Sami Callihan has finally spoken about his TNA release, and he didn’t hold back when discussing how everything played out. Callihan believes the promotion has made a mistake by releasing him. He genuinely thought he was about to receive a creative position he had been chasing for years.
TNA recently went through a restructuring process that led to several backstage departures. Two of the biggest names affected were longtime creative figure Tommy Dreamer and producer Sami Callihan. Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Callihan explained how unexpected the decision was and why he believes TNA made the wrong call.
Sami Callihan believes his loyalty to TNA cost him
According to Callihan, the timing of the conversation led him to believe a promotion would arrive. The night before, he had spent hours working on plans for Slammiversary. The next morning, he woke up to messages about Dreamer’s departure.
Callihan said several people within the company contacted him after hearing about Dreamer’s exit. Many felt the opening could lead to a creative position for him, something he had always wanted for years.
When TNA asked him to join a conference call later that day, it went in a completely different direction.
Callihan explained that once the Zoom meeting started, it became clear that TNA was letting him go as part of the company’s “workforce reduction.”
The former TNA World Champion admitted he was emotional after hearing the news. However, he made sure company officials knew he strongly disagreed with the decision.
Callihan said he reminded management of the years he had dedicated to TNA and the opportunities he had turned down because he wanted to stay loyal to the company.
“I got on the Zoom call. They started talking and in my mind I’m like, ‘Maybe I’m getting added,’ and then it came to, ‘We’re sorry, we’re going to have to part ways.’ I kind of went off. I’m not someone who goes off like this. I try not to be very profanity-laced. It wasn’t screaming or yelling, but I stated my case. I knew that company, I feel like almost better that anybody, from wrestling to the production to everyone there and I had good relationships with everyone. I stated my case,” Callihan said.
He also said that he truly believed he would be a lifer in TNA and acknowledged that his loyalty to companies sometimes makes situations like this harder to accept.
“I was like, ‘Hey, this is why you’re making a terrible mistake. This is not happening right now. I’m not the guy. And I was told as a part of that workplace reduction act, and I went, ‘That should not be me.’ I never thought in a million…I thought I was gonna be a lifer at TNA, and I was talking to some friends of the company yesterday and I said, ‘I think my loyalness to the company that I’m working for is good and bad. I think I’m loyal to companies to a fault at this point, when I could’ve left years ago and went on to do other things,'” Callihan added.
Read More: Tessa Blanchard Reacts to Tommy Dreamer and Sami Callihan’s TNA Departures
