Simon Gotch is the latest signing for TNA Wrestling, immediately making an Impact by attacking former champion Josh Alexander. We spoke to Simon to learn his motivation for this attack and his wider ambitions in TNA.
We first asked Simon about his arrival in TNA and what brings him to the Impact Zone? He said:
“I think its important for people to understand, I don’t act without thought, as much as it might seem that way at times! I tend to see myself as more of a scalpel than a broadsword. I have a very specific job, I go, and I do it. I have a lot of connections in TNA shall we say, historically, a few issues that need to be settled and frankly, I’m a stickler about closing the book so to speak, I’ve got a little too much on my ledger if you know what I mean.”
Simon Gotch attacks Josh Alexander at TNA.
After Simon’s attack on Josh Alexander on an episode of TNA: Impact! we asked him to talk us through his problem with Josh Alexander in his own words. He told us:
“Well, first of all I will concede that I’m a passionate individual, I love professional wrestling and sometimes my passion gets the better of me. In accordance with an agreement I currently have with TNA, I’m not allowed to discuss any details involving actions I may or may not have taken against Josh Alexander. So, if the company decides I can talk about it on their programming, then keep and eye on upcoming episodes of Impact. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.”
“What I will say is this, I will never have an unkind word to say about Josh Alexander as a competitor or a human being. Josh Alexander is a good father, a good husband and he is a phenomenal professional wrestler. The issues I may or may not have with him are very personal but they’re between he and I. I don’t feel like they should poison anyone’s feelings towards him or myself.”
With TNA being back and the promotion being more popular than ever, we asked Simon Gotch how he feels about being part of this new era?
“I’m a believer that you can’t change certain aspects of history, even when TNA rebranded as Impact, everyone still called it TNA. I mean nobody is calling it X, everyone still calls it Twitter, you can’t change that part of people, there’s always going to be part of it you can’t get rid off. It’s the same with TNA.”
“It’s always nice to have more eyes on your work. I think the irony of art is that we produce it for ourselves but we want it to be appreciated by as many people as possible. Even though we might be sticklers about who appreciates it and how they appreciate it.”
“But we still want them to, it’s that dichotomy of I’m expressing myself through my work, this is how I relate to humanity, this is my statement to the world about what’s inside of me, and every pro-wrestler falls victim to this, if we had healthy self-esteem we would not mutilate ourselves in a public forum.”
The Vaudevillains from WWE are now both in TNA.
We then asked Gotch about what he’s hoping to achieve at TNA, be it a title run or something else. He said:
“I have been wrestling for nearly 23 years this August, I sometimes don’t think people realise how old I am or how long I’ve been doing this. The only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is that feeling of a near death experience, just a really violent pro-wrestling match! Tooth and nail and feeling that blood flow can just be the best feeling in the world. Every time I get in the ring I’m always looking for that sensation, for that experience and I see a lot of guys in TNA who are asking for it, it’s what they do.”
Gotch then went on to talk about his TNA colleague Matt Rehwoldt, was his tag-tam partner in WWE and spoke about the possibility of the due reforming their alliance one day.
“Matt is adamant that his place is behind the commentary booth, but there are no closed doors in pro-wrestling, there are only slightly open ones. Everyone likes a good challenge. In Matt’s case, if he felt so ignited by a potential match, he’d do it.”
Simon Gotch is also scouting the TNA locker room to see who else he’d want to get into the ring with, or who may be in his way should he target a particular championship. He told us:
“I’ve wrestled Rich Swann before and he’s a wily little b***ard I can tell you, he’s a solid talent. You have someone like Dirty Dango and PCO, Kon who’s a meat castle of a human being. Then there’s the international talent like Kushida. Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, they’re the two guys on the roster who are nearly as old as me!”
“The titles mean prestige and money, but I’ve always really prized the challenge more than anything. I want to see if I can push myself, how hard I can go in the ring. I feel like the championships are great, but I’m more concerned with who’s holding it. If I’m not ignited and excited about getting to face that person, then the title doesn’t mean anything. Like, it’s more money, and that’s nice, but money very rarely helps me sleep.”
You can check out TNA Wrestling on AXS TV every Thursday night at 8/7c. You can also tune in on DAZN, YouTube and their new app TNA Plus.
Watch and listen to the full chat below:
