Cedric Alexander On WWE Release, Hurt Business, Possibly Signing With AEW, Lumbar Check

https://cvvtix.com - Get your tickets for INSIGHT LIVE in NYC & Las Vegas with VIP Meet & Greet!

Cedric Alexander (@CedricAlexander) is a professional wrestler previously signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to talk about the release and his immediate reaction, if he is interested in joining The Hurt Syndicate in AEW, being a part of The Hurt Business and the group's sudden break-up, getting signed during the Cruiserweight Classic, playing Gary Garbutt the janitor in a match with Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon, the viral Lumbar Check on Candice LeRae, winning the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 34 and more!

Quote I'm thinking about: "Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter." – Dan Reeves

Please support our sponsors!

PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux

SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount

TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 10% off your order of Mitopure!

STASH: Go to https://get.stash.com/INSIGHTto see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures

MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off your next order at https://magicspoon.com/cvv

VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv

FABRIC: Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at https://meetfabric.com/CVV

ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv

HUEL: Get 15% off plus a FREE Gift for NEW customers with the code INSIGHT at https://huel.com

MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF

ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight

BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv

BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at https://bluechew.com

PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at https://plunge.com

On the WWE release:

"Everything’s fine. You know, once I got that news, I wasn't even mad. I kind of felt like a pressure was lifted off my shoulders. Oh wow, I'm free to do other things, cool, all right, let's see what happens."

On getting the release call:

"I was expecting to be angry and frantic. Actually, funny enough they called Friday night. I was in the middle of a leg workout. I'm doing squats, and my phone starts ringing. So I put the weight down, because I have a gym in my house so for me I'm just working out all hours of the day. So I pick up the phone, and I received the dreaded 203 number. I'm like, Okay, what's gonna happen? I don't remember the guy's name. I think he said it was Will from TR. And I was like, Yeah, sure. What's up? He goes, 'Sorry, we're gonna release you from your contract.' My initial reaction was okay, cool. He goes, 'Yeah, sorry to get this news on a Friday.' So I had an NXT house show tomorrow, so I don't do that anymore. That was my first question, too. He goes, No, you're all good, just the 90 days and if you need anything else let us know. I was like, okay, cool."

On if he was expecting the release:

"I wasn't expecting it, but it was the thing of I wasn't surprised. I guess I kind of saw the writing on the wall after a while."

On his immediate reaction:

"So I immediately thought to myself when I was released, I was like, Okay, that's a job. Wrestling is my career. I may be out of a job, but I still have a career. All thanks to [Mustafa] Ali, he's one of the guys that called me within the hour of me being released and was immediately like, hey dude, it's all good. Just being super positive as you know Ali is, but yeah man, it sucked because it's a dream job. It's one of those jobs that I'm a kid and I'm like oh my god, I'm gonna wrestle for WWE. Then when it ends, it just ends. You just move on." 

On what’s next:

"I felt like I was completely started all over again, because I don't know what's wrestling outside of WWE for the last eight and a half years. Who's hot on the indies? I don't really know that much anymore, who's a good place to get work? I am just completely lost, because being in WWE for nearly a decade, eight and a half years, you're like okay, I don't have to do anything, bookings just come to you, you get paid, and it's like you almost get complacent because you're like, Oh, something will pop up. They have all my booking information. They'll put me in something eventually." 

On if he is interested in joining The Hurt Syndicate in AEW:

"100%. That's a big chapter of my career that I really felt was never fully explored and I think it'll be great to finish that out."

On The Hurt Business suddenly ending:

"I knew something was wrong when Bobby won the title on that episode of Raw, and Vince made a very direct comment to not have me and Shelton get it in the ring and celebrate with him. That was when I was like, Oh, that's not good news. Whatever's happening next I'm not gonna like it. Then, slowly but surely, think was it two or three weeks later that we did the full breakup the first time of the three times we did."

