Exit Review: What We Learned from the Motor City Machine Guns Jumping to WWE
An amenity only WWE can offer may have persuaded the tag team to accept an offer over AEW
I was scrolling through my Bluesky feed the other day. Great app, have had an account since the invite code days and use it periodically, but recently it has surged in popularity with an influx of new users, which has really opened up its potential as a viable X alternative. It’s been a lot of fun with a more active user base.
Anyway, I scrolled past an indie wrestler responding to a prompt (apologies as I don’t remember which wrestler specifically before losing track of the post) like a chain letter, quoting it and passing the prompt along. This prompt had them post 4 pics that described their life:
Living room
(forgot this one)
“Shoot” job
“Other” job
“Shoot” job struck me, because the “other” job was a pic featuring a shot of a Revolution Pro ring. It’s something I know is a fact of the industry, but for some reason in that moment, it was made abundantly clear to me just how much of a grind wrestling is. I consider RevPro a prestige indie; wrestlers who work it have been scouted by major promotions in the past, including potential future signees like Michael Oku (currently sitting as a ‘Likely Jump’ on the Wrestler Movement Tier List). So seeing a wrestler work a promotion that MJF has wrestled at in 2024 have a second job was eye opening to me. I’m ashamed to admit it didn’t immediately click to me that this is a part of the industry, a feature and not an anomaly.
I’m specifically using the term “grind” because working as an indie wrestler likely necessitates supplemental income from elsewhere, while trying to pursue wrestling. Especially as an unsigned indie worker, between travel and lodging, this is perfectly logical.
But it’s not quite as common that a full fledged career is involved in the lives of a signed wrestler, once signed to a major promotion that is. Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, of All Elite Wrestling is a good example of this; making her career in dentistry a part of her gimmick is genius, and being a shoot doctor is a wonderful flex too.
Which brings us to Alex Shelley of the Motor City Machine Guns, who left TNA Wrestling in April 2024 to sign with World Wrestling Entertainment on multi-year deals for both Shelley and his tag team partner, Chris Sabin. Shelley is a multi-faceted individual: he’s a wrestling trainer who has trained countless wrestlers since the 2000s, has maintained a career as a physical therapist outside of wrestling, which he has even prioritized over wrestling in the past, all while building a legacy as one of the most important tag teams in wrestling history. But it’s his professional background that I suspect is what ultimately decided his signing location.
(For the purposes of this piece, I’ll be focusing on Alex Shelley, as Chris Sabin was mostly silent throughout this free agency saga. In this timespan, he continued working indie dates, some without Shelley, after leaving TNA while not utilizing social media much.)
I’ve written about MCMG in the past when their post-TNA future was less clear. To sum up that article, nobody knew anything about what their plans were and MCMG were telling nobody about what their plans were either. It’s almost like Daniel Garcia’s own free agency saga, which we covered here as well, but there’s a key difference: there was no complete radio silence. Alex Shelley’s social media posting regarding their own free agency was quite coy in tone, in fact. Although, once social media posts emerged of him cutting in-ring promos that he “wasn’t sure how long” he’d be gone from the indies, the writing was on the wall about where they were headed.
What made this all the more interesting was the initial report by Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net stating their arrival to AEW was being finalized. Of course, this turned out to be incorrect. AEW is indie friendly generally, so with the benefit of hindsight, needing to give a potential goodbye to the entire scene was a tell. So, what went wrong?
Dave Meltzer stated on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE flat out made the better offer, though unfortunately he didn’t say with any certainty if that meant more money or other incentives. So while it could be as simple as that, we’re still kinda light on exact details.
So let’s turn the question around: what could WWE offer that would attract the team away from AEW? Considering their iconic status in the wider world of wrestling and the friends MCMG has in AEW such as the Young Bucks, I find it hard to believe AEW wouldn’t match a competitive offer from WWE. So I don’t believe it was money related.
The answer, I suspect, lies in something that AEW cannot offer currently: a structured path towards a post-wrestling career in a developmental capacity.
Developing wrestlers at the WWE Performance Center has been cited by several talent as a factor in re-signing to long-term deals with WWE, including Bayley, Chad Gable, and Pete Dunne. And considering Shelley’s passion for wrestling training and his background in physical therapy, this could very well have been the tipping point.
For a wrestler, even when they’re signed to a major promotion, the travel and mileage on your body takes its toll over the years, in both literal miles and damage from in-ring action. For an indie wrestler, this grind is amplified by several magnitudes as the income fluctuates from show to show and without the safety net of travel and hotel rooms paid for by a company.
This is part of life as a wrestler. But for the average person, a stable income and steady well-being seems pretty attractive too, especially as you get older. So while this is pure speculation, a guarantee of financial stability in your post-wrestling career working in both fields you’ve spent your entire adult life, like Shelley has with wrestling and physical therapy, seems like an offer too good to pass up. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with jumping on that offer.
Now, MCMG are wrestling in the biggest spotlight they’ve ever been in on a weekly basis while knowing they’re secure in their future. It’s made the grind all worth it.
Thoughts and Stray Observations
Looks like the jump to WWE has paid off for MCMG immediately as well in the on-screen product, as they would go on to defeat the Neo Bloodline (Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa) for Smackdown’s WWE Tag Team Championships within a month of their debut. Since then, they’ve entered a feud with #DIY, while Street Profits are in the mix as well. So far, the jump has been a fruitful endeavor for the duo from a legacy standpoint; being a champion in WWE is nothing to slouch at.
There was some initial confusion as to where MCMG would debut once their signing was announced. Pro Wrestling Nexus (PWN for short) reported that their debut would be in NXT, while Mike Johnson of PWInsider stated that it would be in time for the CW NXT debut show (possibly based around the PWN story). However, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported that the plan was always for their debut to be on the main roster, Smackdown specifically. Since PWN were the outlet to initially report that MCMG was headed to WWE, I’d rate their job as Half-True: they nailed the update that they were WWE-bound, but were off the mark on the debut brand.