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Motor City Machine Guns

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The Motor City Machineguns
Tag team
MembersChris Sabin
Alex Shelley
Name(s)Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley
Panic in Detroit[1]
The Milennials[1]
The Echo Boomers[1]
Murder City Machine Guns†
Motor City Machine Guns†
Billed heightsSabin:[2]
6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Shelley:[3]
5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Combined
billed weight		415 lb (188 kg)[2][3]
HometownDetroit, Michigan, United States
Debut2006

The Motor City Machineguns† are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin. The team currently works in the American company Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. The team name, which has been variably Motor and Murder City, is a play on the nickname of Detroit, Michigan, the hometown of both Shelley and Sabin.

Career

Shelley and Sabin first started teaming in Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX in 2006. On August 25 they took the ZERO-1 MAX International Lightweight Tag Team Championship from Minoru Fujita and Ikuto Hidaka, holding them for almost two years before dropping them back to Fujita and his new partner Takuya Sugawara.[4] After returning Stateside, the pair had short runs in the independent promotions Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Ring of Honor under the names Motor City Machine Guns[5] and Murder City Machine Guns respectively until their main employer, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) requested their wrestlers stop taking bookings with certain independent companies.[6]

It was not until April 2007 that the team debuted in TNA, where hence they had been singles X Division wrestlers. After showing brief teamwork while wrestling as opponents in an Xscape match at the annual Lockdown pay-per-view they became regulars in the tag team division, first using the Murder City name,[7] before it was changed to Motor City.[8] On an episode of TNA Today Shelley implied that this was against the teams wishes, saying that "Murder City" was the real name, and "Motor City" was the PG version.[9] After being together for a few weeks in TNA, Kevin Nash—who already had a history with both men—was brought in as a manager, ending his previous alliances with Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt in the process,[7] though his association with the group was short lived.

The team continued to work in independent promotions in parallel with their work in TNA, getting a run with the Illinois-based All American Wrestling's Tag Team Championship between September 2007 and January 2008.[10] In November, when TNA's Team 3D (Brothers Ray and Devon) began a feud with the X Division as a whole, Shelley and Sabin became their main opposition.[11][12] During the feud, for which Sabin and Shelley were joined by the X Division Champion Jay Lethal while Johnny Devine was put with Team 3D, the heels stole the X Division championship belt,[13] before Devine won the title outright.[14] At Against All Odds Sabin, Shelley, and Lethal won a Street Fight with the existence of the X Division as a whole on the line. In addition, their win put a requirement on Brother's Ray and D-Von that they had to get their weight below 275 pounds in order to compete.[15]

In April 2008 they returned to Ring of Honor, losing to the Age of the Fall (Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs) and defeating the Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) on the 18th and 19th respectively.[16][17]

They were members of Team TNA alongside Kaz and Curry Man in the 2008 edition of the TNA World X Cup, but lost to Team Mexico at Victory Road.[18]

They returned to Ring of Honor in August 2008. On August 1 in Manassas, VA they fought Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson to a 20 minute time limit draw and then a 5 minute overtime draw. The next day in New York City they were defeated by Kevin Steen and El Generico when Steen forced Sabin to submit to the Sharpshooter. They slipped into the role of tweeners, showing disrespect to Christian Cage, A.J. Styles, Consequences Creed, B.G. James and The Latin American Xchange however still being cheered heavily by the fans and showing respect for the fans.

On the October 30 edition of Impact!, The Machineguns along with A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal, Consequences Creed, Petey Williams, Eric Young and ODB formed a faction of younger wrestlers called The TNA Front Line to oppose The Main Event Mafia.[19]

At Turning Point, they disrespected Mick Foley as he was addressing the TNA originals backstage.[20] Despite this and recent showings of disrespect, they have remained fan favorites and a part of the team opposing the Main Event Mafia. However, they would turn villainous months later attacking Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed after losing a tag team match to them. As part of their gimmick they were now described as "TNA Frontline members in name only". At Final Resolution, the Guns were attacked by Suicide[21]

On January 4, 2009, Sabin and Shelley defeated No Limit (Tetsuya Naito & Yujiro) at New Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom III in Tokyo Dome to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They follow in the footsteps of American Dragon & Curry Man as the only other gaijin team to win those titles.

At Genesis, Shelley defeated Sabin in the finals of a tournament to become the new TNA X Division Champion.[22]

At Destination X, Shelley lost his X-Division title to Suicide in an Ultimate X match that also involved Consequences Creed, Jay Lethal and Chris Sabin.[23]

Ever since then, the Guns and Lethal Consequences (Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed) have been unsucessfully trying to unmask Suicide, claiming he is Daniels.

On July 5, 2009, at New Japan Pro Wrestling's Circuit 2009 New Japan Soul Shelley and Sabin lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles to Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi). On the August 6 edition of Impact!, Shelley and Sabin both turned face once again aligning themselves with Daniels against World Elite when an all out war broke out in the Impact! Zone.

In wrestling

Shelley and Sabin in the ring with Daniels
Shelley and Sabin at a house show in 2008

Championships and accomplishments

Outside of wrestling

In 2008, the team appeared in an episode of MTV MADE, teaching a school boy the basics of professional wrestling. [26]

Notes and references

  • ^ Motor City, Murder City, and Machine Guns have been variously written as one and two words
  1. ^ a b c "Sayanora ROH! Bye bye PWG!". Alex Shelley Live Journal. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
  2. ^ a b "Chris Sabin". Star Bios. TNAWrestling. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  3. ^ a b "Alex Shelley". Star Bios. TNAWrestling. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  4. ^ a b "NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
  5. ^ "Pro Wrestling Guerilla results". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-08-25. February 24, 2007 [...] Holy Diver Down [...]Motorcity Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) b Chris Bosh & Scott Lost
  6. ^ "TNA also pulls its talent from PWG". press release. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Retrieved 2007-08-19.
  7. ^ a b "June 21, 2007". TNA Today. 2007-06-21. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "RESULTS FROM SUNDAY'S VICTORY ROAD PAY-PER-VIEW". TNA Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  9. ^ "May 31, 2007". TNA Today. 2007-05-31. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ a b "All American Wrestling Champions". AAWrestling. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  11. ^ "iMPACT! results - July 1, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  12. ^ "iMPACT! results - July 15, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  13. ^ "iMPACT results - December 6, 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  14. ^ "iMPACT results - January 24, 2008". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  15. ^ "Against All Odds results - 2008". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
  16. ^ "Ring of Honor Results - April 18, 2008". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
  17. ^ "Ring of Honor Results - April 19, 2008". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
  18. ^ Kapur, Bob (2008-07-16). "Main event mars Victory Road". SLAM! Sports. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
  19. ^ Sokol, Chris (2008-10-31). "Impact: Steiner joins the mafia". SLAM! Sports. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
  20. ^ Sokol, Chris (2008-11-10). "Turning Point: Mafia gains momentum". SLAM! Sports. Retrieved 2009-04-05. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ Sokol, Chris (2008-12-07). "Final Resolution: The Mafia makes strides". SLAM! Sports. Retrieved 2009-04-05. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ Sokol, Chris (2009-01-12). "Genesis a stalemate between Mafia and Frontline". SLAM! Sports. Retrieved 2009-04-05. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ Sokol, Chris (2009-03-16). "The TNA Destination X disaster". SLAM! Sports. Retrieved 2009-04-05. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ "December 5, 2007". TNA Today. 2007-12-05. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ Mackinder, Matt. "Meltdown another solid TNA compilation". Slam! Sports. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  26. ^ "MTV MADE, episode 70". MTV. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
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