Alex Shelley's love for IMPACT Wrestling remains strong.
After an initial run in IMPACT from 2004-2012, Shelley moved on from the promotion, spending time with both Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He would make his long-awaited return at Slammiversary 2020, reforming the Motor City Machine Guns with Chris Sabin.
Six months later, Shelley was scheduled to team alongside Chris Sabin and Rich Swann at IMPACT Hard To Kill versus Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers, but one day before the event, it was announced that he was out of the match due to "unavoidable circumstances." He would later reveal that his status as a physical therapy clinician and restrictions brought on by the ongoing pandemic were to blame.
Shelley recently sat down with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp and revealed that even if he had made the event, he likely wasn't going to be wrestling for IMPACT much longer. He praised Josh Alexander and Ethan Page and noted how he was happy to come back and help his longtime partner, Sabin, ease back into action after having his ACL repaired.
"It’s fine," Shelley said of his relationship with IMPACT. "I just don’t work for them. I wasn’t able to main event one of their pay-per-views and that was when COVID numbers spiked and due to my occupation outside wrestling, my company had restricted travel with new mandates and vaccines and so on and so forth. To be honest with you, I wasn’t going to be wrestling for IMPACT much longer. We had not agreed to that, let’s put it that way. Not that I have anything against them at all. I was so happy to come back and I was so thrilled with my time there to wrestle The North. I think the North are just incredible, Josh Alexander and Page both and it helped Sabin come back and ease in after an ACL repair."
He would continue on, complimenting the depth of the roster and saying that he would love to go back. That said, there are only so many hours in the day and he needs to wrestle in places that better suit and accommodate his schedule.
"But at the same time, they’ve just got so many guys on their roster. For me, scheduling wise actually, it works out quite a bit better to wrestle on the weekends currently because I do have a career outside wrestling. I can definitely say I have nothing but praise for IMPACT in its current incarnation. They do everything well. Scott D’Amore handles things amazingly. I really, really love being there. I would love to go back, I really would. But I’ve only got so much time. There’s only so many hours in a day," Shelley said.
On September 3, 2021, Shelley wrestled his first match in nine months when he faced Tom Lawlor at the GCW/BLP 3 Cups Stuffed show.
Up next for Shelley is MLW's Opera Cup. He will debut for the promotion on October 2nd at MLW Fightland when he takes on TJP in first-round action.