Motor City Machine Guns are the new number one contenders to the WWE Tag Team Championship.
MCMG (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) defeated DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) in a number one contender’s match on Friday’s SmackDown to put themselves next in line for a shot at The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) and the WWE Tag Team Championship.
Dawkins and Ford were ringside for Friday’s number one contender’s bout, and the two teams engaged in a staredown after the contest.
The Street Profits defeated DIY for the WWE Tag titles on the March 14 SmackDown in Barcelona, while DIY defeated MCMG for the same belts on the December 6, 2024 SmackDown.
No date for the Street Profits vs. MCMG title bout has been announced to this point, with the bout possibly set for the SmackDown before WrestleMania 41 on April 18, or potentially earmarked for WrestleMania itself.
Friday’s SmackDown also featured multiple new additions to the WrestleMania card, plus the WWE debut of Rey Fenix. Our full report from Friday’s episode is available here.
The WWE Tag Team Champions are set for a talk show segment on next week’s SmackDown.
Motor City Machine Guns will appear on The Grayson Waller Effect talk show on the Friday, November 8 WWE SmackDown show, two weeks after MCMG won the WWE Tag Team Championship from The Bloodline.
A backstage confrontation between MCMG’s Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin and Waller & Austin Theory aired on Friday’s SmackDown, establishing former champs Waller & Theory as the likely next challengers to MCMG’s titles.
Next week’s SmackDown will also feature fallout from Saturday’s Crown Jewel PLE. Crown Jewel features Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens, a Women’s Tag Team title bout, plus LA Knight defending the United States title in a three-way against Andrade & Carmelo Hayes.
Next week’s announced SmackDown lineup:
The Grayson Waller Effect w/host Grayson Waller, Austin Theory, and guests WWE Tag Team Champions Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin)
The Motor City Machine Guns are the new WWE Tag Team Champions.
Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin defeated The Bloodline’s Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa in the main event of Friday’s WWE SmackDown at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York in their third match in the promotion.
MCMG defeated DIY in a number one contender’s match on Friday’s SmackDown, then were confronted by The Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tonga, and Loa. SmackDown GM Nick Aldis then signed an impromptu Tag Team title match main event for the show.
Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, and Jimmy Uso all intervened on MCMG’s behalf during the bout to negate the interference from The Bloodline. After a ref bump, it was Jey’s interference that led to MCMG hitting Skull & Bones for the victory.
In the post-match, The Usos reunited as Roman Reigns looked on from the aisle.
MCMG’s title win puts an exclamation point on one of the most storied tag team careers in the history of pro wrestling, as Shelley & Sabin have now won tag team gold in WWE, TNA, NJPW, and ROH.
On Friday’s SmackDown, the newest vignette featuring cars, helicopters, and images of Detroit, Michigan was shown. The screen briefly flashed the letters ‘MCMG’ before announcing the debut would take place on next week’s SmackDown in Columbia, South Carolina.
Nick Aldis in a segment shown later told the other tag teams on the roster that a new team would be making their debut on next week’s show.
Friday’s vignette is the latest to indicate that the Motor City Machine Guns, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, are headed to the WWE. The two departed TNA earlier this year and have stopped taking independent dates.
Shortly after the vignette aired, Sabin sent out a post on X:
In a segment shown earlier in the night, Santos Escobar and the rest of Legado de Fantasma confronted Aldis, with Escobar saying that Los Garza and Elektra Lopez wanted opportunities. Aldis said he would put Los Garza in a match next week against a special team and if they win, would get a shot at WWE Tag Team Champions Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa.
Here is what has been announced for next week’s SmackDown:
‘MCMG’ to debut
Los Garzas in action – if they win the match, they earn a WWE Tag Team title match
The Motor City Machine Guns are reportedly expected to sign with AEW.
Cassidy Haynes of BodySlam.net reported on Tuesday that Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin are in the process of finalizing deals with the company. The report notes that a contract is not expected to be completed imminently but “the decision has been made and a deal will be worked out.”
Shelley filed to trademark the terms “Motor City Machine Guns” and “MCMG” for wrestling purposes on March 19, 2024.
Sabin and Shelley finished up with TNA Wrestling at the company’s TV tapings in Philadelphia on March 22 & 23. Their final match was against The System’s Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards and will air on Thursday’s episode of Impact on AXS TV. Sabin was defeated by Steve Maclin in the main event of last week’s show, and Shelley was defeated by Nic Nemeth in the main event of the April 4 episode.
Impact Wrestling returned for week two of their Best of specials, showcasing the best matches of 2020 as well as their Year-End awards.
The show opened with a Brodie Lee memorial graphic.
Scott D’Amore and Josh Mathews hosted the show. Throughout the night, we had a series of showcase matches, award announcements, and backstage segments building towards Genesis and Hard to Kill.
The two big awards left for this show were Moment of the Year and Match of the Year.
Moment of the Year Award was given to the Slammiversary XVIII debuts and returns, where we saw the return of the Motor City Machine Guns, the return of ECIII, the debut of Heath, the debut of Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows, and the five-person main event with Ace Austin, Eddie Edwards, Trey Miguel, with the returning Eric Young and Rich Swann. Eddie Edwards would go on to win that match to become a two-time Impact World champion.
The Match of The Year was, in fact, the aforementioned Slammiversary XVIII Impact World championship Elimination five-way match between Eddie Edwards vs Ace Austin vs Eric Young vs Trey Miguel vs Rich Swann. That would also trigger the storyline feud between Eric Young and Rich Swann that would build all the way to the main event of Bound For Glory in October.
Matches that were shown throughout the night include:
Willie Mack defeating X-Division champion Ace Austin at Rebellion
Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) defeating Impact Tag Team champions The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) on the July 21st episode of Impact
Manik defeating X-Division Champion Rohit Raju at Final Resolution
They also aired Ken Shamrock’s Hall of Fame induction speech in full.
Other segments throughout the show saw Deonna Purrazzo cutting a promo accepting Taya Valkyrie’s challenge for a Knockouts Championship match at Hard To Kill. She said that Taya is the longest reigning champion of the division, and when she defeats her, she’ll be the greatest champion ever.
We had a couple of skits by some of the Impact roster telling us their 2021 resolutions and plans. Among them were Impact World Champion Rich Swann, Willie Mack, Kiera Hogan, Tasha Steelz, Jordynne Grace, Brian Myers, and Eddie Edwards.
Lastly, Mathews and D’Amore announced the card for next week, including Rhino & Cousin Jake vs. Eric Young & Joe Doering, Moose vs. Mathew Palmer, Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan, and the return of Kenny Omega.
