Wrestling / Motor City Machine Guns

Detroit's Finest

The Motor City Machine Guns (previously known as Murder City Machine Guns) is an American professional wrestling Tag Team composed by Alex Shelley (real name Patrick Kenneth Martin, born May 23, 1983) and Chris Sabin (real name Joshua Harter, born February 4, 1982). Both Shelley and Sabin are currently signed with Impact Wrestling.

They first joined forces in Pro Wrestling ZERO1 in 2006, then in Total Nonstop Action (TNA/Impact) in 2007, and they are otherwise best known for competing for Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. They both disbanded and reunited many times due to individual changes in promotion, and Shelley briefly retired in 2018 before returning. Overall they are three-time World Tag Team Champions, having won the TNA/Impact World Tag Team Championship twice and ROH World Tag Team Championship once in their career.

In addition, both Shelley and Sabin also found success as single competitors, with Shelley having triumphed in ROH, and also briefly competed in MLW, especially during the Opera Cup 2021 tournament while Sabin did the same in TNA/Impact, having won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship once. They also competed at All Elite Wrestling's PPV All Out 2022, joining forces with Jay Lethal against Wardlow and FTR. At Impact Wrestling's Against All Odds 2023, both won 2 of the company's singles' titles: Shelley won the Impact World Championship for the first time while Sabin becomes the record-breaking 9-time Impact X Division Champion.

Tropes Made in Detroit:

