{"id":83736,"date":"2021-01-26T11:37:44","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T16:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=83736"},"modified":"2021-01-26T11:37:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T16:37:44","slug":"former-us-indie-wrestler-sareena-sandhu-shines-in-wwe-superstar-spectacular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/01\/26\/former-us-indie-wrestler-sareena-sandhu-shines-in-wwe-superstar-spectacular\/","title":{"rendered":"Former US Indie Wrestler Sareena Sandhu Shines in WWE Superstar Spectacular"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, WWE presented the WWE Superstar Spectacular, it&#8217;s first true major production designed for their fans in India, a territory that WWE <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/12\/02\/triple-h-the-plans-for-nxt-global-localization\/\" target=\"_self\">has long sought to set up an NXT brand in.\u00a0<\/a> The event featured many names who have been through WWE&#8217;s NXT system, including <strong>Jeet Rama<\/strong> (debuted in NXT in 2015) and the tag team <strong>Indus Sher (Rinku &amp; Saurav)<\/strong>, as well as WWE Superstars with Indian heritage, such as former WWE Champion <strong>Jinder Mahal<\/strong> and <strong>The Bollywood Boyz (Sunil &amp; Samir Singh)<\/strong>. But they also featured some new faces for the WWE Universe, such as giants <strong>Giant Zanjeer<\/strong> and <strong>Dilsher Shanky<\/strong>, as well as high flyer <strong>Guru Raaj<\/strong>. But in women&#8217;s action, it was\u00a0<strong>Sareena Sandhu<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>who represented India on the card, teaming with\u00a0<strong>Charlotte Flair\u00a0<\/strong>against WWE Superstars\u00a0<strong>Sasha Banks\u00a0<\/strong>&amp;\u00a0<strong>Natalya<\/strong>. But unlike the other new Indian recruits, Sareena is actually a product of the US indie circuit, and has been for several years.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What a win for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MsCharlotteWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MsCharlotteWWE<\/a> and Sareena Sandhu! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WWESuperstarSpectacle?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WWESuperstarSpectacle<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Gn7BSkiKHy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Gn7BSkiKHy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1354098715225698305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 26, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Hailing from San Pablo, California, in 2020 she became the first Indian-American woman to sign with the WWE, but she had made her pro wrestling debut five years earlier in the vibrant West Coast indie scene, debuting in the summer of 2015 with California&#8217;s <strong>Big Time Wrestling (BTW)<\/strong> as <strong>Samara<\/strong>. Over the next year, she would work around California, competing for the likes of <strong>East Bay Pro Wrestling<\/strong> (the same promotion that produced GCW&#8217;s newest star, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2020\/11\/11\/indie-watch-juicy-finau\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Juicy Finau<\/strong><\/a>), <strong>Gold Rush Pro, Vendetta Pro<\/strong>, and <strong>FIST Combat<\/strong> to name a few.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Thunder Rosa &amp; Samara vs. Kikyo &amp; Shotzi Blackheart | Phoenix Pro Wrestling | 3\/18\/16 [Match 4]\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TIjxNOoeC2I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>By 2017, she expanded deeper, working with <strong>Hoodslam<\/strong> and <strong>California Lucha Libre<\/strong>, and that November made her <strong>SHIMMER<\/strong> debut, in a dark match at <em><strong>SHIMMER 96<\/strong><\/em>, after also debuting with <strong>RISE Wrestling<\/strong> earlier that year (where she faced IMPACT&#8217;s <strong>Rosemary<\/strong>). She started 2018 with a tour of Japan in February with <strong>DDT Pro<\/strong> and <strong>Tokyo Joshi Pro<\/strong>, highlighted with a match against\u00a0<em>joshi\u00a0<\/em>star <strong>Yuka Sakazaki<\/strong> (who has since become one of the popular\u00a0<em>joshi\u00a0<\/em>talents appearing with AEW). Upon returning from Japan, she made her debut for <strong>IMPACT Wrestling<\/strong> at the IMPACT\/BTW special <em><strong>One Night Only: Cali Combat<\/strong><\/em>, where she had an IMPACT Knockouts Championship match against then-KO champion <strong>Allie<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rosemary vs. Samara Women&#039;s Wrestling from RISE 2 - ASCENT\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AYOSxmFvqGE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That spring, she made her debut for <strong>Beyond Wrestling<\/strong> and their sister company, <strong>Women&#8217;s Wrestling Revolution (WWR)<\/strong>, where she became a regular, where she faced Ashley Vox in singles action, as well as part of the intergender tag team <strong>Punjabi Pride<\/strong> with <strong>Robo The Punjabi Lion.\u00a0<\/strong>She continued to work the West Coast as well, including <strong>All Pro Wrestling (APW)<\/strong>, where she feuded with current NXT Superstar <strong>Shotzi Blackheart<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"[Free Match] Samara (Sareena Sandhu) w\/ Robo vs. Oceanea (Ashley Vox) | Women&#039;s Wrestling Revolution\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kO4hf5hweT8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>With California going into lockdown, her 2020 was shutdown &#8211; until she signed with WWE late in the year. On Tuesday, she made her official WWE debut, rebranded as Sareena Sandhu, and got to share the ring with some of WWE&#8217;s biggest women&#8217;s Superstars, hopefully, a sign that WWE sees a big and bright future for her, not just as an ambassador for WWE India, but for the global brand itself. Best of luck to Sareena Sandhu going forward!<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">To enter the ring with Superstars like <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MsCharlotteWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MsCharlotteWWE<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/itsBayleyWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@itsBayleyWWE<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NatbyNature?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@NatbyNature<\/a> is an intimidating but there is no doubt Sareena Sandhu is part of the future of this ground-breaking women\u2019s division! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WWESuperstarSpectacle?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WWESuperstarSpectacle<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWEIndia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@WWEIndia<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3PcVi5a2lV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/3PcVi5a2lV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Triple H (@TripleH) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TripleH\/status\/1354095870338342912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 26, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.\u00a0WWE fan? You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE Network<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Looking to talk wrestling, pro football, or any number of sports? Head on over to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/boards\/index.php\" target=\"_self\">LWOS Boards<\/a>\u00a0to engage in conversation with fellow fans!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, WWE presented the WWE Superstar Spectacular, it&#8217;s first true major production designed for their fans in India, a territory that WWE has long sought to set up an NXT brand in.\u00a0 The event featured many names who have been through WWE&#8217;s NXT system, including Jeet Rama (debuted in NXT in 2015) and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":83746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[7341,7340,7334],"class_list":["post-83736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-wwe-universe","tag-samara","tag-sareena-sandhu","tag-wwe-superstar-spectacle"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}