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Jinder Mahal reveals backstage details from WWE segment with The Rock

Posted: Aug 14th 2026 By: Shounak Chakribarti

A few years ago, WWE shocked the world when it decided to have The Rock return on WWE RAW Day 1 and have a segment with Jinder Mahal.

Mahal first shocked the crowd when he ruined everyone’s surprise and returned as the former WWE Champion. However, his promo was interrupted by The Rock. The segment became extremely popular and has over 9.5M views on YouTube.

Recently addressing his segment with The Rock, Mahal opened up in his interview with Denise Salcedo and revealed a few backstage details about it.

“Awesome. That’s like a highlight of a lifetime, right? That’s one of those moments that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. But yes, I got to stand across from the ring while Rock chopped it up on the mic, but I chopped it up on the mic right back. I really felt like I held my own and I showed the WWE Universe and WWE management a different side of me, a different promo style, but unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize on it, but all good. It was a great moment.”

“I got a voice message from The Rock thanking me and he had a great time. So, yeah, all good. More people messaged me after that promo with The Rock than when I won the WWE Championship,” he added.

“Yes. Yes. Yes. I guess it was a bigger moment. More people saw it, like, ‘You’re in the ring with The Rock,’ like the most recognizable name in all of entertainment, or in anything, in the whole entire world. So yeah, it was definitely a huge moment. But yes, that was a bigger moment in terms of messages and phone calls than the WWE Championship.”

More on the Jinder Mahal-The Rock WWE RAW Day 1 segment

Further speaking about the incident, Mahal added that he had very little notice to prepare for it. “That was a high-pressure situation, like leading up to that promo, because I found out a couple days prior- not any direction of the promo or not where it’s going. I was just told, ‘Hey, you’re going to go out there, and then Rock’s going to crash.’ That’s it.

“That’s all I was told. And I got the promo the morning of from Brian Gewirtz. He wrote it. That’s when I read it. Like the kind of talking trash about the United States and the way things are here. And I thought, ‘We can’t do this on WWE TV.’”

Nevertheless, the promo between the two was extremely well-received by the audience. And while fans were initially disappointed with Mahal’s return, it was soon replaced by the joy of seeing The Rock return.

It was also the first-time The Rock returned that year, before coming back a couple of months later to begin his feud with Cody Rhodes ahead of WWE WrestleMania 40.