In an interview with Scott Fishman of The Miami Herald to promote the ROH Final Battle pay-per-view, independent wrestling talent Alex Shelley commented on his days in TNA Wrestling, working for New Japan Pro Wrestling and more.

Highlights of the interview are below:

On the decision to not renew his contract with TNA in 2012: “It’s definitely a risk, if you’re passing up guaranteed money and I was, to move somewhere else, that’s scary on its own. I was at a point in my life where I was finishing up college in a few months, I had seen so many management changes in TNA and I had worked for New Japan previously. I was brought in in 2009 as a special guest, I knew a lot of the guys just from TNA or meeting them randomly on independent shows. I met Kazuchika Okada in 2006 in Toronto, that definitely helped influence my decision, knowing a lot of people there and what I was getting into.”

On the big tag team match against ROH Tag Team Champions reDRagon at the January 4th Tokyo Dome event: “It’s interesting because I know they have the number one product in the world, I’m not saying that because I’m part of the company or contributing to it, it just is, you can’t argue that. Pound-for-pound, their roster is the best pro wrestlers collected currently, they have been for a while and probably will too, so in that sense, the people who order the show are going to be blown away by the quality of matches and presentation as well. The Tokyo Dome show is New Japan’s WrestleMania in the sense that everybody has cool costumes, flashy entrances and the set-up looks great. The momentum is on the company’s side, business has picked up the last couple of years, it will be a slow burn as far as accumulation of fans, word of mouth has been strong with fans.”

The interview is available in full at this link.