Chris Sabin Calls Current Run With IMPACT Wrestling A Year Of Adaptation And Progress, Excited For Fans To Return
Chris Sabin is excited to get back in front of a crowd after a year of adaptation and growth.
Chris Sabin recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of his match at Slammiversary with Moose. Sabin’s match against the self-proclaimed “Wrestling God” is notable for several reasons, including the fact that it’s the first IMPACT event with a live crowd in more than a year. Sabin spoke about still getting butterflies and why it’s something he’s excited about.
“Yeah it’s a little nerve-wracking, that’s for sure. The thought of it, I will say, does give me some butterflies in my stomach. But at the same time, I’m super excited. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I think the fans have been waiting for this for a long time, obviously, and it’s gonna be on another level. You’re gonna feel the energy of the people. That’s something we haven’t felt in a long time,” he said, “so I’m very excited. Very excited.”
Asked if it’s a good feeling to still get nervous at this point in his career, Sabin said it might be different for everyone, but he gets worried if he’s not nervous going into a match.
“To me, I’m worried if I don’t get nervous because I think getting those butterflies and being a little nervous is a by-product of wanting to do the best I can possibly do. It’s a by-product of putting pressure on myself and trying to force myself to be the best possible Chris Sabin I can be,” he stated. “So I would be more worried if I wasn’t nervous, but that’s just me, you know. Everyone’s different.”
.@SuperChrisSabin came *this close* to giving @TheMooseNation a taste of his own medicine. #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/W23YVFdvKp
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) July 16, 2021
Sabin and Alex Shelley made a surprise appearance at last year’s Slammiversary event, reuniting for the first time on a TNA/IMPACT Wrestling show for the first time in nearly eight years. Sabin reflected on the year in IMPACT, and how Slammiversary is once again being touted as an event that will change the company’s world again. He referred to it as a year of adaptation and said there’s been a lot of uncertainty, but also a lot of progress overall.
“I think it’s just been a year of adaptation. Unexpected things have happened over and over. When I first returned with Alex Shelley, I thought that was gonna be more of a long-term thing, us sticking together, wrestling for IMPACT for a while, maybe branching out, who knows? And then Alex had other things going on, I ended up going on without him, IMPACT and myself have gone without him,” he noted, “and then here comes James Storm. So alright, let’s do this, you know, James Storm and I, and then obviously circumstances happened and James Storm isn’t around anymore. So yeah this has been a year of adaptation but at the same time, progress.
“So I think that when unexpected things happen, how you react to them means a lot your problem-solving skills and who you are as a person. So I think all these unexpected things happening and being able to adapt,” Sabin said, “it’s all been positive for me and I think it’s just made progress and this has just been a year of progress.”