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Sami Callihan sensationally called out professional wrestling legend Chris Jericho in the middle of an interview with Mirror Sport.

The intense and unpredictable IMPACT Wrestling star turned right into our camera and laid down a challenge for the former WWE Champion - arguably the hottest free agent on the planet right now - and made his intentions clear for all to see.

Speaking at the Wrestling MediaCon event at Manchester's Bowlers Exhibition Centre, the American didn't pull any punches.

He said: "Jericho, if you're listening to this, I'm calling your ass out. Whenever you're ready to do it, let's f***ing do this.

"Sami Callihan versus Jericho, one on one. I know I wanna see it, I know the people wanna see it, and I know you wanna see it."

Despite the aggressive words, 31-year-old Sami admits facing the self-professed Ayatollah of Rock 'n' Rollah would be something of a dream match for him.

"He's one of the guys that I truly tried to base myself on when I was younger but I've become a whole new animal now. He's one of the last dream matches that I actually have as a professional wrestler."

(Image: Robyn Goding/Beyond Gorilla)

Sami cut his teeth in infamous Death Match battles in the United States in companies such as Combat Zone Wrestling and Insanity Pro Wrestling, and became a huge name on the circuit with the likes of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Ring of Honour.

By 2012, sports entertainment juggernaut WWE came calling as the brawler was sent to the NXT developmental brand and given the hacker character Solomon Crowe – and it’s fair to say the experience was a steep learning curve.

"I don't hate on my time there, I just wasn't who I am today," Sami candidly admits. "For lack of a better term, I became a b***h. I walked on eggshells, I became someone I wasn't. I will never allow that to happen again."

An eventual return isn't off the table, but for now Sami is focused on his IMPACT Wrestling career, where he became a focus of controversy after striking fellow professional Eddie Edwards in the face with a baseball bat, causing an injury and sparking backlash from fans.

Although there were reports that the two stars - who later turned the incident into an on-air rivalry - patched things up, Callihan hasn't addressed it publicly, and tells us how he wants the fans to hate him.

"I want people to truly believe that I might attack a fan in the crowd because I might actually do that," he says. "You don't know what I'm gonna do. I might attack a fan, I might superkick a child.

"I might attack someone with a baseball bat. You really don't know what Sami Xallihan is going to do at any time, and I think that's what draws people to watch me."

(Image: Oli Sandler/Ringside Perspective)

The man's confidence shines through, although in a very honest and telling moment he concedes that such an outlook can be tough on him personally, even with such thick skin.

"It is, but I've started having fun with it at this point. At this point, I like pissing people off, I like getting under people's skin," he adds, before a slating of many of the industry’s top heels (wrestling slang for ‘bad guys’).

“People are more worried about selling merchandise, more worried about not offending somebody that they neuter themselves and give away their magic trick of professional wrestling to anyone that wants to hear about it.”

(Image: Andrea Kellaway)

Interestingly, Sami draws a fascinating parallel between the worlds of wrestling and magic, and makes a point about the way the former seems to be the only form of entertainment that’s treated simultaneously as real and fake, with fans desperate to pull back the curtain to discover the hidden secrets.

He explains: “I don't wanna give away my magic trick. I don't go to a David Copperfield show, and say 'You know what? How in the hell did you make the Statue of Liberty disappear? Tell me!' And then he says 'No I'm not gonna tell you', 'well you're a d***head! How dare you not tell me how you did your trick?!'

“Professional wrestling is the only thing in the world that's like that. If I don't apologise for hitting Eddie Edwards in the face with a baseball bat, I'm a d**k because I want to keep some sort of mystique to my character.”

It’s certainly working out for the star, who is a driving force between IMPACT Wrestling’s resurgence – which saw Sami battle the UK’s own Jimmy Havoc in a brutal ‘Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Death Match’ at the company’s live show at Wrestling MediaCon, which was broadcast around the world on Twitch.

(Image: Oli Sandler/Ringside Perspective)

Now, he is focused on becoming the best he can be, and becoming synonymous with the company’s continued rise from the ashes following a number of false starts and near-calls, with naysayers being proven wrong years after it was written off time and time again.

“IMPACT Wrestling, when it was still TNA, was on the verge of dying. Everyone knows that, and it put a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.

"But over the past year with the right management, the right people in positions of power, it's really changed and started growing. The fans have started getting behind it, and people are starting to believe in this becoming a revolution of its own,” he explains, before opening up with his trademark confidence and bravado.

“I want to become the face of IMPACT Wrestling. I want to become the guy that helps bring that company to a new height that it hasn't been in years.”

You’d be a fool to bet against him.

The IMPACT show at Wrestling MediaCon will air in full on Fight Network UK (Sky Channel 455) at 9pm on Thursday, September 13.