Sami Callihan recently spoke with Interactive Wrestling Radio; you can read a few transcribed highlights or listen to the show in the embedded player:
Sami Callihan on the negative media about Impact Wrestling, his experience so far:
“Well, the first week I was there man, it is pretty bad ass. They are pretty much giving us the opportunity. I think the big thing is management hasn’t always been the best. The best way I can describe it is if you were a fan of WCW back in 1992-1993 when people were running WCW that wasn’t wrestling fans, that didn’t know wrestling. That kind of thought, “I’m going to run this company and do what I want.” I kind of attribute it to that. That kind of is where TNA (Impact) was for a while. But now, they have smart people on top. They have guys on top that were on top when TNA was at their best. Now, Scott D’Amore is helping with, majorly helping with the company. Sonjay Dutt, majorly helping with the company. Abyss, majorly helping with the company. These are guys that were helping with the company when it first was amazing. Change doesn’t happen overnight. But, these guys are slowly putting plans into motion to change TNA back to what it was. Within the next year, TNA is going to totally pull a 180 and people are going to start noticing it again.”
Sami on his relationship with oVe:
“It is pretty bad ass, at the end of the day, that I get to be on national TV with my absolute two best friends on the planet. Two guys that are my absolute brothers with Dave and Jake Crist. I don’t even care what I’m doing with them as long as I can continue doing stuff. I remember seeing the first pictures of us coming out as OVE and it almost brings me to tears. We’re 3 messed up kids from Ohio that went to bat for each other and had each other’s back when we don’t really have family. We’re each other’s family. Like I said, three messed up kids from Ohio are together and changing the wrestling world.”
“A lot of people don’t realize about them, they broke out before I did. They used to go by Irish Airborn until 2008 or 2009. They were one of the first people ever offered an ROH contract and Dave Crist blew out his knee and was out for almost a year and a half. That kind of messed that up. At one point, they were going to get signed to WWE and another one got hurt. That happened. Every little thing that could ever happen to those guys always went wrong. Now, finally, everything has come together. Before I came back to the indies, Jake had actually retired. He was having his retirement tour. We all talked him into staying. We kind of revamped ourselves as a unit together. We’ve been off to the races ever since.”
Sami comments on Combat Zone Wrestling still going strong:
“It is just that it is different. Believe me, man. When I took over… I’m not the only creative force behind Combat Zone, there’s a whole committee that I kind of oversee and we get things going. But, Combat Zone, no matter what, is always going to be in the forefront even if it is just people shitting on the product. CZW is the red-headed step-child of wrestling where even if they do something amazing, it is a fun company and a cool company but people find something to pick apart on. Or, they’ll do something ridiculous and get a whole bunch of heat for no reason. Their tag line is “Wrestling Fears CZW” and it is kind of true. They are always in some kind of tabloid-esque news story because they’re just the company that everybody loves to pick on. It is one of the hardest projects I’ve ever had to run in my life. It’s its own different animal.” He continues, “They (CZW) should have blown up years upon years upon years ago. They have had so many opportunities. They were in the movie The Wrestler as a main company. They have had a vice documentary about them. They’ve been on multiple television shows. It always seems like there is just one thing holding them back that won’t let them just click into the mainstream. That is what I’m trying to do. The haters can continue to hate. But, CZW is going to continue to be around like it always has been.” He concludes, “People don’t realize, if it wasn’t for CZW, there wouldn’t be Dean Ambrose. There wouldn’t be Luke Harper. There wouldn’t be Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Claudio (Cesaro).. Pretty much everyone came through CZW at one point or another.”
Sami comments on what sets him apart:
“I always wanted to be different. I consider my style controlled chaos. I’ve learned that style from a bunch of different times and influences throughout my career. Like, I remember at one point in my career I wanted to be a Junior Heavyweight and I wanted to do a bunch of flips. And then, I wanted to be like a big guy and do power moves. Oh, I want to be a hardcore guy and do hardcore stuff. Oh, I want to be a lucha guy and do lucha stuff. Somehow, going through those phases of my career, I somehow found the right recipe of what Sami Callihan is and it just seems to work.”
