Mahabali Shera isn’t dreaming about an AEW contract. In fact, he believes going there could leave him sitting on the sidelines collecting a paycheck while everyone forgets he exists.
Shera has been getting plenty of attention lately after knocking out former AEW star Jake Hager during a Power Slap appearance, but his next move apparently won’t involve following Hager’s old path to Tony Khan’s company.
Speaking with ITR Wrestling, Shera made it clear AEW doesn’t particularly appeal to him. His biggest problem is what he believes happens to wrestlers once the excitement surrounding their arrival wears off.
“It’s not like that. The thing about that place is, our audience, the feel that you get in WWE, the way India sees WWE — that feeling isn’t there in AEW. Stars go there and disappear, if you notice. They get the hype when you join, and then after a few matches, where you’re at, nobody gives a s***. And nobody even sees you. So, the matches there are very different; I don’t know how they build stories.”
Shera didn’t have to look far for an example. He specifically brought up fellow Indian wrestler Satnam Singh, questioning when fans last saw him and arguing there would be little benefit in joining AEW only to end up barely being used.
“When was the last time you saw Satnam? So they are just sitting there and getting money; there is no benefit in it.”
That’s exactly the situation Shera wants to avoid. At 35, he still wants to wrestle rather than sign somewhere simply for the security of a salary, and he believes he already knows how an AEW run would eventually play out.
“As far as AEW is concerned, I want to still wrestle, but even if I go to AEW, they will use me once, they will use me twice, thrice; after that, I’ll just be sitting, getting a salary. There is no use of that.”
There’s also a reason Shera feels so strongly about it. He believes he experienced something similar toward the end of his time with TNA.
Shera’s second TNA run ended in 2024 after his contract expired, and he said Scott D’Amore’s departure made him realize his own exit probably wasn’t far behind. Neither side ultimately made an effort to continue the relationship.
“The same thing was happening with me in TNA. I was with TNA, but when Scott D’Amore left, I figured that I would go soon. Nor did they reach out to me, nor did I reach out to them. It’s a simple thing: if they wanted to keep me, then they would have reached out to me, and if I also wanted to stay, I would have reached out. So both parties never reached out. So as my contract got done, I didn’t tell them anything, nor did they tell me anything.”
Shera clearly has no interest in repeating that experience somewhere else. AEW might offer another major platform and a paycheck, but if the tradeoff is a few appearances followed by disappearing from sight, he’d rather keep wrestling somewhere he can actually be used.
What do you make of Mahabali Shera’s criticism of AEW? Do you think he has a point about wrestlers getting initial hype before disappearing from television?
