Big Update On Motor City Machine Guns' Status With Impact Wrestling

Though Alex Shelley has been a regular for Impact Wrestling since late 2019, and even held their tag team titles with Chris Sabin — himself a producer/road agent/coach behind the scenes — as recently as a month ago, he was not under contract to the promotion. That's changed, however, as Sports Illustrated reports that both Shelley and Sabin have signed new full-time contracts with the former TNA.

"This is the first full-time pro wrestling contract I've signed in almost five years," Shelley told SI. "I pursued physical medicine, and earning that degree was something I needed to prove to myself. Once I had that security and that confidence, I wanted to be back in Impact. It has the most familial bond. There are people here that have seen me grow up from a teenager to a grown-ass man. That's special to me. And some of the best in the world are right here. There aren't better wrestlers on the planet than 'Speedball' Mike Bailey, Jonathan Gresham, Kushida, and Chris Sabin. I could go on and on — Frankie Kazarian, Trey Miguel, Black Taurus. These guys are phenomenal."

"Impact is like family to us," Sabin added. "Scott D'Amore was my trainer. It's home." Shelley and Sabin started teaming up as Motor City Machine Guns in late 2006, quickly winning ZERO-1MAX's International Tag Team Titles from Minoru Fujita and Ikuto Hidaka, and about six months later, they started teaming in Impact, then TNA, the promotion they're most closely associated with. Their three reigns as Impact World Tag Team Champions lasted for a combined 357 days, which puts them in sixth place among the promotion's all-time longest-reigning tag team champions. They last lost the titles to Bullet Club's Ace Austin and Chris Bey on February 25.