Rohit Raju wishes that social media wasn’t so toxic and whiny, but he appreciates the fans who pay attention to the IMPACT Wrestling product every week.
Ahead of Slammiversary this weekend, Rohit Raju sat down with Liam Alexander-Stewart of Inside The Ropes to discuss all things IMPACT Wrestling. There’s no denying that IMPACT has a loyal fanbase, but there are also wrestling fans out there who refuse to watch and hate on the product anyway. Rohit Raju believes the fans who do that believe it’s just the “cool” thing to do right now:
“I think these guys realize they actually pay attention to the product, and they’re either fans of TNA before or they get captured by our style of professional wrestling,” Rohit Raju said. “I think we have a great roster. I think more eyes should be on us, I think we’re very underrated when it comes to being a wrestling promotion.
“A lot of fans like to hate on us because it’s the cool thing to do, even though they never pay attention to our product, especially nowadays a professional wrestling fan base, just like any type of social media or fan bases, it can be very toxic. It’s very whiny at times, at least like 75% of them are never happy. So the instant they look at something like IMPACT that not everyone else likes, not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon they instantly try to crap on it.
“But our fans know because they pay attention every week and they see the talent, they see how hard we work and they see the great stuff, the content that we put on and we put on a lot of great stuff. We have a lot of great individuals on our roster and production team and management. So we know we’ve been working really hard to put out great content and I think our fans appreciate that and they stick with us and they want everybody else to realize that as well. It’s just hard. You have to have something that people latch onto and jump on that bandwagon.”
Rohit Raju admits he’s not a big fan of social media, but he knows that it’s a great way to grow your fanbase. Citing both Danhausen and “All Ego” Ethan Page as prime examples of those who have mastered the social media game, he says he knows it’s a huge asset for growing as a performer today.
“Yeah, I feel like social media…I’m not a big fan of social media,” Rohit Raju said. “I think it’s and there’s a lot of cool things and I’ve met a lot of cool people through social media. That’s one thing. I do it. I maintain it because it’s a huge tool for professional wrestling. I think it can work really well and you should know how to master if your professional wrestler nowadays you should know how to do social media in some form or fashion.
“Ethan Page and Danhausen are two guys that have mastered that and have grown their fanbase and their personas and just their business, I guess you could say, or their brand with social media. I don’t put as much work in as I should. I just man sometimes I get on Twitter and I instantly get back off because I don’t want to deal with this today.
“But I do feel like social media is a huge key to success and a huge tool for success and any type of entertainment aspect or sports and especially professional wrestling. It’s huge. If you can get the followers and the likes on that, make a name for yourself and build your brand, you’re doing the right thing and big things are going to happen for you.”
READ MORE: Rohit Raju: My X Division Title Run Proved A Lot Of People Wrong
Do you agree with Rohit Raju that it’s still the “cool” thing to hate on IMPACT Wrestling? Do you think it’s important for a wrestler to have a large presence on social media to succeed in 2021? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