On there being more to The Hurt Business storyline:

"I think so, definitely. There's so much meat on the bone that I would like to get to. But if I don't, then that's fine too. I'm game to go to New Japan, Mexico. So I'm just ready for things to happen. It's one of those things where I've been sitting so long and I feel like I'm getting a little itchy, something's gotta happen soon." 

On getting signed at the Cruiserweight Classic:

"Okay, that's why I'm breaking the fantasy up here a little bit. Technically, I was signed right before that match. Actually, what got me signed wasn't the match with Kota, it was the weight loss transformation that I did to get into the Cruiserweight Classic. So we're going back to 2015 and I figured out okay, ROH probably not going to use me too much more, my contract is coming up in January. So I'm going explore this idea of doing WWE try-outs. So I had a tryout that I emailed Canyon Ceman for in January, and he said, 'Yeah, come on down. We've been keeping an eye on you. We’d love to see you.' I was like, Cool. Did the try-out, went great. They started asking people throughout the try-out, 'Hey, can you lose X amount of weight for this tournament that we're gonna do?' And I was one of the guys they asked. I was like, Yeah, sure. And they asked me how much I weighed. I was 232. I legit had to get to 205. I remember asking, 'Hey, do we have to be at 205 or would it be like around?' He goes, 'No, you gotta be 205.' I don't know if I could do that, but we'll try it. But they told me this in the end of January, around February, and the tournament was in June or July, I believe. So I had plenty of time to lose it, but I've never lost that much weight. So I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do this or not. The first two, three weeks, 15 pounds gone, I was like, Oh, I could do this way faster than I thought. So I'm calling Canyon Ceman every week and a half, two weeks or so just to kind of check-in and go Hey, I'm here now. I'm here now. Because at that point they never said, Hey, you're in the tournament. They just said, Hey, keep in contact with us. We'll see what we can do. And I think it was right at the beginning of June they announced me being in the tournament. I just got down to 205 right on the dot. And I'm actually so close to the point where if I ate a ham sandwich, I was too overweight. So keeping that weight down was not an easy thing for me to do, because I don't think my body was made to be that low."

On his relationship with Triple H:

"Honestly, it didn't go past that, funny enough. You would think from that moment I'd be a Triple H guy. So there was a point where we were in 205 Live that he kind of had some say in there a little bit, and kind of took care of me. But I was never really a fully Triple H guy. I was more of a Paul Heyman guy. When he was writing Raw, and they drafted me out of 205 Live into Raw, I was more of a Heyman guy than anything else. Heyman give me a bunch of little sidebar conversations this, that and the other way more than Triple H did."

What do you think you learned from Paul Heyman?

"Patience, for better or worse, patience. I remember there was one point I went to Heyman and I was just like, I was probably on Raw for like a year, but they haven't really done anything with me. And I was like, Hey, Paul, What do you need for me in order to get to that next level? I think this is maybe right after we did the whole thing with AJ and the squash match we did on Night of Champions in Charlotte. He was just telling me just wait. We'll take care of you. If you gotta wait six months, wait six months. If you gotta wait a year. Wait a year. And I swear I'm going, I will be the best soldier I can be and just wait it out. And every time they called me for something, whether it was the Gary Garbutt thing or any other random thing they asked for. I was, hey, I'm here. What do you want me to do?"

On Gary Garbutt the janitor:

On the Lumbar Check:

