On Wednesday night’s NXT, following a match between Matt Riddle and Roderick Strong, Malcolm Bivens (formerly Stokely Hathaway) returned to NXT with new clients. Formerly managing Babatunde and then briefly Bronson Reed (formerly Jonah Rock), Bivens appeared on NXT to taunt Riddle, whose partner Pete Dunne was stuck overseas. That meant that Riddle, one half of the NXT tag champs, had no backup, allowing Bivens to introduce the duo of Rinku Singh and Saurav Gurjar, who proceeded to assault the champ.
Assaulting Riddle was a great way for these new debuting talents to kick off their NXT careers, and with Bivens shooting his shot, immediately targeting the tag champs, it may not be long until Singh and Gurjar are firmly in that title picture.
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON HERE?!#WWENXT @SuperKingofBros pic.twitter.com/F1lVgWtxMA
— WWE (@WWE) March 26, 2020
Signed to the WWE in January 2018, the 35-year-old Saurav Gurjar is a professional wrestler and actor, best known for his role in the TV show, Mahabharat. A former medalist in kickboxing, Gurjar began his wrestling career taking part in TNA‘s India project, Ring Ka King, in 2011 where he was part of Jeff Jarrett‘s heel stable RDX alongside Abyss, Scott Steiner, Sir Brutus Magnus (Nick Aldis) and Sonjay Dutt. Gurjar debuted for NXT on the live event circuit alongside Singh, in September 2018, initially managed by Robert Strauss. His first televised appearance came in the Worlds Collide men’s battle royal in April 2019.
Also signed as part of that January Performance Center class, you may know the name Rinku Singh from something outside of professional wrestling as he began his sports career as a cricket player. The subject of the Jon Hamm-led Million Dollar Arm film, the 31-year-old Singh won the “Million Dollar Arm” pitching contest in 2008, earning him $100,000 and a chance to train in the U.S. Both Singh and runner-up Dinesh Patel were signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates of MLB and spent several years in their minor league system. Singh became the first Indian to play professional baseball as well as the first to win a game. While he never pitched in a major league game, Singh remained with the Pirates minor leagues until 2015. With no real prior wrestling experience, WWE signed Singh to a contract and he began reporting to the PC in January 2018, making his NXT live event debut in May 2018. His televised debut also came in the April Worlds Collide battle royal.
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