Josh Alexander On How Sami Zayn Taught Him To Feed Off The Crowd

During an interview with Cageside Seats, Josh Alexander revealed how Sami Zayn (when he was El Generico) taught him how to feed off the crowd properly during his matches.

“I reiterate this a lot to a lot of younger wrestlers at Impact and throughout the independents. It took me about the 10 or 11-year mark [to learn]. I wrestled El Generico and I remember him telling me, ‘Just calm down and wait.’ We were in the ring and something happened. He said, ‘Wait, wait!’ I was just like, ‘What?’ I waited and all of a sudden you hear the crowd just come up to this insane level and I would have cut them off and they would have never been there because I would have just been going through the motions."

"I had been told that same thing that El Generico had told me 100 times previous to that. But in my 10 years and all the experience I [had] grinded on the indies, at that moment, that’s when everything kind of clicked and went together. Listening to the crowd, that’s when you get the ear for everything. I think it’s just reps. Some people can develop it after two or three years. But for a lot of people, it’s around that 10-year mark where you get that year for the crowd. That’s really what we’re all about, is giving the fans what they want.”

Crowds have been absent from wrestling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now that they're allowed back into the events, it seems like Josh has even more energy to feed off of than before.