Josh Alexander talks about nearly retiring permanently due to neck injuries

“First thing that went through my head is ‘Terry Funk retired four times and that’s all you hear about. Wrestlers retire and it never sticks. People are going to think I took advantage of them, the fans, wrestlers, all this stuff and this is just a ploy to make money.’ I was just like, ‘I can’t return. People are going to be pissed.’ It took six months for me to get drunk with my best friend and tell him that whole story about how I could still wrestle and he was just like, ‘Oh, you’re coming back. You’re completely miserable. What are you doing? You have to come back. Wrestling’s all you’re good at.’ Well, thanks. So I rehabbed for nine months, came back and just – I say it in every interview I’ve ever done because it’s especially true, breaking my neck and having that surgery and having to retire was the best thing that ever happen in my career because before that I had that crazy ‘I want to wrestle all the time’ thing, but I never had the drive outside of the wrestling ring; the dieting and the work ethic in the gym. It just re-wired me to be – I think I’m a complete animal now. I wake up at 3:30 in the morning to go to the gym and then go to the gym again in the afternoon. I’m on this crazy diet. It’s just the thing that motivated me to be better and make up for all the mistakes I made before that.”

source: Fightful