Sami Callihan On If Being World Champion Has Affected Him, RVD, New Impact World Title Design

Sami Callihan started off the decade working on the indies and worked for just about every national promotion over the last 10 years. He ended the decade as Impact World Champion and he reflected over the last 10 years when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"The last decade was bad ass if I can say so myself. If you look at it, I'm one of the only guys on the planet that's worked for every major company there is," Callihan said before listing off the promotions he's worked for. "Pretty much any of the top promotion, I've been there and I've done them."

He was then asked if being world champion has affected him any.

"It hasn't affected anything as I've been ready for this pressure my entire career. It's something that should have happened a lot sooner in my career but now I'm standing before you the Impact World Champion," stated Callihan.

Callihan has had a contentious relationship with the company he's World Champion for but he says Impact needs him for star power alone.

"They like to fine me for pretty much anything I do but at the end of the day, they have to keep me around because I'm one of the most-watched things, if not the most-watched thing, on their entire television show," said Callihan who revealed a new design to the Impact World Title and he explained why a change was needed.

"It's a new era for Impact going on AXS TV into the new year 2020. It was something that happened and time to get rid of the Impact colors of old, blue and white, and go with red and black. It pretty much shows and gives you the feel of exactly what Impact Wrestling is now."

A couple of weeks ago Rob Van Dam turned heel for the first time in his Impact career and Callihan was asked about RVD's new persona.

"The dude's in his 50s and he's done pretty much everything. I don't think there's much for him to prove at this point so they just let him do whatever the f*ck he wants to make sure he keeps coming back to television," said Callihan. "I think this is the RVD all along and you guys are just getting a chance to see it."

Impact moved to AXS TV recently and Callihan discussed what this new platform means for the future.

"I think over the next year things are just gonna get bigger and better. The more people that see that we have the best wrestling program in all of pro wrestling, it's gonna be the next step of Impact Wrestling becoming truly great again," Callihan said before teasing that he may get his own show to display everything that he brings to the table.

"At the end of the day I have a bag of tricks and a set of skills that will keep me valuable for a long time."

Sami will defend his Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship against Tessa Blanchard this Sunday at Impact Wrestling's Hard To Kill. For more information and tickets please visit ImpactWrestling.com.

Callihan's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In the full interview Callihan discusses his run so far as Impact World Champion, defending his title against Tessa Blanchard at Hard To Kill, why he doesn't like the phrase "intergender wrestling", bringing the best out of his opponents through violence, wanting another match with Eddie Edwards and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.