5 things you may not know about Sami Callihan

Sami Callihan is arguably wrestling the biggest match of his career on July 17th when he takes on Kenny Omega for the IMPACT World Championship.

IMPACT Wrestling presents one of their biggest events of the year, Slammiversary, which will be headlined by one of their mainstay talents for the last five years.

Sami Callihan has been IMPACT World Champion before in 2019, when he defeated Brian Cage in a Steel Cage match, before losing the title to the first-ever women's IMPACT World Champion, Tessa Blanchard.

It is only fitting that one of IMPACT's most loyal talents will face the current belt collector of pro-wrestling, Kenny Omega, who will be accompanied by Don Callis.

For fans who want to learn a little more about the outspoken and outlandish Sami Callihan, here's a look at 5 things you may not know about Sami Callihan.

#5 Sami Callihan was once a member of the NXT roster

Sami Callihan was once a part of the NXT roster, under the name of Solomon Crowe.

Crowe's gimmick was that of a tech-savvy wrestler and somewhat of a hacker, being able to access important systems within the WWE Universe.

In an interview with WWE.com, published by Byron Saxton in April 2015, Crowe explained his gimmick's background. He said:

"I was the kid at home on my computer making films, editing and disappearing into the dark nest of the Internet.

"I used to be a 325-pound kid who was always picked on. My best friends were my computer and wrestling."

His debut match was pulled from a taped NXT broadcast, and Callihan unfortunately suffered an injury in a dark match a number of weeks later.

The Solomon Crowe character eventually made his television debut in 2015 against Bull Dempsey, but was ultimately released from his WWE contract later that year.

Callihan spoke with Alex McCarthy of TalkSport about his decision to quit WWE. He said:

"I quit NXT because I wasn’t complacent. I wasn’t happy just collecting a paycheck and just being a toy on the shelf. I saw myself as a top guy, I had to go out and prove it and I’ve done just that. As soon as I got there, they wanted to change everything about me and I knew it wouldn’t work."

A gimmick that certainly had potential that would fit into today's age of social media and technology. Heck, he could have even reprised the role to be the SmackDown hacker. Remember that?

Callihan hasn't returned to WWE since his release in 2015.