In an interview with Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia, Jinder Mahal spoke about when he found out he was going from enhancement talent to the main event in WWE. Here are highlights:
On when he found out about his push: “WrestleMania week I saw Road Dogg at the hotel in the hallways. He said, ‘Hey Jinder, after WrestleMania, good things are going to happen to you.’ I think the plan was that they were going to elevate me a little bit. I thought, cool, I can actually be in a storyline, be in the U.S Championship, the I.C Championship. So, I got drafted to SmackDown, which was a good sign. All along, I wanted to be drafted to SmackDown. Right when I got signed I would see Road Dogg in the hallways and telling him to please draft me to SmackDown because I saw people on SmackDown getting opportunities. I love Raw. Raw has a stigma about it, but us on the blue team have a chip on their shoulder, but they say SmackDown is the land of opportunity, which it really is,” Mahal said. “I was at a live event on a Monday Night, and they announced the Six-Pack Challenge match for the Number One Contender’s Match. I also see Tweets wondering how Jinder Mahal is in the Number One Contender’s Match, he hasn’t won a match in a long time. I think Baron Corbin, or Luke Harper was going to go in with Randy Orton. I remember getting my wrists taped and I asked who was going to face Randy Orton. I think Luke Harper was in there. He said to me, ‘it’s you.’ I was taken aback. What? I’m going to work with Randy Orton [for the WWE World Championship]? Five minutes later I saw Randy, and told him that we were going to work together. So, I had to grow a lot very quickly because to be a main event WWE Superstar is an entirely different ballgame. I always see people wishing they can be in the main event. If you were given that opportunity, would you sink or swim? I had no choice but to swim. I was fortunate enough to have a great relationship with Randy Orton. I believe Randy Orton is one of the greatest of all time. He is so smooth, so flawless.”
On taking time to reflect on his accomplishments: “I know the way WWE works. Things change last minute. I didn’t want to bank on it, and B, I didn’t want it to get to my head yet. I didn’t want to get too excited because anything can change at any minute. The match happened. I won the Championship. The feeling was unreal. Just to see where I came from, where I started,” he said. “When I started wrestling I was still in high school. I would wrestle with guys that were 30 years old, we would drive like 20 hours to a show. I’m still in High School at this time. I wrestled for Stampede Wrestling with Tyson Kidd, Natalya, Viktor from Ascension. Couple of years later, Tyler Breeze started wrestling for us. I wrestled Tyler Breeze one time when there was like 20 people at the show. I’ve wrestled around five people, drove hours and hours and got paid $10. I often don’t share that side, but for years I was training, travelling, struggling. I wasn’t just made in the Developmental somewhere.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkwrOLUak88]