WWE Stars Had To Convince Bosses For Opportunity As Tag Team

A pair of WWE superstars were initially told no early in their careers when they wanted to be a tag team.

The Motor City Machine Guns duo of Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley are talented pro wrestlers who have been in the business for the past 20 years. Both men were World Champions in TNA Wrestling, but they are most known for being one of the best teams in company history.

Sabin & Shelley made their official WWE debuts on Smackdown in Columbia when they won a triple threat match.

In an interview with Donnie DaSilva and Jimmy Korderas on Huge Pop, the Motor City Machine Guns spoke about how there was reluctance in TNA to make them a tag team.

Alex Shelley: “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.”

When asked if there was reluctance because of their work in singles, they explained it this way.

Alex Shelley: “No, it was because, in their words…”

Chris Sabin: “I don’t see it, bro.”

The “bro” could have been a reference to former WWE and TNA head writer Vince Russo, who is known for using that word. That led to a further explanation from Shelley.

Alex Shelley: “Honest to God, that is 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.”

Motor City Machine Guns Set For Huge Match On WWE SmackDown

Thanks to the win in their WWE SmackDown debut match, the Motor City Machine Guns are just one win away from a title shot. On Smackdown in Brooklyn, they’ll face #DIY’s Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano. The winning team will get a shot at the WWE Tag Team Titles held by The Bloodline’s Tama Tonga & Tonga Loa. Here’s what WWE is advertising for Smackdown in Brooklyn.

• Cody Rhodes and Gunther come face-to-face
  Game 7 of Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes with LA Knight as special guest referee
  Motor City Machine Guns battle #DIY for No. 1 Contendership

We will have a full review of Smackdown on TJRWrestling later tonight.