Jericho welcomes Sami Callihan to the show.

Jericho opens the show by asking Callihan about the recent incident at an Impact television taping. Callihan was executing a spot with Eddie Edwards where he placed a steel chair on Edwards, and then attempted to strike the chair with a baseball bat. Unfortunately there was an error and the baseball bat slipped, striking Edwards in the face.

Callihan points out that he initially felt terrible about the incident, pointing out that he obviously didn’t try to strike a man in the face with a baseball bat on purpose. He spoke to Edwards following the incident, but the two men haven’t talked much sense. He admits that as the days have passed he doesn’t feel the need to feel sorry about this anymore. He doesn’t want to live in the past, and what’s done is done.

He mentions that this incident has soured him on the wrestling business somewhat because a lot of fans are attacking him online demanding an apology. He points out that the wrestling business is fake, and he doesn’t know when fans decided that they have so much power over the events they see play out on their television.

He’s also been caught off guard by people like Jim Cornette and Kassius Ohno calling him out online, calling him an unsafe worker. He points out that he’s been good friens with Ohno for a while, and he would have appreciated a call instead of reading tweets on the internet. Callihan adds that he and Edwards have been friends for years, and it’s been disappointing for him to hear Edwards on recent podcasts starting to play the blame game in this case as well.

He mentions that he couldn’t care less about what other people think about him. In a weird way he thinks this incident has helped his career. Jericho admits that he probably wouldn’t be interviewing Callihan for this show if it wasn’t for this baseball bat incident. Callihan says more people are talking about him now than ever before, but the notion that he did this on purpose is “garbage”.

Now that the incident has happened, Callihan doesn’t see why he can’t make some money with it. He’s made a t-shirt that shows Edwards’ bloody face and he points out that those shirts have been selling well. Jericho thinks it’s a bit much to be selling shirts like that, but Callihan points out that Edwards is selling shirts that reference the incident as well, so if Edwards can monetize this Callihan thinks he should be able to as well.

Callihan informs that he’s making more money now than he ever was in WWE. He’s one of the business workers on the independent scene and worked more dates last year than most WWE Superstars. He points out that if he’s main eventing an indie show they nearly always sell out because he’s in demand.

Callihan talks about his career in NXT. He points out that he was there for over three years, but he spent a lot of that time working at the Performance Centre when he felt like he should have been wrestling on television. When his “hacker” character was initially developed he had several conversations with Dusty Rhodes.

They combined to develop several creative ideas which would accompany his character, such as WWE sending out mass texts to their live audience when Callihan was cutting his promos. He’d take credit for the mass texts, claiming he had the power to hack them all. Unfortunately, creative ideas like this were never able to see the light of day in NXT.

Callihan is working for several indie promotions now, as well as Impact Wrestling and Lucha Underground. Jericho asks him which company he’d choose to work for if he had to pick and Callihan says he’d probably pick Lucha Underground, because even Impact officials are starting to tell him to ease off the pot stirring concerning the controversy surrounding the bat incident.

Callihan mentions that he really enjoys Lucha Undergound, and Jericho admits to loving their programming as well. Callihan points out that professional wrestling is trying to be both fake and real and he’s sick of it. He loves that Lucha Underground embraces fantastical elements including time travel and magical powers.

Callihan points out that promoting wrestling shows is hard work, but he’s developing a reputation for putting on great shows that fans enjoy. He informs that he’ll be promoting several shows during WrestleMania weekend again this year, after his shows during WrestleMania weekend last year were a great success.

That sums up today’s episode of Talk is Jericho. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!