• Abhorrent Admirer: They acted as this towards Daizee Haze.
• Aborted Arc: Their targeting of The Briscoes following Mark's injury regaining the tag team titles from Naruki Doi and Shingo, was cut short due to TNA pulling the Machine Guns out of ROH.
• Anime Hair: Alex Shelley.
• Badass Boast: Shelley had this response to Jay White calling himself "The Catalyst of Professional Wrestling" and claiming that everything of note in the business is happening because of him:
  Alex Shelley: You wanna talk about how you're King Switch? I'm the king of a generation, so when you go back to New Japan Pro-Wrestling and you tangle with The Rainmaker, you remember that my fingerprints are on him. He wouldn't have become what he did unless it was for me. When you go to AEW, the company that The Young Bucks started, you remember that my fingerprints are on them too. I shaped this industry, and my fingerprints are on you. And you wanna talk about how everything in pro wrestling happens because of you? Little brother, you happened because of me!
• Bowdlerise: The team was named Murder City Machine Guns, but since joining TNA, the "Murder" part was replaced with "Motor". They openly lampshaded "Motor" being the PG version. Both "Motor City" and "Murder City" are nicknames attributed to Detroit, with one referencing its historic role as the epicenter of the automotive industry and the other referencing its notorious past and present ties to corruption, violent crime, and gang culture. Two guesses which one sounds more intimidating.
• Combination Attack: Shelley and Sabin's tag team attack is a Double Enziguri.
• Continuity Nod: After getting away from them to reunite with Shelley in ROH, Sabin thinks The Addiction are a "bad influence" who bring shame to the ROH World Tag Team Titles.
• Cultural Posturing: According to Sabin, Detroit is the greatest city in the history of modern civilization!
• Deadpan Snarker: They can be sarcastic at times.
• Foreshadowing: Shelley was the first wrestler to realize Hydro was developing into more than just a goof and suggested he dump Special K for Generation Next. Jay Lethal would end up defeating Generation Next alongside Samoa Joe at ROH Enter the Dragon.
• Determinator: Despite tearing his second ACL during an Ultimate X match, Chris Sabin continued to work that match all the way to its finish. This served as the foundation for his comeback story, making it back from those two injuries to not only become X-Division Champion again, but to invoke Option C and trade said championship for a World Heavyweight Title shot against Bully Ray. Bully proceeded to contort and assault his leg for about fifteen minutes, but he just couldn't keep Sabin down, and with enough luck and a misthrown ballpeen hammer, Sabin would beat Bully to become champion, the highest moment of his career.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Sabin has torn both of his ACL's, each on two separate occasions.
• Genre Savvy: Fed up with the rules of the King of the Mountain Match, Chris Sabin just laid down and let Alex Shelley pin him so that he could go on to win the match.
• Good Counterpart: Sabin is this to Frankie Kazarian. Both owe their ROH returns to their tag team partners, Alex Shelley and Christopher Daniels, who both have a history of mischief making in the promotion. While Shelley has since atoned for his misdeeds and set Sabin on a better path, Daniels has relapsed under pressure and corrupted Kazarian.
  • This also extends to Sabin and Kazarian's rivalry in TNA/Impact. Both were called "The Future" as a straight-up Red Baron, however while Sabin competed honorably and earned his victories atop the X-Division, Kazarian formed an alliance with Michael Shane and Traci Brooks and the three resorted to mad trickery and subterfuge to get their way.
• Fan Boy: Chris Sabin during the Jackass angle in 06-07. This led to his feud with Jerry Lynn, which led to his heel turn, which led to… well, the Guns finally uniting in TNA.
• Finishing Move:
  • Shelley's "Shell Shock" (Swinging Reverse STO) is right behind the muta lock on the most borrowed finishing move list. Portia Perez, Mike Knox/Knux, Bray Wyatt, Alexa Bliss, Jay White, and Ruby Soho have all used it. Chinese wrestler Jun Hado's used a variation of it. Also, his "Border City Stretch" (Chickenwing Over-The-Shoulder Crossface) submission becomes more often borrowed starting from the 2010's, though still not as common as his "Shell Shock". Johnny Gargano, Lee Moriarty, Drew McIntyre and Taiji Ishimori are known other users of the BCS (with both Gargano and Moriarty being given by Shelley his blessings to use it). Shelley, in turn, is one of many to borrow the Air Raid Crash (WA4) and Shiranui (otherwise known as sliced bread #2).
  • Sabin has the "Cradle Shock", a cross-legged Samoan Driver, and later he gets an upgraded variation in "CSV2" (sometimes called "All Hail Sabin"), a cross-legged Fisherman Driver.
• Hammy Herald: Shelley was this to Jack Evans, "The Man Who Can Defy Gravity!"
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Just look at their jackets!
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: That's what they call themselves.
• Heroic Neutral: Though not motivated by the goodness in their hearts, they will go after heels, usually because the heels keep on screwing with them.
• Hostile Show Takeover: ROH Generation Next, May 22, 2004, started with Shelley's titular Power Stable taking out the teams for the opening match, the Ring Crew Express (Dunn and Marcos), the Christopher Street Connection (Buff-E and MACE) and the Special K team of Izzy and Dixie, and generally making themselves as much the focus of attention as possible that night.
• Hot-Blooded Sideburns: Sabin.
• In the Hood: Many of Sabin' entrance jackets.
• Irony: Despite having Bullet Club's gimmick years before every member not named Karl Anderson (see below), they have never been invited to be part of Bullet Club, with Shelley in fact being among the stable's longest-termed enemies across multiple promotions.
• It's Been Done:
  • As they've pointed out in interviews, The Motor City Machine Guns basically had the street gunner brotherhood gimmick before Bullet Club was even a name outside the Indian motorcycle world. The black leather jackets, white skulls, and finger gun taunts were all staples of MCMG from the start, and they've even pointed the guns at Prince Devitt himself during his babyface tag team run in Apollo 55. Furthermore, the team originally came together in TNA off the back of Shelley's Paparazzi gimmick with famed nWo/Wolfpac/Kliq big man Kevin Nash, who was originally intended to be their manager. Had plans not changed for Nash's skits with Kurt Angle, he may very well have Too Sweeted them before Anderson and Devitt ever had the chance to take their tribute to the ring.
  • After years of feuding with Bullet Club in general, months of acrimony with the Switchblade Era incarnation in particular, things finally came full circle in a match aired on September 15, 2022. After facing and defeating The World Famous Good Brothers in their "see you later" match for Impact Wrestling, Anderson and Gallows offered Sabin and Shelley a Turkish Wolf as a sign of respect, and the gunners from Detroit accepted it.
