The Motor City Machine Guns (MCMG) are the WWE Tag Team Champions. It reads like the most wishful Mad Lib of 2011, having one of professional wrestling’s longtime darling tandems winning one of the most recognizable team prizes in the industry. For this to be reality all these years later speaks not only to their ability to endure, but also to a willingness on WWE’s part to adjust optics, and perhaps create new expectations for a division that’s very rarely all the way realized. An almost 20-year journey is at its culmination, but it's the all the stops along the road that make this moment special, and may help to usher in something special for so many who hope to follow the same path.

The word influential gets tossed around professional wrestling a lot, and for good reason. Between the dedicated practice of tape trading early on, and later the rise of DVDs and streaming services, almost every wrestling match of note can be viewed by those looking to pursue the profession. That accessibility birthed the past two generations of pro wrestlers, many of whom joined the business in order to recreate the moves and moments they witnessed through new media. The most recent of which, heavily inspired by Japanese Strong Style and junior heavyweight wrestling, found much of their American influence through TNA Wrestling.

While considered undersized for the top spots in the WWEs and WCWs of the world, talents like Amazing Red and AJ Styles wowed American audiences as the kind of spiritual successors to the high-flying, generative wrestling many had never seen. But in the tag team ranks, TNA’s gift to the world came in the form of Detroit natives Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley.

Sabin and Shelley originally met around 2002, at different points in their wrestling training under Scott D’Amore in Border City Wrestling. As singles competitors, both made waves quickly — Sabin won his first of many TNA X Division Championships in 2003, and Shelley emerged as a regular title contender between TNA and Ring of Honor. Typically, when two dynamic singles talents team up, there aren’t very many double team moves employed. MCMG, however, found ways to combine their athleticism and create some of the best timing tag team wrestling had ever seen. They existed in sync; two athletes of one mind, not just as it related to ending a match, but the entire way through. There’s a crispness, a static point at the end of everything they do.

If The Young Bucks, the other side of the tag team renaissance coin, are wrestling’s Ken Masters, with their flair and arrogance, MCMG is Ryu, with a harsh, exact execution bred from years of focus and repetition.

Talented, precise athletes like Ricochet and Top Flight credit MCMG’s time in TNA as inspirations for their own styles. Sabin and Shelley teamed for more than three years before finally winning the TNA World Tag Team Titles in 2010, defeating Beer Money Inc. for the then-vacated titles. They spent the next year feuding with two of the most decorated teams ever, first successfully defending their titles against Team 3D (The Dudley Boyz couldn’t use their name due to WWE copyright) and trading victories with the future Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson, known in TNA Wrestling as Generation Me.

After both men suffered injuries in 2011, Shelley effectively ended the team’s TNA run by choosing to let his contract expire. Even after disbanding, the two found great success apart, with Shelley forming the New Japan Pro Wrestling team the Time Splitters with Kushida in 2012, and Sabin capturing the TNA World Heavyweight Title from Bully Ray in 2013. They reformed the team in 2016 in both New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor, winning the latter's set of tag titles from The Young Bucks in 2017, then rejoined TNA, with Shelley winning his first Impact World Title in 2023. The tandem finally came full circle, regaining the Tag Team Titles two more times before finally leaving TNA in April 2024.

When you’ve done it all and done it with everyone, every party’s a reunion.

One of the WWE fan base's worst games is “Who’s that guy?” when wrestlers are brought into the promotion for the first time, but there’s simply too much history to treat the MCMG like mystery men. WWE’s "SmackDown" vlog from October 25, the day of their recent debut, gave insight not only to Shelley and Sabin’s degrees of separation, but their longevity as well. In the clip, they're first greeted by Road Dogg, who they wrestled in TNA in 2007 with his longtime New Age Outlaws partner Billy Gunn under the tongue in cheek name Voodoo Kin Mafia. Then they run into Bobby Roode — now having transitioned into a backstage producer role — who was their first big title feud as the other half of Beer Money, Inc. Shelley, the more outwardly expressive of the two, has special handshakes with both former opponents. Longtime friend Corey Graves adds some perspective, appreciating the honor of calling their first WWE match. But the strongest indication of the respect they carry comes from Sami Zayn, who in many ways parallels their journey. Like them, he started his career in the early 2000s, becoming one of the biggest names on the independent scene. While he primarily competed for Pro Wrestling Guerilla, he left a significant mark on Ring of Honor. Having done just about everything one can do outside of WWE, he signed with the company in 2013, and a decade later is one of the focal points of one of the company’s most enduring storylines, the same storyline that’s now a launching point for the Guns.

“Oh my God, are you guys here?” Sami exclaims, caught off guard in the middle of a Facetime call, wearing the smile of a kid who moved schools but sees his old friends from camp in the lunchroom. Respect is one thing, but inspiring genuine joy in the people who’ve seen it all is reserved for very few.

There’s an innate quality few pro wrestlers have that contributes to their longevity: Looking the way you looked 20 years ago. While almost no one’s a perfect 1:1, there’s benefits to the aesthetics of the Rey Mysterios, Bobby Lashleys, and Randy Ortons of the world. There’s a reason the Hardy Boyz will have lines wrapped around buildings as long as convention centers exist. The Motor City Machine Guns, world travelers and vetted veterans of TNA’s X Division, don't just look like the guys who created all those Ultimate X moments — they still move like those guys. Maybe it’s genetic, maybe it’s repetition, maybe it’s just good luck, but they're not a cheap facsimile of what once was. This is that same team from the early 2010s, just with more experience, more focus, and a brand new stage to further their legacy.

So much of your positioning in pro wrestling has to do with trust. The people in charge have to believe in the quality of your work to put you in position to succeed, and you can’t really show more trust in a team than having them challenge for the WWE Tag Team Titles on their second night in the company. Similar to WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, they interrupted the Bloodline story, calling the faction’s bluff minutes after defeating #DIY and becoming number one contenders. With a little assistance from Jey Uso, they defeated Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa, becoming the only team in history to win the WWE, TNA, ROH, and NJPW tag team titles. Now there's fresh matchups galore between The Street Profits, A-Town Down Under, #DIY, and all of the teams on "Monday Night Raw" they’ll eventually cross paths with.

Much like Bryan Danielson, Styles, Kevin Owens, and so many others before them, MCMG arrived as one of the best ever in a brand new arena, getting a chance to further cement their place in front of the most eyes possible. “I’m so happy you’re here!” may have been a common greeting upon their arrival — “How many times did we hear that?” Shelley asked Sabin, as both men stood near that entrance ramp, mentally preparing for their "SmackDown" debut — yet as the weeks go on, it’s going to be tough to keep that excitement low. One of the best tag teams ever has reached their final destination, but their feet are still firmly on the gas.