Sonjay Dutt Debating His Future
The former X-Division Champion has gotten comfortable in the commentary booth.
It has been 12 weeks since Sonjay Dutt’s surgery to repair his torn Achilles, the longest amount of time he has been away from the ring since entering the business 18 years ago.
But during those three months, he has never been busier. Dutt currently serves as IMPACT’s Creative Director behind the scenes, playing a pivotal role in the new direction of the company and its recent ratings growth. In February, he replaced Jeremy Borash in the commentary booth, becoming a color commentator for the first time. And this past Monday, he and broadcast colleague Josh Matthews conducted a pilot episode for a podcast covering the recent happenings in Impact Wrestling.
“I do miss wrestling, but there is a lot on my plate right now,” Dutt said during this week’s Impact Wrestling teleconference. “We’re rebuilding and growing. There are not a lot of us that are doing all this stuff. It comes with the territory. We’re a very tight knit group. We all have a certain goal in mind and we’re doing everything we can to achieve that.”
When the “Original Playa from the Himalaya” returned to the company last April, his number-one goal was to win the X-Division Championship, a feat he accomplished in front of his parents’ home country of India last summer. The veteran would hold the title for over 80 days, eventually succumbing to Trevor Lee in a Falls Count Anywhere match.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH0ky_NwOxY
Having spent half his life inside the squared circle and having finally won gold in the promotion that put him on the map, Dutt has spent the recovery process reflecting on his career. More specifically, how much longer he plans to compete.
“I’m not totally decided on what my future is,” Dutt said. “If this was 10 years ago, I’d be in the ring wrestling right now. But I’m much older, more mature and smarter with my body. I’m taking the appropriate time I need to rehab myself 100%. Once I’m ready to get in the ring at the level I’m comfortable with and was at prior to my injury, then I’ll take a hard look and see what I want to do.”
Perhaps his recent success in the commentary booth has changed his perspective. Admittedly unsure about stepping in for Borash, Dutt has become quite comfortable calling the action each week on Pop TV. He and Matthews have developed a fun rapport, especially after the shocking revelation that Matthews is Matt Sydal’s spiritual adviser.
“Before we started that first show, I told Josh, you lead and I’ll follow,” Dutt said. “Josh is a pro amongst pros. He is more of a pro than a lot of people I know.”
Their chemistry has strengthened to the point that they’ll possibly be working twice a week now, as they received positive feedback to the pilot episode of their podcast. If it gets the green light, Dutt said they’ll cover other wrestling news in addition to Impact, as well as topics from their personal lives. “Nothing that I’ve done in my career got me ready for the booth and what I’m doing now,” he added. “If you’ve never done it, I challenge you to do it and try to be good at it. It’s a very, very difficult job. I give props to anybody on our show, Raw, Smackdown, whatever.”
Whether the former X-Division Champion returns to the ring remains to be seen, but you can rest assure he’ll be making an impact one way or another.
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