Sonjay Dutt said he loves doing backstage work more than wrestling:
“Ever since I stopped wrestling, it was a weird transition. Okay, now I’ve stopped wrestling. I’m working backstage. Is this really what I want to do and quickly I learned ,yes. I love doing what I do backstage. I’m more fulfilled professionally working in a backstage capacity than I did going out there and wrestling.”
Sonjay described the difference between the job he did for WWE compared to AEW:
“In 2012 was when I first worked in the office at TNA and Impact Wrestling. So for 10 years now, like a lot of people, especially if you work with me in WWE, where I was just a match producer, and that is kind of what WWE is where, okay, this is your job, which was part of the reason why I wanted to kind of quit, where I was like, ‘Look, I know in my heart of hearts that I can do more than just be a match producer’, because before WWE, I was at Impact, and what you see now, I did that at Impact. I had all these experiences, and then I got to WWE and it was like, ‘Okay, you have this one segment, you’re gonna produce it, and then that’s it.’ I see all this other stuff where I feel like I can contribute and I wasn’t feeling as fulfilled there. But yes, it is so fulfilling to be a part of every little thing. At the end of the day, to me, it’s solely being able to help talent.”
On his friendship with Satnam Singh:
“I love him as a person. I love him as a professional. Me and him obviously have this bond where we’re both from the same place with the same background. We speak the same language. There’s not many of us in professional wrestling. That connection kind of brings us together right off the bat. We have this connection and he wants to excel at this. He really wants to excel at this and Lethal and I have taken a hand in cultivating his in ring stuff whenever we can. Anytime there’s tag matches with him and Lethal, he hasn’t had a singles match, so we’re getting to that point, but I think we’re getting real close. Anything we show him, anything we tell him, he soaks it up. He utilizes the stuff that we tell him to utilize, hey, do this differently. I didn’t think that would be the case. I’ve worked with other Indian giants in WWE and that was not the case at all. So you know, the experience with him, it’s cool, because I always tell people, ‘Yes, he’s seven foot four. Yes, he’s a giant or whatever we want to call somebody of that stature, and he has size 20 feet, but he’s an athlete.’ That’s the difference between him and anybody else of his size that has gotten into professional wrestling. He’s a legitimate athlete, so anything that we show him or tell him, he pulls it off. I love that and I think that he’s got such a bright future in wrestling. He’s 26.”
His thoughts on Jeff Jarrett joining AEW:
“He’s just a special dude to me. I have very few mentors in professional wrestling. He would probably be the first person I would consider a mentor of mine. I never envisioned myself in a backstage capacity in any way, shape, or form. He did, and he’s the reason that I have been where I am now. He’s the first person that called me and said, ‘Hey, do you want to sit in on the creative meetings?’ I said, ‘Okay’, and you know, it kind of blossomed from there and I started learning all the other aspects of producing television, putting it together, why things are the way they are, how we format TV, how we time TV. I learned all that stuff from Jeff. You know, like I said, he saw something in me that I didn’t really know I had in me. I think that was solely based on the fact that he knew that I had a college education. So if any young wrestlers are watching this, get an education.”
Click below to listen to the entire interview.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The Sessions with Renée Paquette with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
