Alex Hammerstone discusses being the face of Major League Wrestling.
Hammerstone has risen to the top of the company; following a lengthy run as the inaugural MLW National Openweight Champion, he beat World Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu in a Title vs. Title Match at MLW Fightland 2021. Since then, he has reigned supreme and defended the gold against names like Bandido, Davey Richards, Pagano and Richard Holliday.
In an interview with Steve Fall for WrestlingNewsCo, Hammerstone shared his thoughts on the pressures he faces as the company’s world champion. He noted that the position comes with extra responsibility and plenty of scrutiny, but he embraces the challenges because he has worked hard to get to this point.
“It’s definitely a huge responsibility. It’s one of those things, there’s like a joke in wrestling, like everybody wants to be the top guy until they’re the top guy,” Hammerstone said. “Because it does come with extra responsibilities, the extra main event matches, going on last, doing the press, doing the media, making sure you make extra time for fans. The eyes are on you, the scrutiny is extra heavy, but it’s a workload well-embraced by myself because it’s something I worked very hard for a very long time to get to this point. So I’m happy to do it.”
Hammerstone continued by emphasizing that he’s focused on being the best champion he can be. He noted that the obvious goal is to surpass the length of Fatu’s reign with the gold. He also described how he has been traveling the world in his quest to represent MLW, and he’s determined to take the title to new heights.
“I’m concerned with staying where I’m at right now, and it’s easy for me to have a goal because just before myself, we had Jacob Fatu as the world heavyweight champion,” Hammerstone said. “He was extremely dominant, he had an extremely long reign, so the obvious goal is to surpass his reign. The obvious goal is to have a reign that is the most glorious, the most prestigious in the company’s history, to take the title to new heights, to take it to new places, to take it to a new level, and I’ve done a lot of those things, as far as traveling with the belt across different countries.
“But now I’m at the top, and you got this extra level of scrutiny, everyone’s always waiting for you to have a bad match or something and say, ‘You’re boring, you’re overrated, you shouldn’t be there.’ So now the gears are turning in my head about what’s next with my own presentation. How do I want to keep things fresh? How do I want to continue to put a new spin on things? I think I’m gonna be able to do some exciting things in the new year.”
Hammerstone will defend the MLW World Heavyweight Championship against YAMATO at MLW Blood & Thunder on January 7. Check out the updated card here.
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