In my opinion, when you think of the greatest rivalries in TNA & IMPACT Wrestling the following pairings come to mind; Kurt Angle/Samoa Joe, AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels and Gail Kim/Awesome Kong to highlight some heavy hitters.
Over the past decade, there is one rivalry that has become as personal as it can get, the brutal and physical rivalry of Sami Callihan/Eddie Edwards. Many fans of the brand feel that this feud is destined to last forever.
This hard-hitting feud seems to have started completely accidentally and now these two figureheads in Impact Wrestling appear to be destined to fight forever.
By now everyone has seen the unfortunate incident, that very nearly cost Eddie his sight and his wrestling career. Thankfully, Eddie was left with minimal damage, and his career was still intact, this arc, in turn, pushed Sami Callihan to the top as one of the biggest heels in Impact Wrestling.
Throughout 2018 the pair had several hardcore matches, most notably the Impact vs Lucha Underground show, at the Wrestlecon Event during that years’ Wrestlemania weekend, and also took part in a multi-person hardcore war match a few days later at the Redemption Pay Per View. It was during that match that Eddie completely changed after accidentally striking his wife Alisha in the head with a Kendo Stick.
This storied and gruesome rivalry didn’t stop at Hardcore War, it seemed the Impact Zone was not enough for Eddie who began repeatedly striking Callihan in the face with a Kendo stick at the end of their match at Redemption, which led to Callihan being hospitalized, and a few nights after Redemption he would attack Callihan in his hospital bed.
Eddie was swiftly escorted from the building and arrested, who was subsequently bailed out by none other than the ”heart and soul” of ECW himself, Tommy Dreamer. Eddie had become so obsessed with Callihan, it had begun to have a huge impact on his marriage.
Dreamer tried to help Eddie see sense but to no avail, so he took it upon himself to try to get through to Eddie, detailing his time in ECW, and his storied-feud with Raven very nearly ruined his life.
Despite the sound advice of Dreamer, and an unsanctioned match in the woods, The two would then clash in a street fight at House of Hardcore, Eddie would pull out a big win against Sami after delivering a Big Boston Knee Party. Eddie then proceeded to choke out Callihan with the very same bat that nearly ended his career, he would be stopped by Dreamer (and some backstage talent) who would once again try to get through to Eddie but would receive a strike to the face instead.
Eddie would go on to have multiple personal feuds with Dreamer and Ace Austin, Callihan would go on to become Impact World Champion before losing the Championship at Hard to Kill.
Flash forward to 2021 and then the feud has reignited, after having Ken Shamrock attacked Eddie on Callihan’s behalf, Eddie would return the favour, helping current Impact World Champion Rich Swann even up the odds against Callihan, Eric Young and Shamrock, during which Callihan would repeat his deplorable actions from 2018 and attack Eddie, targeting his eye with the famed baseball bat.
Eddie would make a speedy recovery and attack Callihan during Impact, culminating in Callihan challenging Eddie to a match this evening on Impact and the two are scheduled to face each other for ‘the final time’ (Spoiler; it probably won’t be).
Looking back on this feud, it really does seem like the two are destined to #FightForever.
Don’t forget to tune into Impact Wrestling every Tuesday on AXS TV and Twitch, also replays every Wednesday at 10pm on Free Sports TV/approx. 3am on IMPACT Plus app.