WWE/GFW News: X Division Champion talks about the comparisons to Jinder Mahal's title win

What's the story?

I was part of GFW's weekly teleconference call featuring Sonjay Dutt, Low-Ki and Trevor Lee, where journalists around the world called in and discussed a variety of subjects pertaining to professional wrestling and the X Division. Nick Hausman from Wrestlezone asked Sonjay Dutt if WWE putting the belt on Jinder Mahal was a reaction to him, an Indian wrestler, wrestling in India and eventually, winning the championship in his home country.

Dutt stated that GFW's plans were in place much before WWE's were and that India had been part of GFW's vision for a while. It must be noted that while Mahal technically won the championship before Sonjay Dutt did, news of Impact Wrestling coming to India had been made public long before, and it was natural to assume that it would be Dutt's long awaited crowning moment.

In case you didn't know...

Prior to him winning the belt in India, Dutt was known as the greatest X Division competitor to have never held the championship. Impact taped four episodes in India leading up to Slammiversary, where Dutt defeated Low-Ki to win the title in front of his home audience. Around the same time, WWE made Jinder Mahal the WWE Champion too. Dutt cleared the air about the said matter, during the conference call.

The heart of the matter

Dutt mentioned how, in GFW's case, going to India and building an audience there was something that they had been doing since as far back as 2012, with 'Ring Ka King', where they plucked superstars out of obscurity, hailing from small villages, and made them into stars. About the current matter, he said the following:

'Our India plans were solidified earlier in the year. We knew we were to go to India. We knew I was Indian, so it kinda fell into place there.'

Dutt concluded by saying that the fact that they went to India, it proved to them that they were the real deal. Their objective was to prove to the middle-class economy and that professional wrestling is something Indians can spend money on as a viable form of entertainment, considering they have traditionally only spent on either movie tickets or cricket.

What's next?

Dutt is currently in a program with Trevor Lee over the X Division Championship, that the latter stole from him. The coming weeks should be very interesting indeed.

Author's take

While Dutt never said it out loud, what he meant to say was that while India is a market that has been part of WWE's focus in recent times, it has been a part of GFW's vision for a very long time indeed. In my opinion, one did not copy the other, but things just fell into place at the very same time.

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