Mahabali Shera is back with IMPACT Wrestling and while his return was announced nearly two years ago, he had a very good reason for not appearing on television until now.
Shera recently spoke with SportsKeeda and his IMPACT return was halted due to multiple factors, including spending time with his terminally ill father, as well as travel restrictions due to COVID-19. Shera was released by WWE in 2019 and shortly after signed with IMPACT, where he spent time from 2014-2017. Shera did appear on TV during one of the company’s tapings in Mexico, aligning with the Desi Hit Squad, but quietly disappeared and hadn’t been seen until the February 3, 2021 episode of IMPACT. Aside from a few appearances in the last month for Ohio Valley Wrestling, Shera’s wrestling career was on hold, and he explained that he had no way of staying in ring shape while he was in India, but says he’s excited to be back with a fresh roster.
“I had to take a break and go to India as my father was battling cancer. Sadly, he was terminally ill. I knew that he didn’t have much time left. And then, COVID-19 happened. I didn’t know that I’d be stuck there for a year. I didn’t have access to a ring in my home city of Chandigarh,” Shera said, “but I was excited to return to IMPACT Wrestling and mix it up with all of the new faces in the company.”
One more thing fans might notice about Shera this time is he came back with a much darker and more aggressive persona, a stark contrast to the man that used to do the “Shera Shuffle.” As it turns out, Shera (real name Amanpreet Randhawa) wasn’t a big fan of that gimmick, and he wouldn’t revisit it if he got the chance at a do-over.
“Honestly, I wasn’t too big a fan of the whole Shera Shuffle gimmick. People advised me to do it, but I never wanted to go down that road. I’m glad the move went viral. People got to know about me. When they think of Shera, the Shera Shuffle comes to mind,” Shera explained, “but that’s not who I am. If I had a chance to do it again, I wouldn’t want to go down that route.”
