Sami Callihan says fans do not have the full story about his TNA retirement. He had his last match at TNA Emergence in August 2025, but according to him, that was not when he was originally supposed to be done.
Callihan lost to Mike Santana in a Baltimore Street Fight at Emergence. He had teased retirement before the match, then officially stepped away from the ring after Santana beat him.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Callihan said he has seen people online acting like he was just getting paid by TNA after retiring in August. He pushed back and said that was not the plan.
“I’ve seen a lot of people on social media, ‘They were paying him and he retired in August.’ I wasn’t supposed to retire in August, but that’s here or there.”
Callihan also made it clear that his body was shot by the time he stopped wrestling. He said he was working long hours for TNA, still running Wrestling REVOLVER, and had no time to take care of himself.
“Don’t particularly want to wrestle anymore. My body is broken. I got super fat working sixty hours a week for TNA and not having time to work out. Working sixty hours a week on top of that for Wrestling REVOLVER. I didn’t want to wrestle.”
That is a rough way to go out. Callihan was not just dealing with years of bumps. He was also buried in work behind the scenes, and it clearly caught up with him. After his in-ring career ended, Callihan took on a bigger backstage role in TNA. That did not last either, because he was fired in June.
Sami Callihan went out in a violent match at TNA Emergence, but now he is making it clear there was more going on behind the scenes. His retirement was not as clean as it looked, and the grind had already done plenty of damage before he ever walked into that final match.
Do you think Sami Callihan’s TNA retirement should have been handled differently? Let us know what you think in the comments.
