Motor City Machine Guns Recall TNA Being Reluctant Make Them a Tag Team

The Motor City Machine Guns say that TNA were initially not inclined to team them up. Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin are one of the most celebrated tag teams in TNA history, but as they revealed in an interview on Huge Pop the powers that be didn’t see them as a tag team. You can see highlights from the discussion below, per Fightful):

Shelly on their influence on tag team wrestling: “Fanatically, it’s the difference of utilizing a perspective versus physically mimicking a set of choreographed moves. For us, we were fortunate, when we first started teaming to have Jim Cornette available to us. He offered to coach us and did in TNA. We were teaming for a while, but TNA was reluctant to put us together as a team for about a year. This would have been early 2008.”

Sabin on what they were told at the time: “‘I don’t see it, bro.'”

Shelley on the situation and changing TNA’s mind: “Honest to God, that it what we were told, word for word. We’re not going to say who that was. With all due respect, the booker has their opinion. Whoever is writing the show has their opinion and that is pro wrestling, it’s subjective. They didn’t see it. It took a long time and it was by happenstance that we got the opportunity to show what we could do as a team because we weren’t supposed to be teaming in the match that we showed off all these tag team moves. It was supposed to be a five-way and we decided, because we were the only heels in the match, it makes sense for us to do these super awesome tag moves that no two guys would randomly do together, but whatever. By hook or by crook.

“Nonetheless, Jim Cornette gave us this study packet with notes and Midnight Express DVDs. It was probably, there were six DVDs, over 100 Midnight Express matches. With both (Dennis) Condrey and (Bobby) Eaton and (Stan) Lane. We started from match one and watched it go. We started to figure out the ebb and flow of how they were doing things. What we had available to us though, that was very special, was Jim, who was part of Midnight Express. We could literally ask him how they were doing things and he would watch us and say, ‘No, you have to do it like this for this reason.’ That sort of assistance was very valuable.”