Alex Shelley has high praise for Trey Miguel.
IMPACT World Champion Alex Shelley was a recent guest on Fightful’s In The Weeds. When asked about being able to pass down advice to a new generation after receiving advice from people like Kevin Nash earlier in his career, Shelley said giving advice is case-by-case because wrestlers aren’t a one-size-fits-all product.
“It’s case-by-case. Don’t give anybody one-size-fits-all advice because I don’t feel that any wrestler is a one-size-fits-all product,” Alex Shelley said. “In Jordan [Oliver]’s case, he’s somebody that I’ve been close with for a few years now. I actually have a text thread with him and Nick Wayne. I probably text those kids once a week, maybe more sometimes.
“And what I think happened was when I was in Ring of Honor, I met this whole cluster of independent wrestlers that came and just went different places. When I came back, a lot of my peers were gone. They were in bigger companies and not doing independent dates anymore. But I firmly believe in starting from the ground up.
“Especially when you’re testing the waters again, and you’re trying to see if wrestling fits you in certain ways. So, in doing so, I met all these fantastic, different independent wrestlers. I met Jordan, Nick Wayne, and Masha [Slamovich], and Lee Moriarity, and Cole Roderick, and Calvin Tankman, and gosh, Top Flight. All these guys, and they were all so so good.
“And they would ask the questions, and I always said I can’t give you advice; I give you perspective. Because currently, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to professionally wrestle. But there are certain things that I’ve learned from guys that these people aren’t going to meet. So they’re never going to get to train with Sabu, who was one of my trainers.
“They’re never going to get to wrestle Robbie Brookside in Germany. They’re never going to get to pick Kevin Nash’s brain or trade barbs on the mic with Mick Foley. These guys don’t have that opportunity to shut down now. And much like these guys, they had opportunities that I was never going to have. I think it’s important to share whatever you’ve learned from these situations with people who want to learn it.
“And I give that information to them alongside other things that I’ve learned too, which is more physical maintenance or in-ring mechanics. It’s up to them how they utilize that. But it seems a lot of them have utilized it to max capacity or figured out a way to format it into their own regimen. And to me, that’s just so cool that these guys are optimizing their performance and giving me credit for it. Because really it’s them doing work. It’s just me opening their eyes and saying well, maybe look at it that way rather than this way.”
When asked about Trey Miguel, Shelley had great things to say about his IMPACT 1000 opponent and called him the future of the company.
“I think Trey’s journey has been a pretty profound one,” Alex Shelley said. “He’s somebody who I met when I first came back to IMPACT during the pandemic about three years ago, and right away, I gravitated towards him. And from then on, we became friends, but we also became partners, and he credits me with a lot of his — I suppose university-level training, which I think is really cool.
“And to me, that’s an honor to be able to help have fingerprints on the next generation of guys as I have my own. I think he’s going to be the future of this company one way or the other. X Division, tag division, heavyweight division.
“Well, not heavyweight, but a world division? And I’m so proud of him having persevered in a lot of ways. And granted, he behaves differently now, but at the same time, to just kind of face something head-on and tackle all the odds he has deserves nothing but respect, in my opinion.”
READ MORE: Alex Shelley Doesn’t Want To Be Seen As A Transitional IMPACT World Champion
What do you make of Alex Shelley’s comments? Do you think Trey Miguel could be the future of IMPACT Wrestling? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of these quotes, please credit In The Weeds with a link to this article for the transcription.
