New SmackDown Star Turned Down Initial WWE Contract

A newcomer on the WWE SmackDown brand could have joined the company a lot earlier than he did.

The Motor City Machine Guns duo of Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley had a very successful WWE Smackdown debut that saw them pick up a win in their first match. The two veteran wrestlers from Michigan picked up the victory in a triple threat match against Los Garza – Angel & Berto and A-Town Down Under – Austin Theory & Grayson Waller.

Thanks to that victory, the MCMG duo will face off against #DIY’s Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa on the October 25th edition of WWE SmackDown. Whoever wins that match will earn a WWE Tag Team Title match against The Bloodline’s Tama Tonga & Tonga Loa.

While reflecting on his past in an interview with Alistair McGeorge of Metro, Shelley revealed that he nearly signed with WWE in 2005.

I’d actually asked for my release from TNA in December and I got it in January. I didn’t really know what I was gonna do, but I knew I was gonna work my hardest.’

Shelley wrestled Simon Dean on an episode of Sunday Night Heat and then he had a decision to make about his wrestling future.

They needed somebody to wrestle Nova, Simon Dean. I’d known Tommy Dreamer since I was maybe 19 or 20, and he was handling that that day. He saw me – mind you, full disclosure, I didn’t really wanna wrestle, I just kinda wanted to see everything. I’m pale and I haven’t been to the gym in three weeks because I’ve been in Japan. He goes, “Alex Shelley”. “Oh f**k!”

Alex Shelley Made A Choice Between WWE And TNA

As he continued the story, Shelley spoke about how he had to decide to go to TNA or WWE.

Literally the next day, less than 24 hours, Scott D’Amore – who at the time was kinda like an interim booker for TNA – called me.

When Shelley thought about it, he liked the idea of traveling the world outside of WWE and went the TNA route.

I had to kinda make a choice on what direction I wanted my career to take. My heroes were always the guys who had done everything all over the world – [Chris] Benoit, [Chris] Jericho, [Eddie] Guerrero, these guys are the upmost excellent wrestlers.

I thought, “Well I have to do that.” I’d just got my job in Japan and I thought, if I go with IMPACT, I can do IMPACT, Ring of Honor, CZW and Japan, and I ended up doing that for a little while – which is pretty cool for a 21-year-old kid to do. In hindsight, I’m very, very happy I did that because being in Japan was massive for me, just massive.

For the last 20 years, Shelley spent most of his time in TNA where he is a former World Champion and three-time Tag Team Champion with Sabin, so it did work out well for both guys. Now they have decades of experience and a new world in WWE to try to be successful as well.