Satnam Singh explains why he chose AEW over WWE

Satnam Singh has an excited first week as an on-screen talent for AEW. His Dynamite debut was heavily criticized, but seemed to achieve Tony Khan’s goal of attracting a lot of international attention — especially in his home country of India. That was followed up with a perfectly acceptable appearance in an angle on Saturday’s Battle of the Belts 2 that should help him settle into his role as muscle for Ring of Honor’s top heel, Jay Lethal.

Now that he’s been through the take cycle, we can get to know the guy a little bit. This interview Singh did with Ruby Arora answers one big question fans have: why didn’t he sign with WWE? India is a key market for Vince McMahon’s company too, and the 7’ 3” NBA draft pick certainly fits the company’s talent development profile. We know they had him in Orlando back in 2017, too...

Here’s what Satnam said:

“I had given trials for WWE as well and I liked it very much as well. And I liked AEW as well. AEW is, like, brand new. It’s only been a couple of years, right? And it’s really fire. I thought that if I go to AEW, I would be the first again. First wrestler from India. I will make another history for India in AEW.

“If I go into WWE, that would be amazing but amazing, why? Because they already have Indian people over there, they have Indian wrestler. Why don’t I go start there where there are no Indian guys and create history again after reaching there? Not for me, for the Indian wrestlers. For everyone.”

WWE’s has several Indian talents on television right now (including viral sensation Veer). Singh does stand out more as AEW’s first. And despite debuting for another company, Satnam already drew a ton of comparisons to WWE’s most famous Indian wrestler. He probably would have heard those even more if he showed up on Raw or SmackDown.

Did he make the right call? Time will tell.