Sami Callihan Talks WWE Copying His Gimmick, Eddie Edwards Teases Surprise In His Corner At BFG

Impact Wrestling a media call this week to promote Saturday's Bound For Glory PPV. Rivals Sami Callihan and Eddie Edwards were both on the call to promote Edwards' upcoming match with Ken Shamrock.

Callihan returned to Impact in March as the mysterious 'ICU' hacker, a gimmick similar to the one he had during his tenure in NXT. Wrestling Inc. contributor Liam Crowley asked Callihan if he drew inspiration from his former character, Solomon Crowe, but Callihan emphasized that the hacker idea is something he's always kept in his arsenal.

"This is something I've had in my back pocket for years," Callihan said.

Earlier this year, WWE SmackDown had a similar storyline surrounding a mysterious hacker, which was revealed to be Mustafa Ali. Callihan says he is no stranger to seeing his ideas pop up in other promotions.

"And now it's the other companies trying to copy it, which is what always happens with 'The Draw' Sami Callihan. Half the things I've come up with in the past five years have been stolen and used somewhere else. But, there's only one Sami Callihan. There's only one person who does it like I do, and right now, I'm one of the hottest things in professional wrestling yet again because I always evolve. I always do something new."

Since March, the wrestling world has been forced to pivot quite a bit. Some promotions have piped in fake crowd noise, while others use their locker room as stand-ins for fans. Impact has elected to run empty arena shows with no artificial crowd noise, a strategy both Callihan and Edwards have said has worked to Impact's advantage.

"I think it's one of the things that has helped Impact Wrestling in the long haul," Callihan said. "When COVID hit, you saw a lot of other companies without their bells and whistles come down a notch, and Impact Wrestling went up a notch, truly showing the wrestling world that Impact Wrestling is one of the best wrestling shows on the planet."

"Right now, I think we're doing something different," Edwards said. "We're going out there, it's all natural. You hear every everything. You hear the hits. You hear every sound in that ring. Which, I think is a good change for the fans to be able to hear the actual moves that are going on in the ring. We're bringing something different. There's a lot of hard hitting going on in that ring, and you can hear it when it happens."

When Edwards takes on 'The World's Most Dangerous Man' Ken Shamrock this Saturday at Bound for Glory, his opponent will have Callihan in his corner. While Edwards reassured he's confident he can beat Shamrock on his own, he teased he might have a trick up his sleeve to deal with Callihan.

"You know, I'm confident in what I can do in there, but I do have my friends," Edwards said. "I do have guys I've been going to and approaching about possibly lending a hand. I'm not going to say who I would like it to be because maybe it would be that person. But, you know, something's in the works just in case Sami's feeling a little froggy as usual."