Rohit Raju says he had a great experience with AEW, and he hopes to get back there.
Raju started working with IMPACT Wrestling in 2017, and he eventually became a featured member of the X-Division; he won the X-Division Championship at the Emergence event in 2020. Raju left the company in January 2022 when his contract expired, and he has since competed at multiple tapings of AEW Dark. Most recently, he wrestled at the taping in August 21.
In a new interview with Sean Ross Sapp, Raju discussed his experience with AEW. He recalled how it came about and emphasized that he enjoyed his time there. Raju stated that AEW treated him well, and he liked working with legends like Tony Schiavone.
"Dude. It was awesome. I didn’t know what would happen. I remember saying, ‘Hey, should I announce?’ You were like, ‘Dude, why didn’t you tell me?’ I was like, ‘I didn’t know. I didn’t know it would be that powerful.’ So I announced that I was a free agent. A lot of people retweeted it. You retweeted it. Next thing I know, it blew up. That night, QT hit me up and started following me. ‘Hey, you’re not with IMPACT any more?’ ‘No.’ ‘Tony wants you to come down and we want to get a look at you.’ I was like, ‘Okay. That’s cool.’ So they flew me out. They’ve always treated me great. They put me up in a hotel and one of my biggest names—I’m such a mark for old school professional wrestling—so I got to do a promo with Tony Schiavone out in the ring. For me, that was awesome. Getting his feedback was awesome because Tony, he’s been in there with the best, right? So getting that promo time with Tony and just going back and forth with him and getting his feedback, him saying, ‘Hey, you did a great job. You can really talk.’ Oh, man. That was a dream come true for me. It was great," Raju said.
Raju went on to make it clear that he wants to work with AEW again, and he noted that he's hopeful they can make it happen once AEW starts taping in Orlando again. He stated that sometimes it's important to have patience, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
"I just hope to get back in there. I haven’t been doing much with them. Hopefully when they start going back to Orlando, I’ll start going back to Orlando. I’ve put some feelers out elsewhere, so we’ll see what happens there. But it’s been great, man. It’s wrestling. You always want more. You always want to be in the spotlight. Sometimes you just have to have patience. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. You just have to keep pushing and prodding and hopefully something will happen. Hopefully something will come about for me. It will," Raju said.
As Raju noted, AEW has been taping AEW Dark after live tapings of Rampage recently, whereas it previously held sets of tapings in Orlando.
Raju previously discussed his departure from IMPACT Wrestling. Check out his comments here.
In recent weeks, Raju has competed for Glory Pro Wrestling, AAW, and Black Label Pro, among other promotions.
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