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WWE's Jinder Mahal took unlikely road from release to No. 1 contender

Posted: Apr 26th 2017 By: Josh Barnett

Jinder Mahal?

That’s probably what you were thinking when Mahal won a Six-Pack Challenge on Smackdown Live last week to become the No. 1 contender for the WWE championship.

That’s the same Jinder Mahal who lost to Finn Balor in minutes on RAW three weeks ago; and the same Jinder Mahal who was embarrassed again by the New England Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski during Mahal’s Smackdown debut two weeks ago. Oh, and the same Jinder Mahal who was brought back to WWE last summer to seemingly help fill out the roster after the brand extension.

Mahal is expected to face Randy Orton at Blacklash on May 13 for the championship.

“I know how hard I’ve worked and I know what I’m capable of,” Mahal said on Talking Smack. “I will prove to everybody — despite everybody hating you, nobody giving you opportunities and you earning opportunities — you rise to the occasion and become a champion here in WWE. So when I become champion it’s going to be Jinder ‘The New American Dream.'”

Using Dusty Rhodes’ moniker is probably a good way to get booed and putting a strong heel character works against Orton, but take a step back and try to separate the man from the character.

At a time when fans complain that WWE puts the same performers in top positions, Mahal is a departure, even if those same fans are still complaining.

But he also represents using a second chance to improve on a first impression.

Mahal was released with 10 other performers in June 2014 after four years with the company, including almost three years on the main roster. At the time, he said he was surprised because he felt like 3MB – a group with Mahal, Drew McIntyre and Heath Slater – had been filling the role the company had asked them to play.

Mahal began working for independent promotions, making appearances in Canada, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Japan, India and the United States. McIntyre, also released at the time, would travel around the world, becoming world champion for TNA and twice for Insane Championship Wrestling, based in the United Kingdom.

Jinder Mahal (Photo: WWE.com)

Mahal, 30, returned last summer, having to “beat” Slater in a match to earn a contract with Monday Night RAW. McIntyre, 31, a former Intercontinental champion in WWE, recently began appearing in NXT and seems poised to make a big impact.

“I don’t know (Jinder) was as fully ready for the experience (on the main roster) as I would have liked him to be,” Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE’s executive vice president of talent, live events and creative, told For The Win. “Drew and Jinder are in some ways similar — two guys who were very young and very green, but I liked them a lot when they were here.

“Jinder is a guy who has always worked extremely hard. He trains hard; he’s very intense about what he wants with his career; he’s very thoughtful. That’s the same with Drew. That opportunity came for them when you’re too young and not ready for it and a little immature to it. (When they left), I had a conversation where I told them, ‘We’re not going to be able to do more with you here. Go other places, learn more in your career, mature and think about the business in a different way.’ Sometimes you get reliant on other people telling you what to do instead of going out there and figuring it for yourself, which is what you have to do.

“To Jinder’s credit and to Drew’s credit, they left, they went and figured it for themselves, they improved. They’re both men now as opposed to kids trying to make it in the business. They see their careers differently and what they want and are still extremely hard workers and great people. Now hopefully they are in a better position to succeed.”

Mahal has completely reinvented his body to the point where he has veins popping out everywhere and improved physical conditioning has led to better work. He also has said he gave up alcohol last June to help change his body for his WWE return. And yes, he knows what you’re thinking.

“I’ve been tested multiple times since coming back, and have never once in over 6 years with WWE had any issues,” Mahal wrote on Instagram, noting that he will get a hundred steroid or wellness comments on his photos. “Follow my IG stories or my SnapChat and you can see that no one is out-training me, and no one is out-dieting me.”

In his return to WWE, Mahal has done enough to convince officials to give him a larger role. Whether it lasts will be seen in the weeks leading up to Backlash and how he performs against Orton.

“From the second he’s been back it’s been, ‘What else can I do to make this work? What else can I do to improve? What else can I do to get to the next level?’” Levesque said. “It takes time. You bring people back, you let them get their feet wet a bit, you make sure they’ve matured in the way you want them to and move from there. I think fans or people who watch we do, they think it’s a matter of, ‘This guy is there so why don’t they do something with him?’ It’s a more complex process than that and a lot goes into it.

“But I’m happy for a guy like him — whether it was because of him or whatever reason it didn’t work out on the first pass through — to be able to come back and do it again.”