Alexander Hammerstone has made a big impact in Major League Wrestling since his arrival in early 2019.
Shortly after arriving in MLW, he aligned himself with MJF and Richard Holiday to form the Dynasty faction. He won the tournament to crown MLW’s first National Openweight champion – a title he still holds to this day. Hammerstone is one of the most agile heavyweights in all of pro wrestling. It is easy to see how he’s climbed the ranks of the MLW fight league so quickly.
We recently had a chance to speak with Hammerstone for an extended interview. Topics discussed include changing up his persona prior to joining MLW, his first year with the company, the Dynasty and much more.
You can listen to our full interview with Hammerstone below:
Hammerstone’s First Year In MLW, Reinventing Himself
The 6’4″ hoss from Glendale, AZ first arrived on the scene in MLW in January 2019.
Hammerstone explains that his first year in MLW brought him the most success and notoriety of his decade-long career. Prior to MLW, Hammerstone cut his teeth in Paragon Pro Wrestling and Ring Warriors, among other smaller promotions. That experience helped him put his best foot forward and make something happen on the big stage.
Just before signing with MLW, Hammerstone changed up his look and his attitude. He cut his hair, shook off the bootleg Triple H comparisons and let his personality shine through.
“I’ve always been a guy who loves doing character stuff and promo stuff, backstage vignettes and stuff of that nature,” he said. “So, that alone wasn’t new, but the way we were going with it was kind of new. For a lot of years, I presented myself a lot differently. I tried really hard to play a certain type of pro wrestler and I got kind of pigeonholed into playing this big tough guy, ‘I’m gonna beat you up’ type of character. It wasn’t one dimensional, but it was limited in what I could do with it. Finally, right before I signed with MLW, I just threw that away and said, ‘I’m just going to be myself, I’m just going to do what I like. I’m gonna try to do what I enjoy and what I think is entertaining without following any guidelines that I’m supposed to follow.'”
The Dynasty
After getting a few singles wins under his belt he aligned himself with Maxwell J. Friedman and Richard Holiday. The trio were among MLW’s breakout stars last year. They held championship gold and relished in the creative freedom they were given.
“Luckily, I got thrown into some good stories right off the bat,” Hammerstone said about his arrival in MLW. “It was only a couple weeks of TV before we began forming The Dynasty. Once that got going, it was like there was a rocket on our butts and it’s been an upward trajectory ever since.”
He continued, “The best parts of The Dynasty have been when we’re just playing off each other. It wasn’t a new thing to do promos. But it was a new thing to just be myself and enjoy it and watch things blossom in their own natural way.”
On recent episodes of MLW Fusion, Hammerstone and Richard Holiday’s exploits while on tour in Mexico were highly entertaining. In one segment, they were shown in a Tiajuana hotel room, hungover from attending a ‘donkey show’ the previous night before.
Creative Freedom in MLW
Hammerstone explained how those segments came together.
“I think there was a general idea of what direction the Dynasty was going to go in, when it was first formed,” he said. “And then it just took wild left turn after wild left turn and pretty soon it became its own strange monster. At first, it was like they were trying to tighten up the leash and control it. Then, once it got out of control, they realized they couldn’t stop us and they were just gonna let us do whatever we want to do.”
He continued, “A lot of the one-liners and segments people fondly remember were things we were specifically told, ‘You probably shouldn’t do that’ but luckily, starting out, I showed up to the company wanting to be respectful. But I’d say Max, MJF, probably had a good part in that. He was the type of guy where, we’d shoot a promo and it turned out way off the rails, way far away from what they intended it to be. And it was hilarious, but they’d say, ‘Ok, maybe we do another one without …’ and he’d just say, ‘Nope, that’s it’ and walk away and be gone, so there was no, ‘Ok, we’re going to reshoot that.’
From that point on, it really became, ‘The Dynasty is going to be the Dynasty, we’re going to do what we think is right, we’re gonna say the silly things we want to say and there’s not much you can do to stop it.’ And if they did, it would probably be way less entertaining.'”
Gino Medina has since joined the Dynasty faction, with MJF recently being forced to leave MLW after losing a ‘Loser Leaves Town’ match to Mance Warner.
