#TFGinterview: Sonjay Dutt talks his return To Impact, GFW merger, Jeff Jarrett and more

Sonjay Dutt’s return to Impact Wrestling was probably inevitable. A crucial name in the company’s rich history, Sonjay had taken a hiatus from Impact for nearly five years.

A change in management and direction of the company, however, brought Sonjay back into the mix.

Sonjay Dutt: It kind of all worked out. Timing was good. The company was in a transition phase; Jeff Jarrett was just taking back over. He and I have a very long business relationship. We have worked for over 15 years on various different projects. He called me and described me what exactly was going on with the company and the transition stage and I jumped on board, in all capacities.

Sonjay’s initial run with Impact started back in 2003: In turn, making him one of the earliest employees of the promotion. Fifteen years later, a lot has changed.

Sonjay Dutt: It’s a completely different place now. Different management, different talent and so on. Across the board, everything is flipped upside down.

Despite being a veteran in the promotion, certain things had been eluding Sonjay. And it’s one of the reasons why he decided to step back into the ring.

Sonjay Dutt: One of the main reasons why I went back into the ring was to do one thing I had never done which was to win the X-Division championship. It’s a top of the food chain for us and in the style of the wrestling, I do.  So to return there, back in Impact Wrestling, it had to be for that one reason.

In the five years that he spent away from Impact, Sonjay made waves in the independent circuit. His most memorable spell perhaps came with Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling, where he became the GFW NEX*GEN Champion. Now, Global Force Wrestling has merged with Impact and Sonjay thinks that it was bound to happen at one point or the other.  

Sonjay Dutt: It was kind of inevitable that the two kind of merged into one. I think it was something that was bound to happen to get Jeff Jarrett back in there and take over things.

And Sonjay thinks that getting Jarrett back on board was the most pivotal thing that Impact could’ve done.

Sonjay Dutt: It was very crucial. It was the most pivotal thing you could do. The track record and resume of the man speak for itself. And to have a man like that in charge, he’s got his hand in everything. He’s so knowledgeable about every factor in the industry. To have somebody at the top is extremely well for the company.

Under the leadership of Jarrett, Impact had been making major strides recently. One such development saw the promotion come to India for taping their television show, making them the first wrestling promotion to do so.

Sonjay Dutt: What we are doing is such a big step. We are coming to India to film our show. This is the first among any wrestling company in the history. We came to India not just to shoot a live event but to produce a television show and air it on a worldwide basis. That’s huge.

Talking of India, Sonjay has been one of the few flag bearers for the nation and he certainly knows what it feels like to carry the expectations of a billion people on his back.

Sonjay Dutt:  There are not a lot of wrestlers. I cannot count the amount of Indians in one hand. Not just I, all the other Indian wrestlers out there have a big job. We got a billion people on our back that want to support us and that we want to show in a positive light.

And Sonjay has no intentions of stopping anytime soon.

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