Sami Callihan On His NXT Run: "I Walked On Egg Shells And Became A Shell Of A Person Of Who I Was"

Sami Callihan will celebrate his two year anniversary with Impact Wrestling this month and much has changed in just the last few weeks. Anthem Sports & Entertainment purchased a majority stake in AXS and Impact moved to AXS TV.

Callihan talked about this change and what it means when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"It's amazing because we've had one of the best pro wrestling shows on the planet over the last two years and now people get to see it," said Callihand. 'They get to see our vision and what we've been doing. I'd put our roster head-to-head with any roster of any other company on the planet. I'm not just saying that because I wanna be a team player; it's cause I truly believe it.

"We're cutting-edge. We're edgy and we're not afraid to offend people. That's what people want in pro wrestling and Impact is actually giving it to them. People say the best time in wrestling was The Attitude Era and it looks like Impact is the only company that has the cojones to go out and give them that."

Callihan was in NXT for about two-and-a-half years and he doesn't look back on that as a great experience. He explained why he didn't like working in WWE and why he was so happy to leave.

"I walked on egg shells and became a shell of a person of who I was. That's why I quit because I didn't like the person I was becoming," revealed Callihan. "I wanted to create my own future and bet on myself. I think it worked out pretty good for myself."

Leaving WWE allowed Callihan to return to the indies which he did with AAW in the Chicago area. He is the only three-time World Champion in AAW history and he wasn't bashful in saying that he's one of the reasons why Chicago Wrestling is so popular today.

"When I quit WWE and NXT, Chicago was the first place I showed up three days later. I'd like to say that I'm one of the reasons that Chicago wrestling is a hot as it is right now. No one was really talking about Chicago wrestling until I showed back up and the work I did with AAW to blow that whole territory up," said Callihan.

Sami's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post, it can also be viewed via the video player at the top.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.