During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Sami Callihan talked about parting ways with TNA Wrestling, following a Zoom call that he thought would be regarding a move to creative.
The afternoon conference call came after Tommy Dreamer had already parted ways with the company, with talent even texting the former World Champion that they wanted to see Callihan fill that role, per F4WOnline.
On his reaction to the company breaking the news to him, Callihan said:
So I get on the Zoom call and they start talking. I was like, in my mind, I’m like, maybe this is still, maybe I’m getting added,” Callihan said. “And then it came to, ‘We’re sorry, we’re gonna have to part ways.’ And I kind of went off. I am not one of the people that usually goes off like this. I tried not to be very profanity-laced. And I don’t think it was a thing of screaming or yelling, but I stated my case.
The people on that call were like, ‘Oh, well, this is this.’ I was like, ‘Well, you’re gonna listen to me now.’ Like, I’ve given my life to that company. There has been multiple times where I could have left that company. I broke my leg for that company. I was World Champion for that company. I love TNA. I didn’t in particularly want to go work for another company at the time. Like, TNA was my end-all, be-all at the end of the day. And anyone can say that. I knew that company, I feel like almost better than anybody, from the wrestling to the production to everyone there. And I had good relationships with everyone.
In advocating for himself, Callihan was informed that the decision was made as part of the workplace reduction act, as noted in a statement released by TNA following news of Dreamer’s departure.
Elsewhere in the interview, Callihan addressed his decision to retire in August 2025 following his match against Mike Santana at TNA Emergence, revealing that he is not interested in wrestling at this time, per Fightful:
I’ve seen a lot of people on social media, ‘They were paying him and he retired in August.’ I wasn’t supposed to retire in August, but that’s here or there. Don’t particularly want to wrestle anymore.
My body is broken. I got super fat working sixty hours a week for TNA and not having time to work out. Working sixty hours a week on top of that for Wrestling REVOLVER. I didn’t want to wrestle.