Joseph Alexander is one of the top rising independent wrestling stars on the scene today and he has done it all his own way. As someone that has been involved in sports all his life, he has used that to mold his character and wrestling style into something unique and very exciting to watch.
I asked Joseph about his athletic history and how it transitioned into pro wrestling, and he stated, “as a kid growing up the town I lived in was very sports oriented, I did basically everything; Baseball, football, soccer, basketball, and then wrestling. After I joined the wrestling team though I quickly fell in love with it and wanted to only wrestle then ended up sticking with it for 13 plus years. The transition from amateur wrestling to pro wrestling was difficult at first because like everything new there’s a learning curve, but I think I adjusted really well. I truly believe this is what I was always meant to do so having an athletic background did make the transition smoother but there’s definitely that adjustment period no matter what.”
Joseph said that he has been watching wrestling his whole life and even got to be in the front row for Summerslam 2002 when he was 3 years old. Wrestling has always been a part of his life and one day his roommate told him about a wrestling school in Brooklyn. He decided to check it out and said that it was the best decision that he has made. I asked Joseph about his quick rise as most wrestlers don’t leave their home area in their first year, but he has been to promotions that many indie wrestlers strive to be at like Paradigm Pro, Grind and Wrestlers’ Lab.
About his quick rise Joseph said, “It’s still surreal as hell to be traveling so early into my career but I owe it to Logan (Trainer) Tom (owner of school) my Family, and myself lol not to toot my own horn or sound cocky. A lot of the sports and environments I come from were very toxic. I was bullied and hazed because I wasn’t tough enough. I’ve had coaches that have told me I never worked for anything in life and that I would fail. For years after high school, I believed that I just never wanted to try something new anymore because of all the things I went through doing sports. But at T2T it was never like that; I always tell this story but my very first day of training at the school I didn’t buy in. I was walking around not really paying attention playing with the boxing equipment and Logan looks over, stops what he’s teaching, and just says “hey Bud you gotta want to be here” and that right there is really when everything clicked. That was when I realized I’m training to live my lifelong dream. Screw all the crappy memories of my old sports teams and whatnot. This may be my only shot to live my dream and I promised myself that I will put 120 percent of my effort into wrestling no matter what. Since then, I’ve been able to show what I have felt all my life, that I was put on this earth to be a professional wrestler and a damn good one at that.”
From that moment, Joseph has worked hard and earned the respect of fellow wrestlers along with his trainers. I asked his trainer, Logan Black about Joseph and he said, “Joe is someone who could skirt by on pure athletic skill alone and stand above most others… but the kid has a work ethic that won’t quit. He inspires his peers like nobody else I’ve seen at his level and grows by leaps and bounds every time he steps in the ring. Forever proud of that kid.”
Joseph says that the biggest influence to his style and favorite wrestler growing up is Kurt Angle. “I grew up on Kurt Angle, that’s my Michael Jordan that’s my childhood hero” he says. “Going back to when I was at Summerslam 2002 that was Angle vs Mysterio in the opener and at 3 years old I had no idea what they were doing in there but something about him stuck with me. The music, the medals, the spin he did when he got into the ring it was like watching a real-life superhero.” Joseph goes on to say that as he grew up he got into wrestlers like Danielson, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Regal, but none of them compared to the passion he had about watching Kurt Angle.
Joseph said that when he started training, he wanted to be exactly like Kurt, but knew that he needed to bring something unique. He goes on to say, that anyone with a tiny bit of amateur experience can do a “shooter gimmick” and mimic Kurt and it can pass by well enough. He says that there is nothing wrong with that, “but that’s not A Game.” Joseph had to transfer over all his mannerisms, footwork and (most importantly) intensity into his training and character. He thinks that’s what helped him stand out, because people don’t need to see him wrestle to tell he’s a legit shooter. “They just gotta watch me walk to the ring or get in my stance and they’ll see like “oh this guy is legit.”
The match that really got Joseph recognition throughout the independent wrestling scene was his match against Tommy Vendetta at Paradigm Pro. It was his debut there and was part of the Contender’s Series. The match was only around 2 minutes long, but many people said that it was one of the most exciting matches of that length that they had ever seen. Leading up to that match Joseph was extremely nervous. “I remember calling Robert Martyr on my way to the venue like dude I’m scared as hell, but the environment in the Paradigm locker room was so dope and Gary (promoter) is such a nice guy and was really welcoming as well so I started to feel a bit more at ease” Joseph says.
“Once myself and Tommy discussed the match we knew we had X amount of time to get over a real styles clash. I’m the grappler new to UWFI and he’s the brawler Midwest guy who’s right at home, we both knew it needed to be run and gun and we both knew we had to start with a bang. I watched it live once it aired and I hated it I was so self-conscious I thought I looked terrible and then my phone just starts blowing up nonstop it’s just Twitter notification after Twitter notification and I was just in shock at how well the match was received. I think I read someone put it as a MOTY contender and it was barely 2 minutes I was like what the Eff is going on yo. It’s still so wild and surreal to even think about till this day. Myself and Tommy Vendetta did something magical and it’s gonna stay in Paradigms UWFI History forever so that’s really cool to think about.”
In the first year of his career Joseph has not just been wrestling other rookies, he has really been testing himself against some of the best. Joseph has had matches against Eel O’neal, Victor Analog, Tommy Vendetta and his trainer, Logan Black. Joseph said that he has learned so much from being in the ring with these people and being able to pick their brains. He says that hearing these wrestlers map matches out or put things into place for the match to make sense has made him a smarter and better wrestler.
“Most importantly though I’m just thankful, I’m thankful that I get to have a match with an Eel O’Neal, a Tommy Vendetta, guys that have been around and are operating on a high level right now, and even against my trainer Logan who I owe so much to and to get to wrestle these people it tells me that I’m in a really good position for someone who’s just getting started.”
Joseph has certainly become a rookie of the year candidate in professional wrestling, but he says that this is only the beginning, and he hasn’t even gotten started yet. “I believe I haven’t even scratched the surface of what I could do in wrestling and that’s exciting that’s motivating. I’m ready for more I’m ready for whatever, this year has been incredible but next year will be phenomenal and the year after that will be astronomical and the year after that will be even bigger than that.”
You can find Joseph Alexander on Twitter at @JosephAgame