Various: Sami Callihan Impact Contract Update, More on ROH Not Getting a TV Deal, New Trademarks

Impact Wrestling

Dec 25, 2022

Sami Callihan’s Impact Contract Reportedly Expiring Soon

Sami Callihan’s current contract with Impact Wrestling reportedly is currently set to expire soon, according to Fightful Select.

It was reported that their sources stated that Callihan’s contract currently is expected to be expiring in a few months. Those same sources also stated that Callihan’s upcoming free agency has already attracted interest from other promotions.

It was also reported that Callihan’s current contract was originally set to have expired at the start of 2021 but he had signed a two year extension through 2022.

Besides his current career in Impact, Callihan also currently runs his own indie promotion Pro Wrestling REVOLVER.

More on ROH Not Getting a New TV Deal & TV Market for New Deals Slowing Down

As noted before, Ring of Honor owner Tony Khan announced earlier this month that ROH TV would be returning within the near future on ROH’s HonorClub service.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the current belief from those within the television industry is that Khan did not bother to shop around ROH TV to potential bidders outside of Warner Bros Discovery. This reportedly is believed to be due to Khan wanting to stay loyal to WBD over their current support with AEW and him believing he would have been able to get a TV deal done with them for ROH.

Meltzer reported that another reason is related to a recent report from New York Times that stated that there has been a major decline in both interest and making deals for new television shows from several major players, including WBD, Netflix, Paramount, and YouTube. One person spoken to reportedly stated that Khan’s inability to get a new deal for ROH reaffirmed the current difficulty going around in the industry. Meltzer reported that this difficulty has been affecting other non-WWE and AEW promotions who have either tried to get TV deals but have been unable to do so, such as the NWA, or improve their current existing deals and TV status, such as MLW, NJPW, and Impact Wrestling.

AEW, Anthem, Swerve Strickland, & Mike Chioda Files New Trademarks

AEW, Anthem, Swerve Strickland, and former WWE referee Mike Chioda recently filed several new trademarks to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Trademarks for “WrestleBowl”, “Wrestling Bowl”, “SAP”, “Spanish Announce Project”, and “Spanish Announce Position” were filed by AEW on December 19th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes.

A trademark for “Santino Marella” was filed by Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions on December 19th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes. PWInsider’s Steven Fernandes reported that the reason why Impact Wrestling’s parent company was able to trademark a WWE owned name was due to WWE’s trademark for it had expired in October of 2021.

A trademark for “Mogul Affiliates” was filed by Swerve Strickland on December 19th for wrestling and merchandise-related purposes.

A trademark for “The Third Man in the Ring” was filed by former WWE referee Mike Chioda on December 19th for wrestling and merchandise-related purposes.