Bhupinder Singh Gujjar, who has signed a contract with Impact Wrestling, wants to open an academy to train young wrestlers in his native land of Punjab and prepare them for the world stage
Yathesht Pratiraj
Bhupinder Singh Gujjar, a native of Punjab, is the second Indian, after Mahabali Shera, to sign a contract with Impact Wrestling. It has been a long journey for Bhupinder in the last seven-eight years. He started out with bodybuilding and has a number titles under his belt. In 2016 he started with kickboxing, which subsequently led him to wrestling. He trained in the CWE before moving to Canada for studies, where he was trained by Scott D’Amore under the BCW (Border City Wrestling) banner.
Although he is gaining success in Impact Wrestling, Bhupinder hopes that one day India will have big wrestling organisations, so that youngsters would not aspire to go abroad to pursue their dreams. He said, “As soon as you step foot in a foreign nation, loneliness sets in and you start to yearn for your loved ones. However, you must follow your passion. I have always been a fan of wrestling and am glad that I got the opportunity to be in Canada and train under one of the best wrestling schools and coach.”
“Wrestling is something where you only get one chance to show your metal and you need to pounce on that opportunity. It is a big responsibility to represent a country like India. There is always a pressure at the back of my mind to make my country proud. And as far as preparation goes, at a higher level, an athlete needs to train multiple times a day. We focus on weight training to gain strength as well as ring training,” he added.
Going strong
Bhupinder has met and learnt from renowned names of wrestling like Tomy Dreamer. “I am grateful to have had the opportunity to meet Tomy Dreamer and to have fought against great wrestlers like Eddie Edwards and Bully Ray. Impact Wrestling has given a lot to me. They have given me a separate show to host under their banner titled Pehlwani Patakha, which showcases highlights of the week from Impact Wrestling, exclusive matches, and definitive moments from the history of the show. It streams on Eurosport India.”
Bhupinder is proud to have represented India not only in Impact Wrestling, but in Mexico in the ‘Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide’ this year. In the near future, he aims at winning the world heavyweight title in Impact Wrestling to make his country proud. But his goal is to give back to the wrestling community in India. He wants to open an academy here for youngsters to train and prepare them for the world stage.
