This week’s AEW Dynamite on TBS ended with the debut of former basketball player Satnam Singh, who was signed by AEW back in September. Following Samoa Joe’s ROH World Television Title win over Minoru Suzuki in the main event, Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt introduced their surprise for Joe – Singh. Joe was then destroyed by Singh and beat up by the trio before Dynamite went off the air.
Current plans call for Singh to be managed by Dutt, according to F4Wonline.com. The trio of Dutt, Lethal and Singh will be pushed as a top act in AEW.
The push and formation of the group is related to promotion of AEW in India. The debut was designed to build the AEW brand in India, and has a lot to do with the WarnerMedia/Discovery merger.
AEW has been on TV in India via the Discovery-owned channel Eurosport India, a deal AEW President Tony Khan made based on the impending merger. As a part of the first week following the Discovery merger, Khan reportedly wanted to shoot an angle that would be a big breakthrough in the India market, using someone of some renown in that country as the only Indian-born player to ever be drafted by the NBA.
While Singh never played college basketball or pro ball overseas, he was a second round draft choice of the Dallas Mavericks in 2015. He never actually made the NBA but he played in the NBA Summer League, G League, and the National Basketball League of Canada.
Singh was signed by AEW back in September in an attempt to create a star for the India market.
Stay tuned for more. Below is video of last night’s title change and debut:
