Jim Cornette has slammed the recent AEW debut of Satnam Singh, comparing the former basketball star to Giant Gonzalez.
On the April 13th episode of AEW Dynamite, Samoa Joe won the Ring of Honor World Television Championship from Minoru Suzuki in a breathtakingly hard-hitting main event. However, the moment that got people talking came after the match.
With Joe being taunted by Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal, the lights went out, and when they came back on, Joe was face to face with former NBA star Satnam Singh.
Singh along with Lethal and Dutt then demolished the new champion to leave him laying as the show went off the air.
The segment was met with significant criticism online, while the crowd in attendance watched on in confused silence.
Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast the Jim Cornette Experience, the legendary manager had his say on the segment. Cornette surmised that the debut didn’t work, as Singh appeared to be limited in the ring, something fans quickly picked up on.
There’s the giant in the ring, Lethal and Sonjay go in and the heels attack. Tony Schiavone of all people, they give him the duty to explain who this guy. So Tony knows him because he has been to the AEW workout sessions that we have been previously told was run by QT Marshall and Cody Rhodes, now it’s just the AEW training facility and Sonjay Dutt is doing the workouts.
He’s apparently a flunk out, we’ve got Giant Gonzalez all over again, he’s a 7 foot something who couldn’t make the basketball team. I’m sure he is a nice guy, but I don’t know if he is going to be as good as Giant Gonzalez. This attempt to get heat made Jericho’s business look good. As soon as people realised he couldn’t do anything, they started scoff booing.
They weren’t booing that Samoa Joe was getting beaten up, they were booing like ‘This sucks, what the f*ck are we doing here?’ Scoff booing. Satnam Singh’s big move was a head claw, f*cking Almost [Omos] just used this.”
Cornette continued by lambasting the idea that using Singh in such a way would help take AEW to great heights in India. The manager turned podcaster, compared the move to WWE’s use of The Great Khali.
“Now Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal are the gatekeepers to this star that Tony Khan apparently thinks will make them a big deal in India. That apparently is the story behind this, Tony Khan has said that this guy is going to be big in India, Singh, Sonjay Dutt and Jay Lethal will be their featured people in India, f*ck me. The poor Americans that are giving you your ratings and ticket money are going to have to watch this f*cking clown because you want to potentially get people in India.
I will admit they love The Great Khali in India, you’ve seen the articles, they still think the business is real and that The Great Khali was a great wrestler. But we got what we wanted, Jay Lethal is going to be pushed, but pushed with the world’s worst wrestler.”
After the segment received a great deal of criticism online, AEW President Tony Khan admitted that the debut could have been handled better.
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