Join us on a journey through the highs and lows of one of WWE's most intriguing Indian figures; Jinder Mahal. In this video, we take a look into Mahal's meteoric rise in WWE, from his debut, to become a member of 3MB with Drew McIntyre, to his shocking transformation into the modern-day Maharaja. We explore how his unexpected WWE Championship win at Backlash 2017 sent shockwaves through the wrestling world and challenged conventional notions of what a champion should look like.
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00:00Jinder Mahal is gone from WWE again.
00:10It's hard to believe that his second tenure with WWE lasted twice as long as the first.
00:15Mahal was always someone who had that superstar look and that presence, but did he ever really
00:20get to connect with the fans on a grand scale that he would have hoped for, or that anyone
00:26would have hoped for?
00:27But was it really a case of Jinder's ability, or was it maybe something more of the circumstances
00:32at hand?
00:33Join us as we dive into the rise and fall of Jinder Mahal, where we focus specifically
00:38on his second tenure run with WWE, and what went right and what went wrong.
00:44This is Sportskeeda Wrestling, I'm Kevin.
00:46Let us know what you think of Jinder Mahal in the comments below.
00:49Mahal's first run with WWE was between 2010 and 2014, and he didn't really have much
00:55of a note there.
00:57He was utilized in enhancement roles from the get-go, and his best run during this time
01:01was with NXT, where he's helping them make the transition from being a game show, third
01:06brand, whatever, to a legitimate developmental show, the kind of NCAA of WWE.
01:13And you may not know this, Mahal was actually part of a big winning streak in NXT, and was
01:19a part of the finals for the first ever NXT championship title, something he lost to Seth
01:24Rollins.
01:25This was before he joined the main roster, and was a part of a low-tier comedy act, 3MB,
01:33the three-man band, along with Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre.
01:383MB was sadly the pinnacle of his first run on WWE's main roster, where he, Heath Slater,
01:44and Drew McIntyre were put in the doomed trio of just being comedic relief, who got jobbed
01:50out, mostly getting their asses kicked.
01:54There's nothing wrong with air-guitaring on the low card as a comedic role, but considering
01:59the actual potential of the group, it's safe to say that 3MB was nothing short of a creative
02:06bench role.
02:07The best thing that could have happened did in 2014, when Mahal and Drew McIntyre were
02:12released.
02:13Yes, that was the best thing, freeing them from that role and allowing them to do other
02:18things outside of WWE.
02:20Drew McIntyre went on an odyssey outside of WWE, proving himself outside of the company
02:26and coming back stronger in the process.
02:28For Jinder, it was a slightly different story.
02:31He was going on a bit of a world tour himself for two years, wrestling in his home country
02:36of Canada, then wrestling in countries like Qatar, Japan, and his ancestral home of India.
02:42He would reveal that he hit his lowest point of his life and career during this time, turning
02:48to alcohol and not being in the best of shape.
02:51He realized he needed to change things, dropping the booze and began eating clean and becoming
02:56even more focused on his gym work to get in the best shape possible.
03:01By the time he got the callback from WWE, he was ready to go.
03:04While he remained in his lower card position for a few months, he continued to improve
03:09his physique and looked like a living Greek god, chiseled and buff.
03:15During WrestleMania 33's season, he was ready for even more.
03:19He probably didn't even know it that behind the scenes, something huge was being planned
03:23for him.
03:24Vince McMahon and others in WWE decided that it was time to fully capitalize on their huge
03:29Indian market, and to do that, they needed an Indian star.
03:33Enter Jinder Mahal.
03:34He found himself in the right place at the right time, ready for the role.
03:39What would have been better is if WWE took a more patient approach and built Jinder Mahal
03:44over a year, or gave him more of an organic rise, with the audience being able to be paced
03:49into the push.
03:51But nope, there was a completely short-term slingshot approach, and he was pushed to the
03:57moon.
03:58At WrestleMania 33, Randy Orton defeated Bray Wyatt to become the WWE Champion, a decision
04:03that may have not been popular at the time.
04:05Fans weren't exactly thrilled with the match itself, and Randy Orton's WWE Championship
04:10reign in 2017 didn't exactly have the same bite that previous times with the title had
04:16for the Viper, but it turned out it was just a bit of a transitional run.
04:20Getting back to Jinder Mahal, we're not even sure how much WWE even thought about it beforehand
04:25when strapping the rocket to him.
