Sami Callihan On WWE Doing a Hacker Gimmick After Him, Impact’s Empty Arena Shows

Sami Callihan sees imitation in WWE’s Smackdown hacker gimmick that turned out to be Mustafa Ali, and discussed it in a new interview. Callihan spoke on a media call promoting Saturday’s Bound For Glory (per Wrestling Inc) and you can see highlights below:

On his hacker gimmick preceding his Solomon Crowe character in NXT: “This is something I’ve had in my back pocket for years.”

On Smackdown utilizing a hacker gimmick this year: “And now it’s the other companies trying to copy it, which is what always happens with ‘The Draw’ Sami Callihan. Half the things I’ve come up with in the past five years have been stolen and used somewhere else. But, there’s only one Sami Callihan. There’s only one person who does it like I do, and right now, I’m one of the hottest things in professional wrestling yet again because I always evolve. I always do something new.”

On Impact running empty arena shows: “I think it’s one of the things that has helped Impact Wrestling in the long haul. When COVID hit, you saw a lot of other companies without their bells and whistles come down a notch, and Impact Wrestling went up a notch, truly showing the wrestling world that Impact Wrestling is one of the best wrestling shows on the planet.”