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Former World Champion Explains Why He Wanted To Work For Tony Khan And AEW

Originally posted on Wrestling on SI | By Jon Alba | Last updated May 23, 2025 12:49 PM ET

Josh Alexander is still fresh to AEW, and he has revealed some insight as to why he chose to sign with the company instead of anywhere else.

The former TNA World Champion signed with AEW earlier this year, debuting as the wild card in the Owen Hart Cup en route to losing to "Hangman" Adam Page. He quickly aligned with the Don Callis Family, and is now firmly implanted in the group.

The 37-year-old was interviewed recently by Shakiel Mahjouri, and noted one of the biggest reasons he chose signing with AEW over WWE was his opportunity to work for Tony Khan.

"I read all the criticism and all the speculation on why I made my choice and stuff. From the second I met Tony Khan during the COVID era in TNA, I got this impression that as a boss, he's somebody that actually cares for his employees," he said. "You're not just a number. You're not just an asset to the company. He actually cares about you."

"That's something that means a great deal to me. In working for Scott D'Amore in TNA, I developed a relationship with him, and there's a lot of trust that goes into this stuff. So I just wasn't comfortable working somewhere where I [would] just be an asset, something that you could just toss away in an instant, and stuff like that.

Alexander currently works for D'Amore still in Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, where he is the MLP Canadian Champion. That sort of relationship left an impact on what he wanted out of his next contract, and he believed Khan would foster an environment of individuals who have the same love for wrestling that he has as well.

"I wanted somebody that's going to care about me and care about the fact that I have a family that I'm feeding and that I do have such a passion for this, and I hope we share that passion and stuff like that," Alexander told Mahjouri.

"It's that this locker room is full of people that I've known and worked with over the past 20 years, and I've developed relationship with, relationships with and it's because, there's people like Edge, Chris, Jericho, Kenny Omega, in this company that I have never wrestled, that I've dreamed of wrestling for decades. So that all made it very easy for me to make my decision."

Alexander picked up his first singles win on AEW Collision this week, defeating AR Fox.

H/T Fightful for partial transcript assistance.

This article first appeared on Wrestling on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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