{"id":160342,"date":"2026-04-29T08:26:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=160342"},"modified":"2026-04-29T08:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:27:16","slug":"motor-city-machine-guns-life-after-wwe-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/29\/motor-city-machine-guns-life-after-wwe-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Motor City Machine Guns: Life After WWE, What’s Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a part of a wave of releases, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, known together as the Motor City Machine Guns, were released from WWE. The news came up only hours before WWE SmackDown<\/a>, on April 24th. While releases following WrestleMania are nothing new, the cuts sent a wave of controversy through social media. Alongside Sabin and Shelley, other notable wrestlers released include Kairi Sane, Alba Fyre (Kay Lee Ray), Aleister Black, and Zelina.<\/p>\n

With every WWE release<\/a> comes the 90-day no compete clause. So while it may be a while before we see Sabin and Shelley bless our screens once more, we luckily have 90 days to conjure up dream matches and reminisce.<\/p>\n

Motor City Machine Guns in WWE: A Retrospective<\/h2>\n

Signing with WWE in 2024, Sabin and Shelley quickly won over audiences unfamiliar with their work. Shortly after their main-roster debut (a rarity nowadays), they won the WWE Tag Team Championships. Unfortunately, after losing the championships, WWE seemingly had no direction for the duo.<\/p>\n

With title opportunities only here and there, and being pushed off the WrestleMania card this year and the previous, it is very disappointing and disheartening to see how the pair were treated.<\/p>\n

Before being released, the pair wrestled on the March 20th episode of SmackDown, and wrestled as a part of the WWE World Showcase this past WrestleMania weekend.<\/p>\n

Before WWE, the Motor City Machine Guns were most known for their time in TNA and NJPW. It is in TNA specifically, the pair is credited for re-inventing tag-team wrestling, and making tag-wrestling something truly extraordinary. Furthermore, as individuals, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin are credited for helping reshape TNA and the\u00a0 Cruiserweight division. Both men have won numerous singles and tag team titles.<\/p>\n

\"Motor
A photo of Motor City Machine Guns at a TNA Wrestling event. (Photo Credit: By daysofthundr46 – https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/10542402@N06\/5049095919\/in\/set-72157625089929618\/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=11700236)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rumors and What Could Be Next<\/h2>\n

With online speculation at its peak, many fans wish to see the boys return to TNA or NJPW. Additionally, IWGP Jr. Tag Team Champion Robbie Eagles recently called out the Motor City Machine Guns, saying<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“So how about this: Ichiban Sweet Boys, third time, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions versus Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Motor City Machine Guns. I know you guys want it. We\u2019re here, ready. So come and get it. Because you guys may have innovated that division, but we are the mighty, and the mighty don\u2019t (kneel).\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Motor City Machine Guns are one-time IWGP Jr. Tag Team Champions, and last wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

Finally, the last major theorizing sees the Motor City Machine Guns signing with AEW. This theory grew stems recently, with AEW<\/a> announcing the July 29th edition of AEW Dynamite to be held in Detroit. Only a few days after the no-compete clause ends for those released this past Friday.<\/p>\n

Where do you think MCMG is headed? Let us know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a part of a wave of releases, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, known together as the Motor City Machine Guns, were released from WWE. The news came up only hours before WWE SmackDown, on April 24th. While releases following WrestleMania are nothing new, the cuts sent a wave of controversy through social media. Alongside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5605,"featured_media":160623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4677,13,14,6,2192,8959,4,3],"tags":[177],"class_list":["post-160342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew","category-international","category-njpw","category-north-america","category-wrestling","category-tna-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-motor-city-machine-guns"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160342"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160624,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160342\/revisions\/160624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}