Ring of Honor star Chris Sabin recently spoke with Brian Fritz for Sporting News while promoting Ring of Honor’s Global Wars event.
Sabin talks about teaming back up with Alex Shelley, the ROH tag team division, his time in TNA, injuries and more. You can read some highlights below:
Sabin talks about how the Motor City Machine Guns’ reunion came up:
“We ended up in the same place at the same time, both with Ring of Honor and neither of us had contracts. We’ve mentioned on and off throughout the years about teaming again. Everything was aligned to happen organically. It was perfect timing.”
Sabin puts the ROH tag team division over:
“It feels really good. I’ve always enjoyed tag team wrestling and I feel like throughout my career the best work that I’ve been able to give the fans has been with Alex as the Motor City Machine Guns. I’m just hoping to bring back that magic for the fans again.
That’s the kind of energy that’s going to be passed back and forth and that’s why competition is so good. It’s why the Ring of Honor tag team division is so good. There’s such talented teams and well-rounded too. There’s different styles, you have a variety. War Machine is the tag team champions. They’re pretty much a completely different team compared to, say, reDRagon, and the Briscoes are completely different from everyone.”
Sabin talks about his experience with TNA Wrestling:
“When I was there, it really was like a dream come true. It was almost surreal because I was so young when all this stuff was happening. I signed my first contract when I was 21. I was just under three years in the business. I had such a good time. I was doing what I loved to do and I was getting paid to do it. I didn’t have to have any other job. I was getting paid to travel. Those times, every year we were building. It was a roller coaster ride and it was a really fun ride.”
TNA’s X Division influencing today’s wrestling:
“The X Division was really the first … we were really the first guys to kind of mix every style of wrestling possible and have it be presented in cable TV in America. You could say somewhat that the WCW cruiserweights were but (they) were more of a variety. You had the luchadors doing lucha style and Dean Malenko doing the technical style. They would entwine but more so the X Division, you had guys who were technical wrestlers that could do high-flying stuff, Lucha Libre, that could do Japanese style.
“That (X Division style) is the normal thing nowadays. If you go around the indies, that’s like the status quo. Everyone tries to mix that style of wrestling. It seems like looking at it from the outside that we did have a pretty big influence.”
Sabin talks about if he’s thought about life after wrestling:
“I have money set aside for school and I’ve considered becoming a physical therapist. That’s just because I had to go through physical therapy for my knees and my neck. I had to experience these injuries and it would be cool to give back to people who have to go through the same thing.”