• Jack of All Stats: Both men are great high flyers, but don't underestimate their other skills. If the Cradle Shock is any indication, Sabin has some understated power to his game. Shelley, meanwhile, was called "The Technical Messiah" early on in his career for a reason: he's good with a little bit of everything.
• Keet: They're always bouncing around.
• Le Parkour: Sabin once ran up a table propped against a ringpost, flipping over and landing on his feet.
• Let's See YOU Do Better!: During the CZW feud when the CZW fans were chanting boring at Shelley's match with Bryan Danielson, he challenged one of them to get a better match out of Danielson.
• Malevolent Masked Man: Sabin wore a mask to hinder reDRagon and draw suspicion towards The Kingdom as part of the "Knights of the Rising Dawn" plot to help The Addiction pick up the ROH World Tag Team Championship. That same mask was then used by Shelley to hinder The Addiction and draw suspicion towards The Kingdom again when he decided to come back to ROH and convince Sabin to resume teaming with him.
• Manchild: They could sometimes come off as overgrown teenagers in their earlier days.
• Mentor: Shelley made his first big ROH impression with a group of young of wrestlers and a decade later, Older and Wiser, he was still bringing young wrestlers in ROH together and looking for new talents he considered worthy to join the promotion with the promise to help raise them to a new level, with, of course with hopes they will help him in his own endeavors on the way. His all-around high speed ringmaster style was influential to many of the biggest stars of the business in his latter days, including wrestlers he's never partnered with long term, giving him a veritable claim to have shaped an entire generation.
• Mr. Fanservice: Sexiness and nerdiness routinely get girls screaming and dreaming, and Sabin managed to win Velvet Sky for awhile before turning on her.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: The gist of their feud with Generation Me. On the other hand there was Chris Sabin claiming Jerry Lynn was so old he grew up with a two sided ring and trying to force Lynn to use a walker and wear diapers. Then there's their issues with former Search and Destroy protégé turned Bullet Club leader Jay White.
• Perma-Stubble: Sabin.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: They're both only five foot ten, which is pretty small in the wrestling world.
• Power Trio: Following the end of Shelley's regular NJPW stint and Time Splitters partnership with Kushida, Sabin has teamed up with Kushida several times as well, including am eight-man tag at Global Wars 2016 with all three alongside Matt Sydal. They finally linked up as an official trio in 2022 on Impact Wrestling during Kushida's tour of the United States, forming Time Machine.
• Pun
  Alex Shelley: Would you say it was hunting season for Moose and we were in a Rush for a big game kill?
• Put on a Bus: Shelley left TNA/Impact by his own choice. So did Sabin a year later. Both came back in 2020, though Shelley's presence has been far more sporadic than Sabin, between injuries, a physical therapy job back home, and literally being talent on loan from another promotion, MLW.
• Red Baron:
  • Shelley: "Made in Detroit", referencing his pride on being one of the best wrestlers from the state. Before that he also had "The Technical Messiah", "Talent on Loan from God", "Total Nonstop @LX", and, embarrassingly enough, "Baby Bear" (during his first run in TNA courtesy of singer Goldy Locks).
  • Sabin: "The Future", and he did find success that ROH has referenced in NWA affiliates. The future was put on hold much longer in ROH itself, however, until Alex Shelley helped him win the tag team titles from The Young Bucks.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Shelley didn't get much help when he asked for it, which was after Generation Next got out of even his own control. Frustrated as he was, he didn't blame anyone for refusing to help him.
• Rule of Funny: Like most good tag teams, this is their code.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When Shelley learned that Lio Rush was canceling dates he had lined up in Germany to participate in the World Six Man Tag Tournament on Road To Final Battle, Shelley canceled Rush's cancellations and got Lio replaced in the tournament with KUSHIDA, for Lio's own good. As it turned out, Shelley was really trying to make sure Rush had the best seasoning for the final stages, as Rush was later admitted back into the competition, alongside KUSHIDA!
• Shout-Out: Sabin's name is a reference to Final Fantasy VI's Sabin, why not, since the "MOTHERFUCKER SUPLEXED A TRAIN!!!"
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: These two were fond of wearing sleeveless shirts and leather vests to the ring in their younger days. Shelley still does so occasionally since returning.
• Social Darwinist: Shelley has to remind people that when Bullet Club got started back in New Japan he and his friends were among the first people to get ambushed and beaten up by them. After four years had passed and they were still getting ambushed and beaten up by Bullet Club in ROH, he said he was sick of it, but he hadn't snapped yet, holding on to the belief that those who can't take it don't belong in ROH.
• Spiteful Spit: Alex Shelley and Roderick Strong did this to each other at Nowhere To Run in 2005.
• Tag Team: Naturally, they are a combined force, but Shelley and Sabin also made their own tag teams distanced from each other, albeit with mutual allies who both men trust and have worked alongside. Shelley has KUSHIDA as Time Splitters and Sabin has James Storm.
• The Ditz: Shelley especially in the Paparazzi, where he threw a match at the 2006 Genesis pay per view because he wanted Austin Starr to film the winning pin, despite being a pay per view where he was being simultaneously filmed by three broadcast worthy cameras.
• The Power of Rock: Their rock band The High Crusade, which includes Petey Williams.
• True Companions: No matter how many times they split up and even having separate teammates, they are always there to support each other.
• The Stoner: There's a rather infamous picture of them on the internet involving them and a good sized joint.
• We Used to Be Friends: The Guns once not only mentored Jay White during his ROH excursion, Shelley even took the kid in to live with him, coming to see Jamie as a little brother. This did nothing to exempt Alex from the usual impersonal scorn The Switchblade displays to anybody that's not Bullet Club, and neither of The Guns was happy about that.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Shelley remained friendly with ACH after breaking off their tag team to reunite with Sabin. Also said he sees himself in Lio Rush.
  • Likewise, Sabin has found better spirits with his longtime rival Frankie Kazarian in the "Battle of the Futures" match.
• Would Hit a Girl: Chris Sabin did this to his then-girlfriend Velvet Sky once, and revealing his short alliance with Alpha Female just to spite her.

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