Various: Motor City Machine Guns Signs New Impact Contracts, Alicia Atout on MLW Departure, Christopher Daniels

Motor City Machine Guns Signs New Contracts with Impact

The Motor City Machine Guns reportedly have recently signed new contracts with Impact Wrestling, according to Sports Illustrated.

It was reported that the terms of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin’s new deals with Impact are currently not known.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Shelley stated that this was the first full-time contract he has signed for his career in the past five years.

“This is the first full-time pro wrestling contract I’ve signed in almost five years. I pursued physical medicine, and earning that degree was something I needed to prove to myself. Once I had that security and that confidence, I wanted to be back in Impact. It has the most familial bond. There are people here that have seen me grow up from a teenager to a grown-ass man. That’s special to me.

And some of the best in the world are right here. There aren’t better wrestlers on the planet than ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey, Jonathan Gresham, Kushida and Chris Sabin. I could go on and on –Frankie Kazarian, Trey Miguel, Black Taurus. These guys are phenomenal.”

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Alicia Atout on Decision to Leave MLW

As noted before, Major League Talent Alicia Atout announced on Wednesday that she was granted her release from the company and is currently a free agent.

Fightful held a recent interview with Atout. One of the topics discussed included Atout’s reasons for her decision to leave MLW.

“The whole thing was a little bittersweet, to be fully forward with you. Back in August, I did my last appearance with MLW, but left that show not thinking it would be. Of course, we received the news that my partner, Richard Holliday, was very, very sick, and he had to step away for quite some time. So they were kind of jumbled in the back, trying to figure out the next steps for me. Do they put me back in the interviewer position? Do they just throw me with someone else, but maybe it doesn’t make sense? So months by, and then more months went by, and it kind of started to hit where I wasn’t doing television appearances with them or anything like that. So I think we both came to the decision where, rather than just make me wait, which I wasn’t very comfortable with, because there’s a lot more going on just outside of the wrestling world for me too right now, it was very amicable, and we decided, for now, let’s part ways. They granted me my release, which was just lovely. There was no BS, nothing to kind of go back and forth with. Now I’m a free agent, which is awesome. It’s very cool because for me, the whole reason that I wanted to sign with the company was to simply be at shows, do my work, and show people what I have to offer. Unfortunately, we’re coming up on what would have been a couple months away from a full year of not being able to do that with the company I was signed with. Again, the circumstances and situation suck because Clout Couple was one of my favorite things I got to do in my career, but sometimes you have to make business decisions over personal ones, and so that’s where this kind of came into play.

It would have been up this December. The whole thing also was also kind of thinking even [Richard Holliday] is to make that return, let’s say it’s summertime or even in the fall, that only leaves a couple more months for me with the brand. That’s if I was to re-sign again. There were just a lot of different things to think about. So once that all kind of simmered down, we realized, okay one, he’s going to be okay, but we also have to wait. Again, it came down to business. I want to be somewhere where I can continue to thrive and have that TV and show what I’m made of. I’ve been working so hard on practicing so many different things, other than interviewing, and so I think it’ll be cool just to see where that goes and where I can bring that to.

To be very blunt, I expected my release. I expected that respect back from them. That’s what I was hoping at least because you hear a lot of people leaving whichever company it might be within wrestling, and it can not go well, and lawsuits are involved, and there’s a lot of animosity. J didn’t want that. I was grateful for my time there. I know that the situation was completely out of everyone’s hands. They even tried giving me something earlier in the year, where I was doing stuff for PWTV, I had that little Insider show where I was still repping the brand. Then that eventually kind of made its way out too, so I think they realized that I have a lot to bring to the table, and I was just stuck not being able to put the meal down [laughs], and I wanted to be able to do that. So yeah, I wanted my release going into that call, and I’m very grateful they gave it. I’m just happy to have left on good terms because they gave me a lot of really cool opportunities and ways to be creative over the years.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Christopher Daniels on New Era of ROH Not Having Same Ceiling as Old ROH

MuscleManNation held a recent interview with Christopher Daniels. One of the topics discussed included Daniels thoughts on Ring of Honor’s new era under Tony Khan not having the same ceiling as was the case under former ROH owner Sinclair Broadcasting.

“Tony has a wider set of resources for Ring of Honor’s benefit. Even when we were doing stuff with Sinclair Broadcasting, I felt there was a ceiling to how far we could go. I don’t think Tony has that ceiling in place. Tony has the resources. If he has an idea, he’s not afraid to go the extra mile to put it into effect. There are less restrictions for Ring of Honor under Tony Khan than there might have been under Sinclair Broadcasting. I hope that’s the case. I hope, going forward, we can bring Ring of Honor back to the prominence it had before the pandemic happened. That situation, Ring of Honor was probably the promotion affected most by the pandemic. Hopefully, with Tony behind the scenes, we can bring Ring of Honor back up, get it on HonorClub, get people excited about Ring of Honor. I’m looking forward to being part of it, trying to contribute, trying to get more opportunities in Ring of Honor, myself or myself and Matt.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com