Sami Callihan On Reinventing Himself And Staying Relevant, The Dynamic Working With Ken Shamrock
Reality might be “lost” but Sami Callihan knows where he’s headed and he also sees more gold in his future.
Callihan recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of his IMPACT Tag Team Championship opportunity at Slammiversary this Saturday. Callihan will team up with Ken Shamrock, his one-time enemy that now makes an unlikely ally against The North.
“I’ve said this many times in the past month but it’s something that 14-year-old Sami Callihan would be freaking out about right now,” Callihan said, “but I’m not 14 anymore. I’m a grown-ass man and I’m about to add the Tag Team Championship to my growing list of accolades and come one step closer to becoming an IMPACT Wrestling Triple Crown Champion.”
Despite being at odds with Shamrock a few months ago, throwing a fireball in the MMA legend’s face, Callihan now sees the unpredictable nature of his new partner as a plus and says it’s going to result in winning the Tag Team Championship this weekend.
“I’m feeling fantastic. I just beat Josh Alexander in a singles match and one of the things that people don’t realize is Ken Shamrock, even though he’s been around for a long time,” Callihan said, “he’s completely unpredictable. You don’t know what he’s going to do, you don’t know how he’s going to do it. He is a wild stallion and it’s at the point where I’m going along for the ride to see what happens.”
Callihan has had several gimmicks over the course of his career—the New Horror, Solomon Crowe, oVe and so on—with his latest ICU or “Reality Is Lost” gimmick revisiting the hacker world. With so many changes over the years, Callihan says reinvention is very important to him, noting that he doesn’t ever want to be complacent. He added that wrestling allows him to try new things and he always looks for a new challenge.
“I think that’s one of the biggest things in professional wrestling, is to keep being relevant. If you look at all of the greats in professional wrestling, they will always reinvent themselves every couple of years. I’m not going to get complacent, I’m not someone who will stick with something that works all of the time. I want to be challenged with a new character, new developments,” Callihan said, “and it’s 100% a challenge that I’m happy to be able to deal with right now. If it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t and it’s back to the drawing board. That’s the great thing about professional wrestling.”
One of the most-often used examples of a modern wrestler being able to reinvent themselves is Chris Jericho, who is still at the top of his game more than twenty years into his career. Jericho has pointed to David Bowie as an influence (and has been compared to Terry Funk’s ECW run), and Callihan also uses the world around him and looks at what’s big in pop culture to help mold his character.
“I take inspiration from everything—horror movies, video games, any kind of pop culture thing or whatever is relevant at the time. This is a character that I’ve been working on almost ten years at this point. It wasn’t something that I was just somewhere else and decided I wanted to do,” Callihan said, “it was something that right now was the proper time to pull the trigger on it. You’ve seen the same Sami Callihan for the past five years and it’s worked extremely well, it’s given me things in my career that you only dream of. Now I’m at a point where I can actually take these risks, take these challenges and see if it works.”
Callihan will also be part of IMPACT’s Slammiversary CELL-ebration tomorrow morning; more information on the interactive fan event featuring The North, Willie Mack, Deonna Purrazzo, Ken Shamrock and more can be viewed at this link. IMPACT Wrestling’s Slammiversary pay-per-view airs tomorrow night on FITE.
Read More: Eddie Edwards ‘Expecting The Unexpected’ At Slammiversary, Aims To Leave As IMPACT World Champion
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