Eddie Edwards Gives Update On How He's Physically Holding Up, Talks Sami Callihan - Ball Bat Injury

Eddie Edwards has been competing in a ring since he was 18 years old and his body has been through the grinder recently. Edwards was recently a part of a media scrum in which Wrestling Inc's Nick Hausman asked him how he's holding up physically.

"Knock on wood, I'm feeling good. We had some time off during the holidays and I spent some time with the family and rest and recovered. I'm not a spring chicken but I'm better about taking care of myself as far as rehab and preventative exercises," said Edwards. "I feel good ? there's always nagging injuries and bumps and bruises. But overall, I'm very happy with the way things are going and I'm excited for the new year."

Lots has changed in Edwards' life since he first broke into the business including marrying Alisha Edwards. He talked about how his mentality towards wrestling has evolved over time.

"When I'm home, I'm home and I'm pretty good at shutting off. I like to have that time with my family and to not constantly be stressing. I always have wrestling on my mind and my heart, but you need to be able to shut off," stated Edwards.

"That's something that, when I was first starting in the business, all I wanted to do was wrestle, wrestle, wrestle. That's still what I wanna do, but I also cherish the time in between that. I go about trying to take care of myself as far as stretching and trying to stay loose. That's more of a focus of my routine now and trying to take care of any nagging injuries. As of right now, I feel I've been doing a pretty good job and going forward I hope it gets better."

Just before Edwards took on Michael Elgin at Hard to Kill, the two faced off in a match on Impact's TV show. Edwards was asked if the two, perhaps, gave away their PPV match by having a TV match so shortly beforehand.

"I wouldn't say we gave it away as we gave a taste of what we can do. That was just a sample size of what Elgin and I are capable of. The point of that was to get people invested and to want to see more. I hope we did that job to make people want to tune in. The test for us as wrestlers is to go out there and one up ourselves each and every time. That's the pressure I put on myself to have a better watch than the night before. To go out and do it again a few days later, it's a challenge, but it's a challenge I gladly accept," said Edwards.

Edwards won a gauntlet match a couple of weeks ago to earn the Call Your Shot trophy. He talked about what that means to him.

[I call it] Timmy ? Timmy the Trophy. Winning the Call Your Shot Battle Royal is a huge step in my career because at any point I can call my shot as it says in the name and go after a title," stated Edwards. "I haven't had a championship around my waist for quite some time now. But to know I have that going forward, and to know we have that in the company, is cool. It gives us a chance to keep people guessing. You never know when I'm gonna wanna turn it in so to have that, it gives me options going forward."

One of the most infamous moments of Edwards career came when a spot with Sami Callihan went wrong and Edwards was hit in the face with a baseball bat. That moment changed the course of Edwards' career and he was asked if he regrets it happening.

"It was a prime example of taking lemons and making them into lemonade. Obviously, no one wants to be hit in the face with a baseball bat. If there was long-term damage ? if I couldn't see correctly or had a plate in my face ? it could have been a lot worse than it was. We had the best-case scenario. At this point, because of the way it has sent my career, it's weird to say I'm happy that it happened, but I'm more than okay that it happened," admitted Edwards.

He added that gave himself a chance to test himself as a wrestler and learn new styles. It also pushed him to do more promo work which helped him further evolve as a wrestler.

"I was able to take that ball and run with it. Now here I am and I have this character where I can brawl or be hardcore. Or I can be a technical wrestler. So, I'm happy with where I'm at because I know at any point, I can go in any direction I need to go. For that, I am grateful?and I'm also grateful I didn't lose my eye," said Edwards.

Edward's full press conference was included as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast, which you can check out in the audio player below. You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.