Sami Callihan Interview Notes (Patreon)

Sami Callihan Notes

IMPACT Wrestling’s Sami Callihan joined The Wrestling Perspective this week for an interview! The former IMPACT World Champion spoke to Fightful’s Lars Frederiksen and Dennis Farrell on various topics.

Callihan talked about his match with Kenny Omega at IMPACT Wrestling’s Slammiversary. He said it was cool because how often have you seen major companies work together?

He mentioned how he broke his tibia, fibula, and ankle in six pieces at IMPACT Tapings in 2021 and how it stopped his momentum. Sami said he gets some hate online about people saying, “Callihan’s put on some weight.” Callihan mentioned that he had been back almost a year, and in the past month or month and a half, he started to feel like himself again. He commented that he “straight up Sid Vicious’d, himself,” referencing the infamous Sid Vicious injury from the WCW Sin PPV.

Lars said he believes IMPACT does the best job with their long-term storylines and was asked if he believes that to be the case compared to other companies. Callihan agreed and also added he considers IMPACT better than other companies at finishing storylines. The veteran said even if the story is not working, IMPACT will keep it going until the end.

Callihan brought up the Violent by Design story; he mentioned how many people did not like it because “Sami is a babyface.” He blames that on instant gratification; Callihan said if people had waited, they would have seen the Easter Eggs that were all around. He would later say if people watched the product instead of clips, they would catch those Easter Eggs.

Callihan would tell Dennis that he knows that not everyone can be in the top storyline in the company. However, he talked about how his promos have been much better with crowd reaction since leaving Violent By Design. Callihan says you can put him anywhere on the card, and he will make things work.

Callihan wouldn’t use these exact words, but he is a jack-of-all-trades in the business. He talked about how he has done everything from booking, promoting, editing, advertising, etc., and he always sees himself involved in Pro Wrestling.

Callihan said that the Knockout Division is the best Women’s division in Pro Wrestling. Callihan said he would put any of IMPACT’s Knockouts in the ring with any guy in the business, and you could have the main event anywhere.

Callihan spoke about how Kayfabe had changed the business. He brings up social media; he says he uses his social for his work; otherwise, he says everything else stays behind closed doors because he likes his privacy. Callihan says you won’t see him talking about politics and added people generally put too much emphasis on what we should want. He said we should listen to social media at some point but thinks it should be kept in perspective.

Callihan spoke about changing his persona, and he brought up Chris Jericho. Callihan said he always tells young wrestlers to look at Chris Jericho's career; he's done something to reinvent himself and become relevant. Callihan said he likes to use Jericho as a blueprint.

They wrapped up the conversation promoting his upcoming show Pro Wrestling Revolver’s Mayhem for All event on May 6th live from Des Moines, Iowa [Clive, Iowa]. The event can be seen on Fite TV.


*Corrected: A Previous version of this article stated that Sid broke his leg on WCW Nitro. He actually injured it at the WCW PPV "Sin" on January 14th, 2001.