WWE may be on the verge of adding a top free agent tag team to its ranks.
Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) entered into free agency when their TNA Wrestling contracts expired this April. The veteran tag team has had talks with both WWE and AEW, but it’s looking like WWE is the more likely destination. Dave Meltzer reports in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that there’s a belief within wrestling that Shelley & Sabin are headed to WWE.
“Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley are expected to be coming here [WWE], or at least that’s the talk within wrestling. Nobody has officially said anything. They worked a 7/12 independent show in a singles match against each other that Sabin won for Prestige Wrestling in Portland, OR, and then did their in-ring goodbyes to indie wrestling. However, they’ve been announced for an 8/18 show in London, ONT for Smash Wrestling against Evil Uno & Stu Grayson at the Music Hall,” Meltzer wrote. “It’s been known for months that they had been talking with AEW and WWE ever since their TNA contracts expired. Of late, the indications were WWE made the better offer but they were expected to be with whichever side made the best offer. Within wrestling the belief is that they are WWE-bound and Tommaso Ciampa made a reference to them in social media. They’ve also been completely silent about it and clearly have made their decision one way or the other.”
Motor City Machine Guns have been tag team champions in TNA, ROH, NJPW, and several indie promotions. Their singles careers have included a TNA World Championship reign for Shelley and ten X-Division title reigns for Sabin.
In 2020, Shelley teamed with KUSHIDA in NXT’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament. Sabin has never wrestled for WWE before.
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