Motor City Machine Guns Talk WrestleMania, TLC, WWE 2K25 and More in B/R Interview

The Motor City Machine Guns don't stress what they can't control.

The Tables, Ladders & Chairs match for the WWE Tag Team Championships on SmackDown on April 27 was an instant classic that had many fans wondering why it wasn't included on the card for WrestleMania 41 the week before, but Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley feel like everything played out the way it was supposed to.

"We can only speak for us, everybody else has their own opinions on it. But that's totally out of our control, so we waste no time, we waste no energy thinking about whether or not we're on WrestleMania," Shelley told Bleacher Report. "We take the opportunities that we are given and we make the most out of them, and if that match had been on WrestleMania, it would not have been the same match. So, butterfly effect being very real, the match that we gave you on SmackDown, we killed it. We gave you well over 100 percent, everybody in that match did. That's the best we can do."

"That's the match that was meant to happen," Sabin added. "It happened the way it was meant to."

The show-stealing TLC match was just one of the many highlights for the Motor City Machine Guns since they debuted together in WWE less than a year ago in October, following an extensive tag team career across multiple companies. Sabin and Shelley won the WWE tag team titles just a week after their debut and enjoyed a 42-day reign before losing them to DIY, who later lost them to the current titleholders, the Street Profits.

"It does feel like once we've arrived there's been a little more emphasis on tag team wrestling," Sabin said. "Obviously, for the last several months we've been fighting and bickering with DIY and the Street Profits, and it all culminated in the TLC match on SmackDown a few weeks ago. It was just cool to be part of that whole overarching story, and I think that it's gonna continue on from here."

Sabin and Shelley have teamed together since 2006 on the independent circuit and in TNA, where they spent the majority of their respective careers. The Detroit natives were three-time TNA/Impact tag team champions and went on to win championships across multiple companies, including New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor.

Still, both of them admitted that nothing quite compares to being in WWE.

"It's an amazing experience, just being here," Sabin said. "Especially seeing the other side of pro wrestling, as far as other companies go, independents go, companies in Japan and Mexico and all over the world, just to see how much work goes into this company and the shows and the production and just how many people work here and the organization, it's just unbelievable to see what a giant, massive company this is. I think that's just the thing that sticks out to me the most, how big of a company this really is and how much work goes into it."

"I think it makes us want to work harder, and work a little smarter as well," Shelley added. "We're people who, we wrestle once a week, but we get in the ring and train. We're people who are students of the game, we study wrestling. We try and make sure that we show up ready to go, and they've definitely given us so many opportunities to prove our worth, and that's all we want."

Sabin and Shelley's impressive first few months in WWE landed them the headlining spot in the New Wave Pack for WWE 2K25, the first of five DLC character and content packs for the famed video game that officially dropped on Wednesday. The pack also includes NXT Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer and fellow NXT Superstar Giulia, as well as new features like intergender matches and updated storylines.

"It's one of those things you can check off the list, right? Like, signing a contract with WWE, that's probably the biggest [thing on the] checklist, but then there's being on training cards, having action figures and being in a video game, too," Sabin said. "So it's just one of those things, a bucket list, dream-come-true type of thing."

Shelley admitted that while he and Sabin were previously in TNA video games, he never let himself imagine the possibility of being in a WWE video game. He said he's excited to see how their tandem maneuvers translate to WWE 2K25.

"I tried not to make any assumptions about where our career path was going to take us," he said. "Honestly, coming to grips with just doing the best we can and letting the chips fall where they may never really led me to believe that we would necessarily become WWE tag team champions a couple weeks after our debut, let alone being in a WWE video game. So, no, no is the short answer there."

The New Wave Pack is an appropriate title, considering WWE is in the midst of a new era where collaborations that were once thought to be impossible are becoming the norm. The company has entered a partnership with TNA that has fostered new opportunities for Superstars to introduce themselves to a new audience. Most notably, TNA World Champion Joe Hendry had a star-making performance at WrestleMania 41 against WWE legend Randy Orton and will be in a featured match against former NXT Champion Trick Williams at NXT Battleground on May 25.

As veterans of TNA, Sabin and Shelley are pleased to see the gates opening up between companies, as it creates a more positive atmosphere for pro wrestling overall.

"TNA used to be this completely separate thing, like when we started back in the day, TNA was its own standalone product, you can go to TNA or if you're good enough you can go to WWE," Sabin said. "But now, it's not either or. You can start your path even as a young wrestler on the independents, maybe then you can make it to TNA and then you have a path to be seen by WWE and their scouts and possibly have a road there through TNA."

"At the end of the day, both companies win, and it's good business," Shelley added.

For now, the Motor City Machine Guns are focused on their path forward in WWE. Their success in their new company has coincided with the rise of Detroit sports, as the Detroit Lions are Super Bowl contenders, the Detroit Pistons made the playoffs this year for the first time since 2019, and the Detroit Tigers are currently in first place in the AL Central.

"I think it's appropriate, because really it's not just Detroit sports, it's Detroit," Shelley said. "We had the NFL draft last year, and a lot of people came to a city that, in the '90s, held the record for murder per capita. It was a very, very dangerous city and it's been revitalized, and I think a lot of people are seeing that, so I think it's appropriate that not only are the pro sports teams doing well, but that [Detroit is] doing well."