There’s a new giant in the world of professional wrestling. Satnam Singh, the 7’2″ athlete debuted on April 13 edition of USA wrestling promotion AEW Dynamite after Samoa Joe defeated Minoru Suzuki for the Ring of Honor Television Championship in the main event.
Singh was born in Baloke, in Punjab India. The 26-year-old, due to his height, was introduced to basketball at a young age and eventually enrolled in the Ludhiana Basketball Academy. In 2010, at 14, Singh was selected for a three-month scholarship at the IMG basketball academy in Florida. Five years later, Singh became an early entrant in the 2015 NBA draft. In June 2015, he was selected by the Dallas Mavericks, becoming the first Indian-born player to be drafted into the NBA. In October 2015 he was acquired by a G League team the Texas Legends, he played just 7.1 minutes per game in 27 appearances over the course of two seasons.
Speaking to ESPN in January 2018, Singh said of that period of his career: “All the time I kept asking myself just one question: why am I not being picked to play? I thought my career was over.”
Singh’s journey to the NBA was chronicled in the Netflix documentary One in a Billion, which hit the streaming service in 2017. But in November 2017, Singh returned to India, signing with the UBA Pro Basketball League. A year later, he was back in North America, signing with National Basketball League of Canada team St John’s Edge.
In 2017, Singh had a tryout at the WWE Performance Center. A video of him practising drills at the facility in Florida is still up on WWE’s YouTube channel.
Then in September 2021, AEW announced that they had signed Singh, and that he had begun training at the Nightmare Factory alongside QT Marshall.
At the time of his signing, AEW CEO Tony Khan said: “While we’ve recently secured some of the hottest free agents on the planet, I’m also deeply committed to cultivating our own homegrown stars and the next generation of extraordinary professional wrestlers.
“In addition to Satnam’s commanding 7’3″ stature, I was impressed with his high level of athleticism and charisma. He’s an exciting addition to our roster, and I’m looking forward to our fans getting to know Satnam’s personality and watching his development.”
Following his debut on the April 13 edition of AEW Dynamite, Singh appeared on Battle of the Belts II (April 15) after the conclusion of Jonathan Gresham’s ROH World Championship match with Dalton Castle.
Singh also recently discussed why he chose AEW over WWE. Speaking to Ruby Arora, Singh 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.”
Singh continued: “If I go into WWE, that would be amazing but amazing why? Because they already have Indian people over there, they have Indian wrestlers.
“Why don’t I go start where there are no Indian guys and create history again after reaching there? Not for me, for the Indian wrestlers. For everyone.”
