Sami Callihan Details TNA Departure

It was a chaotic week for TNA Wrestling, as it was revealed on Wednesday that the company was undergoing "workforce reduction," which led to the departures of multiple names backstage. Among those included head of creative Tommy Dreamer, as well as producer Sami Callihan.

Callihan spoke on "Busted Open Radio" about his firing, which he explained blindsided him, as he believed he was getting a phone call about taking over for Dreamer in creative. He explained he had just woken up to the news about Dreamer after working until the early hours of the morning to get things ready for Slammiversary. Callihan said that many on the roster texted him and thought it was "finally his time."

"Within five minutes of me waking up and getting all of those text messages, I got a notification in my email, 'Hey, we need to have a conference call at 1,'" he said. "In my mind, I was like, 'Oh, s***. I'm getting added to creative. This is what I've been lobbying for for years. This is what, maybe not all of them, but a lot of major people on the roster at TNA has been lobbying for, for years. It's what I had dangled in front of my face from another administration before this current administration...' I looked at who was in the meeting and I was like, 'Hm. Why would that person be in the meeting? Why would that person be in the meeting?' So, I started [thinking], 'Oh. I might be actually getting fired.'"

Callihan said he got on the Zoom call and was told they were "going to have to part ways." He said he "went off," and stated his case, as he believes he's given his life to TNA, despite there being multiple times where he could have left.

Callihan, a former Impact World Champion, said that TNA was his "end all, be all" and he knew the company better than anyone. When stating his case, he told officials they were making a "terrible mistake."

The star retired from in-ring action with a loss to Mike Santana in August, and while he said while he wasn't supposed to retire last summer, he doesn't particularly want to wrestle anymore. He did however, want to address fans on social media who said he was "just" a producer getting paid to sit backstage.

"I feel I worked in more divisions than anyone in that company," he said. "I would like the people to know how valuable I think I am to a wrestling company... What I actually do. I was one of three people that ran the merch division and brought the merch division up. If you look at the merch division a year ago for TNA or before that, TNA's merch division kind of sucked. People weren't making a lot of money... I was one of three people that brought the amount of income we were making off the merch up 1000% or something like that."

He said that 99 percent of all the merchandise designs released in the last year were his creation, not him telling a graphic designer what to do or outsourcing anything. Callihan explained he also worked in marketing, as well as public relations.

"I also was an agent for matches. I was also a producer for pre-tapes," Callihan said. "There's so many more things I did for that company... I thought I was going to be a lifer in TNA. I was talking to some friends in the company yesterday and I said, 'I think my [loyalty] to the company that I'm working for is good and bad.'"

Callihan echoed Dreamer's own statement on "Busted Open" a few days before that his position in TNA was more than just a job to him. He explained he grew up watching TNA, from its first-ever event, when he was in high school. Callihan said he and his friends would watch every Wednesday pay-per-view together.

"I was a die-hard TNA guy from a young age," he said. "To a point when I got into independent wrestling, everyone's like, 'Oh, I want to go to WWE.' Sure, it'd be cool to WWE when you're a young wrestler, but my end all, be all was, 'I want to go to Japan and I want to sign with TNA Wrestling.' And before I originally signed with WWE, I was very close to signing with TNA Wrestling."

Callihan worked for the company, when it was still known as Impact Wrestling, from 2017 to 2023, and held the title from October 2019 through the start of 2020. He explained he's disappointed because he felt like he had a lot to do with the company's success at the time.

"I was one of the people in 2017, 2018 that helped save this company," he said. "It doesn't feel like it's just a job. It feels like it's a friend that you're not going to see anymore."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.