In an interview with Wrestling Inc, the former Impact Wrestling World Champion Sami Callihan spoke about using the piledriver (which he calls the Cactus Special), as a tribute to Mick Foley. Here are highlights:
On Mick Foley as an influence:
“Absolute legend, absolute guy – I look up to him in this business, not just as a hardcore wrestler but he’s one of the best professional wrestlers of all-time. He had great runs in every company and he made you truly believe. He and Terry Funk are two of my favorite wrestlers of all-time. That’s why I use the piledriver as my finisher – he gave me that move. I wanted his legacy to live on and that’s why I call it the Cactus Special. That’s why I had these boots made. I wanna give back to the guys who made me wanna be a professional wrestler and this is just a token of appreciation.”
On his Wrestling Revolver shows:
“If you look at my The Wrestling Revolver shows, I book people from all avenues. People that could be considered comedy, deathmatch, hardcore, Lucha Libre, catch-as-catch-can, strong style – I see something that makes someone special and I gravitate towards them and want to help them out, especially if they work hard. I will go leaps and bounds above helping someone that works hard and does it the right way vs. someone that has a terrible attitude. Wrestling wasn’t easy for me. I had to bust my ass and I had to have people actually help me to get where I am so I wanna do that for other people.”
Sami Callihan on what he would say to his NXT self:
“Quit being a b—h dude. Quit and do you because you are good at the end of the day and it doesn’t matter what anyone says. You don’t need to walk on eggshells, you don’t need to try to be someone that you’re not; you need to be yourself because you either succeed being yourself or you fail being someone else.”