04:27Mahal was not tearing it up in WWE at the time, the momentum simply wasn't there.
04:32He lost on the April 11th episode of Smackdown around this time, to the guy he was a runner
04:37up to at the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania.
04:41Just a week later, in a six-pack challenge also involving Mojo, Jinder Mahal became the
04:47number one contender for the WWE freaking championship.
04:52That is the definition of slingshotting your way up the card, and I guess you can do that
04:57in a six-pack challenge match, that's kind of the idea, right?
05:00Within a literal week, he went from being a guy who was at the bottom of the card, who
05:04is now going to be in the main event of a pay-per-view.
05:07But what came next may be one of the most shocking WWE title changes that no one expected.
05:14Almost everyone in the wrestling world assumed that this was going to be an easy title defense
05:19for Randy Orton, since Backlash is a show that traditionally has a newly crowned champion
05:24coming off of the WrestleMania season, riding into the Summerslam season.
05:29I was in attendance for this match live at the best wrestling arena in the world, the
05:33Allstate Arena, which has a wooden ceiling where you can truly hear all of the audience
05:39at one time when you're in the audience.
05:42And I could hear as that many people sold out at the Allstate Arena, sucked air out
05:48of their lungs when the three count hit.
05:51Yes, he actually pinned Randy Orton, with some help from his Bollywood Boy Buddies.
05:58Yes, it was a wild match, a match that exceeded all expectations, maybe the biggest match
06:03of his life, because, yes, Jinder Mahal pinned Randy Orton to become the WWE Champion.
06:10It is easily the most shocking WWE title change that we can remember.
06:16You can't deny that Jinder Mahal didn't look the part or nail the role here.
06:21With suits and a turban, he looked like royalty.
06:23The modern-day Maharaja nickname suited him, and now he had a WWE Championship to go with it.
06:30But some claim the matches he had defending the title weren't that great, the promos
06:34were just kind of mediocre, and the kind of heat he was getting wasn't the type of bad
06:39guy main event heat, it was go away kind of heat.
06:44This is highly debatable depending on who you talk to, and I know some of you are going
06:48to rush to Tiki Tappy in the comments and say he sucked.
06:52Whatever.
06:53Moving along, he got the heat, he got the reactions, WWE thought they were taking the
06:58approach they did with Bret Hart in 1997, where he was hated in the United States, maybe
07:03loved back home in Canada.
07:05In reality, Bret Hart was loved pretty much everywhere outside of the United States.
07:10Jinder Mahal was hardly even liked by Indian fans at the moment.
07:14Considering how clear it was that Jinder Mahal wasn't maybe exactly ready for this role,
07:20why exactly did WWE think young Indian fans would gravitate towards him?
07:24We're not arguing against the representation and the importance of it, it is, but representation
07:29at the highest level has to be given to people who were actually ready for it at the time.
07:36At the same time, when WWE tells you you're going to win the WWE Championship, you seize
07:40the opportunity, right?
07:42Mahal managed to keep grasp of the WWE Championship for 6 whole months, anticipating his participation
07:48in the first live events in India in years.
07:52The live event was to happen in December of 2017, but by November, they ran into a bit
07:57of a problem.
07:58It was Survivor Series season, where WWE rehashed the brand warfare concept from previous years.
08:04In this new iteration, champions would have to face each other, including the WWE Champion
08:09facing the Universal Champion.
08:11The WWE Champion was Jinder Mahal, the Universal Champion was Brock Lesnar.
08:15Now, it's rumored, and you can take it with a grain of salt, that Brock wasn't thrilled
08:19with the idea of working with Mahal at Survivor Series.
08:23We're not sure if that's the reason why WWE's title reign with Mahal came to an
08:27end abruptly, but the timing of it worked out in such a way that the phenomenal AJ Styles
08:33was the WWE Champion heading into that Survivor Series card.
08:37Styles was coming off a crazy few weeks that included him getting a chance to fly from
08:41South America to Minnesota due to the sudden change on the TLC pay-per-view card, while
08:46demon Finn Balor was set to face Bray Wyatt, an illness in the locker room forced Wyatt
08:51out, leading to WWE to put AJ Styles on an 18-hour flight back to the states.
08:57After the 18-hour flight, he lost to Balor in an excellent first-time Bullet Club All-Star
09:02matchup.
