of accolades and an incredible reputation, originally from Canada, originally from Toronto, facing Steve Maclin on the show. Wanted to get your thoughts on Adam Copeland returning to Toronto, and are you jealous it's not you in the ring with him this weekend?
Josh Alexander: No, no, no, I can't be jealous. You know, part of me would be like, "Yeah, that'd be awesome." That is certainly one... we've talked about it I think, it's one of my bucket list matches that I need to get out there, but that time will come. I'm just pumped to see somebody like Steve Maclin, for one, who's a free agent who I think is immensely talented and probably should have a job in this business somewhere, and hopefully that materializes soon. But he's going to go out there with an absolute legend and somebody who is regarded as, if not the greatest wrestler in Canada, he's right in the conversation, you're counting on one hand. And in talking to Cope leading up to this, the excitement that he has, like the energy that just comes out of his face before he even speaks, you can see it in his eyes. This guy is so hyped to be able to wrestle in Maple Leaf Gardens. His generation is one right before mine, so he attended these shows at Maple Leaf Gardens. That's where his dream began, that's where he first saw wrestling, so I can't imagine how monumental it is for him to be able to go back to this building and wrestle in it for the first time. That seems like the real dream come true scenario of anybody on that show, it all centers around Cope. I don't think it can mean more to anybody else. So the stakes for that match are real high, and I'm psyched because like I said, you got a hungry free agent in Steve Maclin ready to show the world that he belongs, and you got somebody like Cope who has been no stranger to injuries along the way that I think he wouldn't take offense to me saying is on the back nine of his career. But he's got to go out there and show up and show out against a very hungry young talent in Steve Maclin, and he's going to have his hands full, it's going to be great to watch.
Mike Johnson: You mentioned hungry talents, there's a lot of talents from Canada who have been on MLP television who maybe had not gotten that sort of exposure before. Who are some of the talents that you've been excited or happy for, even if you don't get along with them in terms of the locker room hierarchy or who's on what side, babyfaces or heels, but talents that you're happy are getting that exposure and that you hope fans globally pay attention to when they're on MLP Northern Rising this Saturday?
Josh Alexander: I think a lot of fans, if you follow me, would know most of these names because I've kind of championed them along the way. Sinner and Saint popped up, they will be on the show challenging for the Tag Team Championship. I've obviously been big fans of them, I got them to be a part of a group with me in TNA shortly before I left. I think they're so talented and I think they're the future of Canadian wrestling. Some Ontario guys that...
Mike Johnson: Sorry.
Josh Alexander: Okay. Some Ontario guys that have been along the way, you're talking Rudra, a brand new character that's shown up in MLP recently this season. I think he's offering something completely different than anybody else in Ontario right now, a complete character and stuff like that. Sheldon Jean, immensely talented and charismatic, I think that he's a guy that just needs an opportunity, and when he gets one, he will knock it out of the park. He's one of the hungriest guys I've ever met. And then you have a tag team named Fighter & Flight, Vaughn Vertigo and Gabriel Fuerza, and I think they've done very well for themselves. They're two kids that I've really helped over the past 10-15 years in Ontario, and I've seen them grow from literally 14-year-old children in a wrestling school to now where Gabriel Fuerza's in a six-man tag on the main show at MLP, Vaughn Vertigo will be showing up to some degree. I can't be happier for them because I know the feeling of wrestling and doing everything you can and just waiting for an opportunity, and now this opportunity is knocking for all these guys, and I can't wait to see them make the best of it.
Mike Johnson: Well, the opportunity for everybody to watch the show will be this Saturday on myaew.com. The promotion is currently offering $5 off the pay-per-view price using code MLPCOPE, obviously in honor of Adam Copeland's return to Toronto. Josh, you actually stayed way longer than we were supposed to, I really thank you for sitting down and talking to us, especially given the situation of the last 24 hours. Before we go, I always like to give everybody a chance to speak to their audience. Obviously, you've had people who have uplifted you and supported you for the last 20 years, but what would you like to say to the fans worldwide, not just those who are supporting you now, but those who have supported you always? And what would you like to say to them about ordering the show this Saturday on myaew.com?
Josh Alexander: I mean, the sincerest of thank yous to all the fans that have supported me along the way and followed me and continue to champion me and believe in me. You know, I believe in myself too, and I'm doing the work every day to make sure that I make you proud, that's one thing. As far as tickets to this show, I mean, the show, the card, it sells itself. You're talking about one of the biggest shows in Canadian wrestling in a very long time at a historic venue. You're going to have Cope in action in a non-AEW/WWE match for the first time in 30-something years or whatever the number is, it's something insane like that, and personally that's what I'm pumped to see. And yeah, it's just... the only thing I want to say, one last thing, not to bring it too far down, just hug your friends and your loved ones and tell them you love them because you never know when they're gone, so I'll just leave with that.
Mike Johnson: Yeah. Very wise words from a very great wrestler. I want to thank everybody for their support of PWInsiderElite.com, it is not a happy day if you love professional wrestling, obviously. But hopefully Saturday will be a day where everybody gets to enjoy themselves, live vicariously through the talents, and be reminded of why they love professional wrestling and why we spend so much time talking, debating, and enjoying all the lunacy that comes with the squared circle. I want to thank all of you for listening, I hope you're all having as best a day as you can. If there's something I can do to help you out, please let me know. And I want to thank Josh for sitting down under very unfortunate circumstances and keeping his commitment to us even though he had every opportunity to not, and I would have been fine if he didn't want to do this. Sir, you are a credit to your craft, you're a credit to this business, you're a credit to AEW, certainly a credit to Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. So when it comes time for a raise, make sure you tell Scott D'Amore I said that so you get more money out of him. And, you know, I listen... I think the world of you as a performer, I've told you that before privately and publicly. You did a lot for TNA, I don't think that company has recovered from when you left to be honest, that's how much I think you did for them. And I'm not saying that to knock them, it's just the reality of the situation. And I know you've done a lot for AEW since you have come to that company as well, and I just want to say I very much thank you for sitting down with us. I wish you and your family nothing but the best, and I hope you know your sacrifices are very much appreciated in my household for what you do for the business, and I just want to thank you for sitting down with us.
Josh Alexander: Yeah, anytime, Mike, you know it's always a pleasure. Thank you very much.
Mike Johnson: Ah, thank you. And we thank all of you for your support of the site. Please keep PAC's family and friends in your thoughts today, and when you need to be distracted, there'll be some wrestling for you. You can go to the TV, go to your Roku box, go to your internet, and your friends are right there to perform for you. It's a wonderful thing, very similar to music. I think wrestling kind of helps you in a lot of ways shuffle through your emotions, as you live through the roller coaster that is pro wrestling the same way I think good music helps you kind of file your emotional state in a lot of ways when it's done right. So if you can use pro wrestling to help you get through the day, I hope you do. And we thank all of you for your support of PWInsiderElite.com. We will have additional personalities from Maple Leaf Pro on the site over the course of this week as we head down to Northern Rising this Saturday in Toronto. You can order the show at myaew.com. But most importantly, like Josh said, hug your friends, remember who your friends are, remember who your family are, and takes 10 seconds to forgive someone and less than that to dial the phone just to say hello. So remember who your friends are, remember who your family are, reach out to them today, especially today on what's not, you know, a happy day for people who love pro wrestling. I'm Mike Johnson, and I will talk to everybody soon, and I hope everybody has a happier day in the future. Thanks again.
MLP Northern Rising 2026 airs tomorrow on PPV on MyAEW.com.
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