Former World Champion Explains IMPACT Wrestling Departure

Published: Oct 9, 2023 by SP3 | Last Updated: Oct 9, 2023 by SP3

Born in Harlem, New York and now living in the Bronx, Sid Pullar III aka SP3 is a lifelong wrestling fan who has been covering the industry for over nine years as a podcaster and writer. His passion for the industry has been documented with over 3,000 videos on YouTube and 8,000 written pieces across multiple outlets, such as WrestleTalk, Sports Illustrated and more.

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IMPACT Wrestling

A former world champion has explained his IMPACT Wrestling departure.

On Sunday, October 1, Sami Callihan became a free agent after his contract with IMPACT Wrestling expired, ending a six year run with the promotion.

The former IMPACT World Champion has previously commented on ending his tenure with the company, which you can read at this link.

During a new interview with Fightful, Callihan revealed that there is no bad blood between him and IMPACT Wrestling. He said:

“It is something that came up rather quick. I went through that horrendous leg injury and halted my career and put me at a stop still for almost a year and a half.”

“Hell, I just started to feeling like typical Sami Callihan probably two months ago. It was one of those things, we are on extremely good terms.”

“I’m not one to come say, ‘You know what, screw you. You’re a piece of s**t. I’m gonna bury your company.’ I would never do that. I don’t want to do that because I do love IMPACT Wrestling.”

Callihan continued on to explain why the two sides weren’t able to come to an agreement right now, saying:

“It’s one of those things, we could not come to an agreement on what I need to be paid to stay because I believed I offered more than what was really happening.”

“In professional wrestling, I think I’m more than just a professional wrestler at this point. I think I’ve proven that time and time again.”

“I think my fingertips and blueprint is all over professional wrestling, not only on an independent scale, on national television scale at his point. We just could not come to terms.”

“I think both parties thought we were gonna figure out something, so it kept kinda getting pushed back and pushed back. Then when push came to shove, it just didn’t work out.”

When asked about the possibility of a new deal being reached with IMPACT Wrestling, Sami answered:

“100%. At this point in my career, it’s not like I’m some young upstart just fiending for a contract at this point.”

“It’s one of those things, with IMPACT I think it really did get pushed ‘til the last minute because I don’t think as many people knew my contract was coming up like it did.”

“Because my contract was supposed to end last December, but because my leg got broken—we talked about this before—I was supposed to be out of my contract December 30th of last year. I broke my leg and like any contract, I got time tacked onto that.”

“I don’t even think I kept extremely good track of it. It’s like, ‘Yo, my contract’s coming up, contract’s coming up, contract’s coming up.’”

Transcription via Fightful

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