AEW’s Josh Alexander pays an emotional tribute to TNA veteran Joe Doering after his passing.
Former TNA World Tag Team Champion Joe Doering passed away at the age of 44 earlier today after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. He stepped away from wrestling in August 2022, and the last singles match he had in TNA Wrestling was against current AEW star Josh Alexander in the main event of the 2022 Against All Odds event, where he unsuccessfully challenged Alexander for the World Championship.
Now, Josh Alexander has taken to X/Twitter to pay an emotional tribute to Joe Doering, sharing a clip from their match. Alexander revealed that while he noticed something was off with Doering at the time, he never realized his cancer had returned because he kept his health struggles private.
However, the Don Callis Family member says Doering performed like an absolute warrior, agreeing to physical, painful bumps without complaint. He also expressed relief that he can finally rest peacefully after battling cancer for so long
Josh Alexander paid an emotional tribute to Joe Doering
“July 1 2022 I wrestled what would be Joe Doering’s last match. A month prior I’d noticed something was off with Joe. But it never crossed my mind that his cancer might have returned. In my mind he’d already faced that battle and won. I’ve thought about it all countless times since and never asked. I think he knew the cancer had returned or at least had a gut feeling. Regardless he kept it all to himself. When it came time for the match he was down for everything. Angle slam off the apron to the floor? Let’s do it. Superplex? He was down,” Josh Alexander wrote.
“I remember going to him before the match and telling him “Joe hopefully I don’t regret this. But I really want you to lay your stuff in on me out there. If you clothesline me I want my boots to come loose.” He kind of smirked like only Joe could and agreed. (And he sure did what I asked) We had a 20+ main event title match on ppv. I can’t imagine the pain or discomfort he was feeling at the time. But in true Joe fashion he was an absolute warrior.
“Joe always was a professional. A class act and one hell of a wrestler. I left that match sore as shit but proud. It’s a strange feeling being both honoured and sad to have been the one that he closed out his career with. I’m just fortunate to have known him both in and out of the ring. He fought cancer for so long. I can only hope that now he can finally rest,” Alexander’s post read.
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