"The funny thing is the less you try to sell it, the better it is. So I've had guys, I get them up and they try to recoil, because you want to get that classic bounce and recoil off of it. But it never really works out. Candice LeRae is the reason why people try to take it like that, actually. So I'm doing a show in Cleveland for AIW and it's like an eight-hour drive for me from North Carolina. I'm driving up the whole way, and I know it's like the six-person scramble match with Candice, ACH, I'm sorry I don't remember names of the other guys in the match, but Candice LeRae and ACH were in that match in particular. I remember thinking, I do cool things with ACH all the time. That's cool. But what can I do with Candice? She takes the lumbar check. And that’s as far as I thought it through, I didn't think it was gonna get viral or anything like that. I remember calling it to her and go, Hey, you want to take this? She goes, Yeah, sure, whatever. And the moment I got her up and threw in the air, if you've watched the viral clip of it. You hear someone go, 'Oh no', bang, and she flies over my head by the rope. And I'm like, I just killed Candice. All right, moving on to the next part. And then I wake up the next morning. It's viral on Twitter and millions and millions of views, I got death threats. Yeah, people thought I killed Candice. People legit thought I killed Candice."

On the origin of the Lumbar Check.

"Mortal Kombat. I think we got it from Sub Zero. Sub Zero had a finishing move in the game where he rips your spine, it's called the lumbar intrusion or something like that. We're like, that sounds weird. So before I actually got that far, Steve Corino was trying to help me think of moves, names for it and we came up with a whole bunch of weird stuff and he said something with a check in it. I was like, I like that kind of but I don't know what else to put with it. And then after kind of brainstorming with my wife or girlfriend at the time, Big Swole. So I was brainstorming. And she goes, What about the lumbar intrusion thing from Sub Zero? I went I don't like that. I remember Steve Corino was like something check. I was like, lumbar check? Because you're falling on the lumbar, and it's great. I was like, okay, that works, perfect. We'll go with it. And this is how it came up with the move. I've actually been doing that move since like the second year I started wrestling, so it's not a new move for me, because I just randomly started doing it, just because I think, I thought it'd be cool. I saw Roderick Strong doing a one knee version. And then, yeah, that's why".

On winning the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 34:

"That for me was the childhood dream come true, so to speak. Because when I came up watching wrestling I always wanted to be a Cruiserweight, because my first match I remember watching was Juventud versus Ray Mysterio in WCW. I just remember going, that's, that's me now I'm doing wrestling, and so I've always been a big lover of the Cruiserweights.

So to be able to get to do that, WrestleMania was 75,000 people, and they put us on a pre-show. Most people look at that and go, ah, boo. It's not the main show. That's the pre-show. It's like, brother, I'm walking out and it says WrestleMania behind me, there's people in their seats, this is WrestleMania, regardless how you try to put that. With Ali, I don't think you could have picked a better opponent for me, he took care of me. Ali was the, I want to say the sane one, but he was the more together one of the two of us, because I'm freaking out. For me, this is the biggest thing I've ever been on. I'm here. Last year I was injured. I couldn't even go to WrestleMania. I had a meniscus tear. But then this year, I'm wrestling for the Cruiserweight Title on Wrestlemania, not thinking I would ever see WrestleMania, ever. So for me, I'll never forget that match. I won it, my daughter was in the front row, my wife was in the front row, and so I will forever be grateful to Ali for pulling me together because I was losing it. I didn't know how to handle it. Nerves were killing me. I flew my family out for that show. So my mom, my stepdad, my brother, his girl, his daughter, my daughter, my wife. So for me, it was just like, I can't mess this up. If I mess this up, then everything just feels like it went down the drain. [How would you mess it up?] Blowing a spot, not being 205, because like I said, keeping that weight was hard for me to do. So I'm thinking of every little thing, what if I look chubby? What if my abs aren't popping out? What if I'm not jacked? What if my gear is bad? There were so many things I was thinking about that could have went wrong. Just in my head, and I was my own worst enemy for that whole week."

On if his wife Big Swole is still wrestling?

"She is currently not wrestling. She's she's doing more of the announcer hosting role. She's trying to get into that more. Wrestling is just rough on her body. She has Crohn's disease. So it's not the easiest thing to come back when you're wrestling. There's thoughts about, okay, maybe doing one more run, maybe. But she's pretty content with keeping her body in one piece and just sticking with more supportive roles in wrestling."

What is Cedric Alexander grateful for?

"Family, health and patience."