Alex Shelley Wins IWTV Independent Wrestling Title

Alex Shelley has officially reached the top of independent wrestling.

The 38-year-old challenged Wheeler Yuta for the IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship on October 8 at IWTV's Untitled event in Williamstown, New Jersey. After a back and forth main event, Shelley picked up the win to end Yuta's reign at 155 days.

Shelley also becomes the 10th IWTV Independent Wrestling Champion, with the gold having been previously held by the likes of Warhorse, Orange Cassidy and Lee Moriarty.

While Shelley had been active in IMPACT Wrestling during 2020, he stepped away from the promotion ahead of Hard To Kill 2021 because of his outside commitments as a physical therapy clinician.

The former IMPACT X-Division Champion has since returned to the business, though, and Shelley recently told Sports Illustrated that independent wrestling is where he wants to be for the time being.

"Right now, the independents are where I want to be. That's not to say I wouldn't go back to a big company. AEW looks amazing. I had a great experience in WWE NXT, IMPACT is doing some great stuff and so is Ring of Honor. I miss New Japan so dearly. But I very much enjoy independent wrestling on a grassroots level," Shelley said.

"When I was growing up in this industry, I saw how dog-eat-dog it was, and I learned I needed a contingency plan. That was hard because I love pro wrestling so much. I'd pursued my education so I had a backup plan, and I promised myself I would never wrestle because I needed to, but rather only because I loved it. I've kept that promise. Wrestling Garcia and Yuta, these are matches I want. I've found a special kind of joy and energy grinding on the independents."