Sami Callihan Explains Split From IMPACT Wrestling, Says He Wants To Evolve & Make ‘Great Content’

Sami Callihan comments on his free agency.

On Sunday, October 1, 2023, Sami Callihan became a free agent, thus ending his long standing tenure with IMPACT Wrestling.

Fans have began to speculate on which company Callihan will end signing with, as many options are seemingly on the table for the ‘Death Machine’. 

In a new interview with Fightful, Callihan revealed that there is no bad blood with IMPACT Wrestling, as the two sides just simply couldn’t agree on a new deal.

“It is something that came up rather quick. I went through that horrendous leg injury and halted my career and put me at a stop still for almost a year and a half. Hell, I just started to feeling like typical Sami Callihan probably two months ago. It was one of those things, we are on extremely good terms. I’m not one to come say, ‘You know what, screw you. You’re a piece of shit. I’m gonna bury your company.’ I would never do that. I don’t want to do that because I do love IMPACT Wrestling. It’s one of those things, we could not come to an agreement on what I need to be paid to stay because I believed I offered more than what was really happening. In professional wrestling, I think I’m more than just a professional wrestler at this point. I think I’ve proven that time and time again. I think my fingertips and blueprint is all over professional wrestling, not only on an independent scale, on national television scale at his point. We just could not come to terms. I think both parties thought we were gonna figure out something, so it kept kinda getting pushed back and pushed back. Then when push came to shove, it just didn’t work out.”

Callihan was then asked about the possibility of still reaching a deal with IMPACT Wrestling, despite the fact that he’s officially a free agent. Fightful provided instances of wrestlers such as Jordynne Grace taking time away from a company before reaching a new deal.

“100%. At this point in my career, it’s not like I’m some young upstart just fiending for a contract at this point. It’s one of those things, with IMPACT I think it really did get pushed ‘til the last minute because I don’t think as many people knew my contract was coming up like it did. Because my contract was supposed to end last December, but because my leg got broken—we talked about this before—I was supposed to be out of my contract December 30th of last year. I broke my leg and like any contract, I got time tacked onto that. I don’t even think I kept extremely good track of it. It’s like, ‘Yo, my contract’s coming up, contract’s coming up, contract’s coming up.’

Callihan also went on to state that he put the idea of his contract expiring so far back into his mind that he never realized how close it was to happening.

“People kept asking me and asking me and asking me, and I think I just put it so far back into my brain, I don’t think I even realized how close it was to coming up. It’s one of those things, look ‘to-may-to, to-mah-to,’ whatever happens happens. Professional wrestling is professional wrestling. There’s no hard feelings. I know I’m extremely motivated right now. As you said, people are pushing for me at one company, at other companies. There are people pushing for me in a lot of companies right now. Because I do have that reputation with certain people in the business, because I’m never one to be, ‘Oh, I helped this guy or helped this guy or helped this guy.’ I truly do say this, it’s not just me blowing smoke up people’s ass. My blueprints and my fingerprints are all over professional wrestling to the point I don’t think people understand or really know that that’s the case.”

Callihan went on to say that he’s just looking to produce great content, as he wants to leave his mark on not only professional wrestling, but people in general.

“Great content. In today’s day and age, content equals money. Content equals everything. We’re in a rare time in society that anything you do is gonna be put out for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. I want to leave my mark, not only on professional wrestling, but just people in general. I’ve always lived my life like that. I’m never just gratified by one thing. I’m never content by like, ‘You know what? I’ve been World Champion, I’ve wrestled for every promotion on the planet.’ That’s not good enough for me. I want to continue to evolve.  I want to continue to recreate myself. I want to continue to make other people. I want to continue to take people that I think have potential and help them get to that next level because I’ve seen someone that you have your hands on make it to the next level, getting on television, scoring the contract, having their entire life change. That? That’s it’s own form of gratification.”

Fightful will update fans when more information about Sami Callihan’s future in wrestling is made available.

Furthermore, fans can see Fightful’s full interview with Sami Callihan linked above.