"Brock has some pull" - Vince McMahon allegedly delivered a Brock Lesnar message to former WWE champion
Brock Lesnar had some pull within WWE back when Vince McMahon was in charge of the company. Raj Dhesi, formerly known as Jinder Mahal, recently shared his thoughts on why his match with The Beast Incarnate at Survivor Series 2017 was scrapped.
Mahal initially challenged Lesnar in a Champion vs. Champion match for the Survivor Series. However, The Modern Day Maharaja dropped the WWE Championship to AJ Styles a few weeks before the event, leading to speculation that Brock didn't want to work with him.
In an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Mahal opened up about the scrapped match between him and Lesnar. The former WWE champion alleged that The Beast Incarnate and Paul Heyman had some influence on Vince McMahon, who went on to decide that he'd be losing the WWE Championship.
"I just think Brock has some pull, and him and Paul Heyman probably said, 'Hey, we should talk to Vince' and said, 'Book the match with AJ Styles.' ... We get to the building. Michael Hayes tells me and AJ, 'Go talk to Vince,' and send us to Vince's office. Vince tells me, 'You're dropping the championship. Now you're going to chase it.' 'AJ, you're winning it tonight. You'll work with Brock at Survivor Series.' Then me and AJ at Night of Champions, one more championship match. And that was it." [H/T: chrisvanvliet.com]
Brock Lesnar and AJ Styles had a great match at Survivor Series, with Jinder Mahal completely off the card. Mahal would get his rematch against Styles at the Clash of Champions the following month and lost.
Jinder Mahal shares more about the scrapped match with Brock Lesnar
In addition to the possibility of Brock Lesnar wanting to face AJ Styles, Jinder Mahal further explained why it was possibly the right decision to make. Mahal thought that his dynamic with Lesnar would not have worked because they were both heels.
"This is just my opinion, and obviously there's a lot of misinformation on the internet. The headline came out: 'Brock Lesnar refused to work with Jinder.' I don't think he refused. I just think it was he probably pitched for a match with AJ because, stylistically, it is a much better match. Me and Brock are both heels. Who's gonna put heat on who? It was gonna be a flat match. It would have just been him suplexing me a bunch of times," Mahal said. [H/T: chrisvanvliet.com]
Mahal never had a one-on-one match with Lesnar, although he was sent to Suplex City on the November 12, 2018, episode of WWE RAW.