09:03But AJ Styles flying across the world put him in the good graces of WWE's higher-ups,
09:08who felt it was time for the now-former TNA World Champion to become a WWE Champion.
09:14Mahal defended the WWE title in Manchester, England in November on Smackdown against AJ
09:21Styles, who was way over with the live crowd.
09:24But in their early exchanges, this same crowd inaccurately insulted Mahal by chanting,
09:29you can't wrestle, guys, he can wrestle.
09:33Mahal utilized all of the unsavory tactics of a true villain, failing with the outside-of-the-ring
09:39aid of the Singh Brothers, but simply it was not enough to stop VP1, that is, AJ Styles,
09:45who defeated him in the 16-minute underrated TV title clash.
09:50Comments on cage match ratings describe it as Mahal's best title defense, despite him
09:56losing the title.
09:57Mahal proved even in defeat he knew his role and he was going to deliver on it.
10:02Ironically, Mahal challenged AJ Styles in a WWE title rematch at the Clash of the Champions
10:07the following month, but it turned out to be his best match by far.
10:11Mahal would not be successful in this title rematch against AJ Styles, it earned fair
10:16reviews from fans online, and maybe was a little bit better than their Smackdown match.
10:21After his time with the WWE title scene, Jinder would slide over to the picture for the United
10:26States Championship.
10:27At WrestleMania 34, he was in a stacked Fatal 4-Way US Championship match, where Randy Orton
10:34defended the title against Bobby Roode, Rusev and Mahal.
10:37At the time, Rusev was red hot during the Rusev Day times, and he was the clear sentimental
10:44favorite to win the championship.
10:46WWE around this time failed to strike while the iron was hot and gave the title to Jinder
10:51Mahal again, in another unpopular decision that got boos raining from the crowd.
10:57Remember, he's supposed to be booed, just because he's not your favorite doesn't
11:02mean he's not nailing his part.
11:04And after his run with the WWE Championship, him winning the US title didn't seem nearly
11:09as illegitimate this time around.
11:11WWE was planning to build Mahal up for a year or two before thrusting him back into the
11:16main event scene, having him run as the US Champion is a good way to do that, that makes
11:22some sense.
11:23But nope, that's not what happened.
11:25Just 8 days after winning the title at WrestleMania, Mahal moved to Raw as a part of the Superstar
11:31and immediately lost his title to Jeff Hardy.
11:34He lost a lot of momentum from this in the coming months, but he held enough credibility
11:39that he was a pay per view opponent for Roman Reigns shortly before Reigns became the Universal
11:44Champion for the first time.
11:46Post that, he returned to the stereotypical man who comes in peace role and was in a program
11:51with Alicia Fox, which turned out to be not great for any future main event push he was
11:58hoping to get.
11:59By the time 2019 rolled around, Jinder felt truly hindered.
12:03Yes, we have to say don't hinder Jinder at some point in this script.
12:06He just didn't seem as red hot as he was in 2017.
12:11The 2019 Superstar Shakeup came around and he was moved back over to Smackdown, but unfortunately
12:17suffered a knee injury that would keep him out of in-ring action for a whopping 10 months.
12:22The knee problems would continue for Mahal in 2020.
12:25A short-lived comeback ended just a month later when he was back in an operating room
12:30with lingering issues from the previous knee injury.
12:33He would be out of action for another nine months before returning to the ring for a
12:38one-off at the Superstar Spectacle event, a special show catered to WWE audiences in
12:43India.
12:44That was 20 months on the shelf, 20 months of Jinder not being an active in-ring competitor,
12:5020 months of losing momentum.
12:53Injuries happen and they can truly derail someone's career.
12:57But when he bounced back in 2021, he got to have an interesting story with someone he
13:02had some history with from 3MB, Drew McIntyre, leading to a match at Summerslam.
13:09A lot of history to play off of, but that didn't mean they got a lot of in-ring time.
13:13Just about five minutes and that's all it took for Drew McIntyre to send Jinder Mahal
13:17once again back down the card.
13:19It's hard to believe that this was once the man who was a WWE Champion.
13:24Mahal briefly returned to NXT and reunited the Indus Shir tag team before competing for
13:30the NXT Championship and falling short to Braun Breaker.
13:34NXT would actually have been a perfect place for him to reboot his career, similar to the
13:39way that Baron Corbin has done recently.
