Alex Hammerstone talks about his injury, the mental toll on him, and his goals upon returning to Major League Wrestling.
Alex Hammerstone underwent knee surgery in December 2024, but was back in the ring by February. After wrapping up his time with TNA Wrestling, he returned to MLW, the promotion where he once held the World Heavyweight Championship, but not before having one last match in TNA against Joe Hendry for that promotion's World Heavyweight Championship.
In an interview with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful that was recorded before MLW Azteca Lucha, Hammerstone spoke about the difficulties of returning to the ring for that matching TNA and how he's taking care of his body now, being sure to be more cognizant of his limits.
"I think it's really easy for people to misunderstand what I mean when I say that, because when I was out of shape, I was 285 pounds and jacked with gigantic 20-inch arms and still some semblance of abs and veins in my legs," he said. "They say, ‘That's not out of shape!’ I'm like, ‘No, no, I was not in ring shape.’ Because for a couple months I could barely do anything on my leg and then when I could, I was scared to push it. So all I was doing was lifting weights. The only thing that was bringing me happiness was progress in the gym.
"So I looked like a tank, and I came back, my last match at TNA was like one of my first matches back, and I came back, and everyone's like, ‘Oh, man, you look awesome. You look huge. How'd you get bigger while you're out with injury?’ But then the bell rings and I'm huffing wind, and I'm nervous about moving around on my knee a certain way," he continued. "So for a while there, I was very timid in the ring ‘cause I hadn't got a chance to test it. I really rushed back as quick as I possibly could."
Continuing on, he spoke about some of the hiccups being a result of his mental health suffering at the time, not only due to the injury but due to the overall trajectory of his career.
"A lot of that was kind of a byproduct just like me being like depressed and like me not even feeling really motivated to try that hard," he said. "Because I felt like before the injury I wasn't on a very good trajectory and then I get injured and I feel like no one even cares, no one even cares if I come back. So by the time I did come back I was going through the motions and luckily I got snapped out of that pretty quickly. Now I'm feeling great. Now I'm feeling 100%. I've really got to test the leg. I've really got to push it. I’m back in a really good swing of things.
"Ever since the knee surgery, I still do the stairs, but I've switched over to some more inclined treadmills, some bikings, some elliptical," he continued, talking about his updated training regimen. "It's not just stairs every single day anymore ‘cause I kind of have to learn my lesson about how much my body can take."
Fans can learn more about Hammerstone returning to MLW here.
Check out the full interview embedded above.
