Who is Sanga? 7ft tall Indian wrestler acting in 'Brahmastra' is taking WWE by storm

Indian wrestler Saurav Gurjar, popularly known by his ring name Sanga, is currently taking the entire WWE universe by storm with his unbeaten streak of matches in the WWE NXT 2.0 brand. During Tuesday’s episode of NXT 2.0, Sanga clashed against Xyon Quinn in a segment and ended up winning the match in 5:08 minutes, with the help of a deadly chokeslam, followed by an easy pinfall. This was Sanga’s seventh win of the year in a singles match, which includes his victory against Duke Huson, Wes Lee, and Dante Chen.

How did Sanga start his journey in pro wrestling?

Born on September 26, 1985, Sanga hails from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and is a former National Kickboxing Gold medalist. He first got noticed in the pro-wrestling scene, for his appearance at Total Nonstop Action (TNA)’s India project, Ring ka King, where he was known by the ring name Deadly Danga from 2011 to 2012. During his time at Ring Ka Kinga, Saurav performed as a member of Jeff Jarrett’s stable which also featured  Abyss, Scott Steiner, Nick Aldis, and Sonjay Dutt. 

A look at Sanga's acting career-

Moving on to 2013, Gurjar went on ply his trade as an actor and made his TV debut, playing the role of Bheem in the popular TV show 'Mahabharat'. While the show run on Star Plus from 2013 to 2014, he made his next appearance on TV, playing the role of Ravan and Vali in 'Sankatmochan Mahabali' from 2016 to 2017. The 36-year-old is now set to make his Bollywood debut with the Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt- starrer 'Brahmastra'.

Sanga's connection with Raw superstar Veer Mahaan

The wrestler went on to sign a contract with WWE in January 2018 and made his debut during a live event at Orlando, where he teamed up with fellow wrestler from India, Rinku Singh aka Veer Mahaan. He then made his maiden TV appearance while participating in the Worlds Collide men’s battle, a show which featured wrestlers from WWE’s five brands Raw, SmackDown, NXT, NXT UK and 205 Live. Later in March 2020, Sanga and Veer went on to make their NXT debut in a match against Matt Riddle.

While Rinku went on to join the main roster in 2021, alongside Jinder Mahal, Saurav’s gimmick was repackaged as the bodyguard of Grayson Waller and he received his current ring name in January 2022. Sanga and Waller teamed up for the WWE NXT tag team title in April but failed to win the match. Sanga has also defeated Wes Lee twice in June in dark matches on WWE Friday Night SmackDown.

(Image: wwe.com)