Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley both won their singles titles on the same night in June. At Against All Odds, Chris Sabin defeated Trey Miguel to become a 9x IMPACT X Division Champion; on the same night, Alex Shelley defeated Steve Maclin and won the IMPACT World Title for the very first time.
Speaking with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Sabin reflected on the special moment.
“That was a night I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Sabin said. “It was validation for all the work we’ve put in over the years. Alex is one of the most underrated guys ever in the business. We worked for it, but we’re extremely grateful and blessed for these careers. Seeing him win was amazing, and I hope that moment was a great payoff for a lot of fans who’ve been watching Impact for a long time.”
“Looking back, I wasn’t sure how I was going to do in the first place. To have made it to this level and still be doing it at 41, it’s a great feeling.”
Sabin and Shelley are one of the most renowned tag teams in the business today, but as they showed at IMPACT Against All Odds, they continue to thrive as singles stars as well. With that in mind, Sabin compared them to a modern version of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express, and he made it clear that they will never turn on each other.
“That’s what makes us different,” Sabin said. “We’re singles wrestlers and a tag team. We’ll always have each other’s backs, kind of like the Rock ’N’ Roll Express. We’re a modern version of that.
“Even if we wrestle each other for one of our titles, we’ll never turn on each other. It will be a competition.”
H/T Colin Tessier for WrestleZone. Full article here.
The interesting dynamic here is that – if they both successful defend their titles at Slammiversary – IMPACT does something called “option C”, where the X Division champion can relinquish the title for a World Title shot.
Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley make up the Motor City Machine Guns, and are also best friends. Chris Sabin could potentially relinquish his X Division Title in order to go after Alex Shelley’s IMPACT World Title.
Chris Sabin defends his X Division Title against Lio Rush at Slammiversary, while Alex Shelley has to do battle with Nick Aldis for his IMPACT World Title.
We’ll have to see how Slammiversary plays out and then go from there, but this is a very unique situation.
Get your Slammiversary tickets here.
Order SLAMMIVERSARY on FITE here.
Matches announced for Slammiversary Ppv on 7/15:
***Countdown To Slammiversary***
IMPACT DIGITAL MEDIA TITLE
-Joe Hendry (c) vs Kenny King (w/Sheldon Jean)
6 Woman Tag Team Match
-Death Dolls (Courtney Rush/Jessicka) + Jody Threat vs Gisele Shaw, Savannah Evans, & Jai Vidal
***Main Card***
IMPACT WORLD TITLE
-Alex Shelley (c) vs Nick Aldis
IMPACT KNOCKOUTS WORLD TITLE
-Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs Trinity
IMPACT TAG TEAM TITLES
-ABC (c) vs Moose/Brian Myers vs Sami Callihan/Rich Swann vs Subculture
IMPACT X DIVISION TITLE
-Chris Sabin (c) vs Lio Rush
Tag Team Match – Special Enforcer: Darren McCarty
??? & Scott D’Amore vs Bully Ray & Deaner
Ultimate X Match
“Speedball” Mike Bailey vs Jonathan Gresham vs Alan Angels vs Kushida vs Kevin Knight
IMPACT KNOCKOUTS TAG TEAM TITLES
-The Coven (Taylor Wilde & KiLynn King) (c) vs Killer Kelly & Masha Slamovich
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