5 things Jinder Mahal told us in his interview
Jinder Mahal completed one of the most shocking ascensions to stardom WWE has ever seen. After years of being a jobber, getting released, and returning to be a jobber yet again, Mahal has flipped things around dramatically.
He won a number one contender’s battle royal on SmackDown Live six weeks ago, and since then, it’s been full speed ahead for The Maharaja. No one in WWE history has ever gone from a joke to a champion so quickly. Don’t bother pinching yourselves, because this is the reality. We’re in the era of Jinder Mahal.
Interview: Jinder Mahal comments on his WWE Championship win, his journey to the top, Brock Lesnar and more
We’ll have to wait and see what lies ahead for Mahal. But right now, he and WWE fans should relish the fact that there’s a fresh new champion. Regardless of what you may think of Mahal, he’s worked extremely hard to get to this point and could actually turn out to be a pretty solid champion.
Sportskeeda had a chance to speak with Mahal both before and after his shocking championship win. He spoke about his career milestones, his rise to stardom, and his championship win among other things.
Here are the five biggest highlights of what Mahal had to say.
#5 His WWE hiatus made all the difference
As we mentioned earlier, Mahal’s first run in WWE wasn’t exactly stellar. He made it to the finals of the inaugural NXT Championship tournament against Seth Rollins, but after losing that, things went downhill fast.
Mahal was put into a bunch of meaningless feuds before joining 3MB, which essentially meant his career was given a death sentence and was released in June of 2014. But Mahal did not sulk during his time away from WWE. Rather, he took it as an opportunity to improve as an all-around performer.
“I was just floating near the mid card and the bottom of the card so it was good that I got to go away to find myself as a performer and improve upon myself, improve my body, improve my promo skills and in-ring skills,” Mahal said.
That improvement has not gone unnoticed. Clearly, Mahal has gotten better in the ring and on the mic, but perhaps the most noticeable improvement is his physique. Part of being considered a credible talent is looking like one, and Mahal certainly used his time away from WWE to get better in that aspect.
But how did he do it?