13:41But that wasn't meant to be.
13:43He was brought back to the main roster where absolutely nothing happened for him.
13:47It was a new era in WWE by this point, considering that talent and competition were flying all
13:52over the place under a new creative vision applied by Triple H, and it seemed like there
13:57was no room for Jinder Mahal.
13:59He was being lost in the very deep, talented roster of WWE.
14:04His last hurrah came in January of 2024, when he had his first confrontation with The Rock.
14:11If you get to work with The Rock in a surprise angle on TV, WWE sees something in you as
14:17a true mechanic utility performer, and Mahal has proven throughout his WWE career that
14:23he can play that role as well, before going on to challenge Seth Rollins, unfortunately
14:28not winning, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on a big main event on Monday at Raw.
14:34An underrated match, by the way.
14:35But outside of the ring, some interesting things were happening with Jinder Mahal's
14:39name being associated with some weird tribalistic dialogue on wrestling's social media.
14:46Tony Khan, the president of AEW, had an issue with wrestling fans and their reactions leading
14:51up to this world title match, and critiquing AEW and their rankings.
14:55Let us explain.
14:56In AEW, Hook, the son of Taz, who was just 28 and 1, called out the then world champion
15:02Samoa Joe for a match.
15:04There was some criticism from fans who believed that Hook wasn't in a position to be challenging
15:08for AEW's top prize yet.
15:10But don't let fans not nerd rage online about it, and don't let the president of
15:15your company not nerd rage about the nerd rage.
15:18And then there was Jinder Mahal, who had lost every single match in the past year, and was
15:21now receiving a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match on a main event television position
15:27on Monday at Raw.
15:28According to Tony Khan, the fact that there was no outrage over Mahal's title shot was
15:33a double standard, as fans simply seemed to be okay with the match in WWE.
15:37It actually led to Mahal becoming a trending topic for the first time in years, and gave
15:43him some much needed momentum going into the match.
15:46There was a lot of relevance for Mahal around this time, which is hilarious as he used this
15:51in his promo before losing to Rollins for the world title.
15:54It's also worth noting that Mahal, many times in this match with Rollins, nearly won
15:59the championship.
16:00After the entire Rollins ordeal, there was no more sustained momentum for Mahal.
16:06His final WWE in-ring appearance would be in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
16:11at the Smackdown before WrestleMania 40.
16:13News of him being released by WWE would hit social media during an episode of Smackdown
16:18a few weeks later.
16:19It's really crazy to think that 2024 started with Mahal being in the ring with Rollins
16:25and Rock, who main evented WrestleMania, and now he's out of the company shortly after
16:30WrestleMania.
16:31It was an unfortunate end to his second run, which was defined by that six month reign
16:36as WWE Champion in 2017.
16:39But was it really Jinder's fault that things didn't play out the way they did?
16:43Or was it WWE yo-yoing someone up and down the card?
16:47It's hard to blame the guy, and the competition within WWE is pretty fierce.
16:52WWE's hindering of Jinder could be broken down into two main parts.
16:57A. Not giving him the organic push, the time to be built up to become WWE Champion, and
17:03not following up on the opportunities they gave him to grow and develop even further.
17:08Even Veer and Senga got released as a part of this whole cut package.
17:13Senga said WWE wants stars like him, Veer, and Jinder to draw big ratings in India while
17:19doing absolutely nothing to push them or feature them in a way where they can draw.
17:24Now obviously this is a bittersweet perspective of someone who's no longer in the company.
17:29Even in the case of Jinder, the approach has taken on so bad that WWE pulled back on a
17:34big push into the Indian market as they may have previously planned.
17:38It's going to be interesting to see what lies ahead for Jinder Mahal and his career
17:43outside of WWE.
17:44He still has a long career in front of him, and if he stays healthy, he can become a really
17:49big star, and he doesn't need the WWE platform to do that, but he certainly is a star because
17:54he was with WWE for so long.
17:57There's a whole world waiting for the modern day Maharaja outside of WWE, and any televised
18:03wrestling company, or any wrestling company for that matter, would benefit from being
18:08blessed by his presence.
18:10Imagine the heat he would get in TNA or All Elite Wrestling.
18:14Imagine him showing up in New Japan Pro Wrestling and wrecking somebody there.
18:19There's a lot of possibilities.
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