Kicking off the night with a bang, IMPACT Wrestling began Slammiversary with an open challenge from the Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz) that was answered by none other than the returning Motor City Machine Guns as Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley have made their return after an eight year absence from the company.
Shelley and Sabin originally formed Motor City Machine Guns back in 2006 on the independent circuit but it wasn’t until 2007 TNA utilized the pair as a tag team. They remained an integral part of the roster winning the TNA Tag Team Championship once in a victory against Beer Money Inc at Victory Road 2010 before Alex Shelley opted not to renew his contract in 2012. Since then they have continued to team in Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling on an intermittent basis.
Alex Shelley originally joined TNA back in 2004 tagging with random partners sporadically before being utilized in a stacked X Division. After his departure in 2012 he formed The Time Splitters with KUSHIDA in New Japan Pro Wrestling where they twice won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. He went on to leave Japan in 2015 to return to Ring of Honor and then announced his retirement in 2018. He would then come out of retirement in 2019 for another brief run for Ring of Honor before making a shock appearance on NXT teaming with former partner KUSHIDA to take part in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
Sabin joined TNA back in 2003 where he quickly won the X Division Championship within a month of joining the company. He continued a successful singles run until the formation of MCMG in 2007. In 2013, he became TNA’s sixth triple crown champion when he shockingly defeated Bully Ray for the TNA Heavyweight title but would lose it just a month later. He joined Ring of Honor in 2015 and worked various independent promotions as well as dates with NJPW until he returned to IMPACT in 2019 as a producer.
Sabin and Shelley now join a new-look IMPACT tag division that also includes the Good Brothers, who announced their arrival in the company at midnight on July 18th.
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