Bhupinder Singh Gujjar, who has signed a contract with Impact Wrestling, is raring to go

Sheetal

Hailing from Punjab, Bhupinder Singh Gujjar is the second Indian to sign a contract with Impact Wrestling, earlier known as TNA, after Mahabali Shera. At 26, making a mark in a sport that consists of mostly western players and that too while living in a foreign country, Canada, he believes, “Once you set foot in a different country where no one knows you, loneliness strikes and you miss your family. But you got to do what drives you. I hope more professional leagues are made in India to promote wrestling, so that no Indian wrestler has to go to foreign lands.”

Tough period

The period of struggle wherein he was juggling between work, training and pursuing a degree in wrestling is over, but with the pandemic started yet another struggle. He recalls, “I still cannot forget that I had signed my contract with Impact Wrestling while sitting inside an eating joint near my house. My coach, Scott Francis D’Amore, who also happened to be executive vice-president of Impact wrestling, still jokes about that. I also played my debut match in 2018, but Covid-19 has affected travelling and hence the matches were halted. But all is not lost, and it gave me time to build on my strength and work on weaknesses. And now that we are doing promotions in different cities of Canada, I am looking forward to better times ahead.”

Humble background

A graduate from DAV College, Chandigarh, he is from Parachh village in Mohali. “It was the intensity of Brock Lesnar during a fight that inspired me to take up wrestling in the first place. Before that I used to compete in body building competitions and started winning many titles since 10th standard. In 2016, I represented Chandigarh in kickboxing at the nationals and won the gold. From there on, I enrolled in The Great Khali Academy in Jalandhar, and later moved abroad. I consider myself lucky to have found great mentors in my coaches at each step, be it Sumit Kumar, Hardeep Singh Malli and now Scott D’Amor and John E Bravo.”