Chris Sabin, born Joshua Harter on February 4, 1982 in Michigan, started his training at NWA Great Lakes Pro Wrestling School but later went to Canada to train with Scott D'Amore and Border City Wrestling.  He debuted after four months, wrestling both in Canada and Michigan. He quickly won the X-Division title after his 2003 TNA debut, but lost it after three months to Michael Shane in the first Ultimate X match. He won the first-ever Super X Cup and won back the X-Division title in the second Ultimate X match against Shane, Low-Ki, and Christopher Daniels.  A knee injury later stripped him of the titles.

After returning from his injury, Sabin participated in the World X Cup, which his team won, and competed for the X-Division title throughout 2005. Sabin finally won back the title in 2006 after beating Alex Shelley, but lost it soon after to AJ Styles. Shortly thereafter, he became a heel and started a feud between X-Division pioneer Jerry Lynn and later Christopher Daniels, whom he beat for the X-Division title. Sabin ended up losing the title to Jay Lethal after a three-month reign.

In the Summer of 2007, Sabin teamed with Alex Shelley to form the Motor City Machineguns and began to feud with Team 3D who was trying to take out the X-Division as a whole. They defeated Team 3D, and fought perfect matches as part of Team USA/TNA in the World X Cup.

Sabin and Shelley had to face each other for the X-Division title in early 2009, of which Shelley won. They were not seen for a few weeks but began popping up and doing various funny segments that included their own commentary for matches on Impact. They won an Ultimate X match against Lethal Consequences to become the number one contenders for the TNA Tag titles, but lost the belts both times.