IMPACT Wrestling’s Rohit Raju recently spoke with Pro Wrestling News regarding his X-Division Championship run, his career in IMPACT, and more.
Check out some highlights below:
On what he’s learned throughout his career:
Keep hustling, man, keep hustling. I used to work all the time, like, you know, trying to balance professional wrestling in real life, just trying to be a professional wrestler. And there’s so many people that said, it’s not gonna work. It’s a pipe dream. And when people try to do this, and you know, just a lot of negativity, I knew what I wanted. I knew my potential. And when I first got the look for Ring of Honor, and they started to use me for little things here and there I was like, “Well, if they’re using me, I must be doing something right.” If they’re telling me all this good information and these are some of the best wrestlers in the world I must be doing something right. And that kind of fizzled out. And I really didn’t know where I was gonna go from there. And then I had the opportunity to move. In fact, I said, “Well, I’m definitely not going to let this down.” I kept pushing, pushing and pushing in every opportunity to have and it’s to get my foot in the door with Impact.
On his love of former cruiserweights:
One of my favorite matches of all time was Halloween Havoc 97…Mysterio versus Eddie Guerrero. When Rey came out in the Phantom gear, I think it was mask versus title. Rey broke out that springboard backflip, DDT, and he hit it flawlessly. They had a great story. It had drama, The in-ring work was phenomenal. I mean, and then it had it buid it from beginning to end, you’re on a roller coaster ride, you didn’t know what was going to happen. You didn’t know how it was going to end. But you couldn’t wait. But you also didn’t want to get off the ride.
On his run as X-Division Champion:
I think it was an eye opener for a lot of people. I was already ready to be in that position, I wanted to be in that position, I wanted that smoke, I wanted that pressure. So me being able to cut promos go out there and have these matches. That’s what I wanted. So I was in my comfort zone, I was ready to show them and everybody else that I deserve to be able to have a seat at the big table. I loved it. I thought it like I said, I thought I proved a lot of people wrong. I thought I opened a lot of eyes. I showed the world that I can be a player and I am a player at Impact Wrestling, especially on the mic. There’s not anybody… I’m gonna say.. there’s not anybody on the roster that is touching on that microphone. And I think a lot of in the world of professional wrestling, there’s not too many people that are touching me on that microphone. Does the rest of the world see that? No, I still think there’s a lot of people sleeping on me. And they’ll continuously sleep on me until there’s a huge wake up call.
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