Jinder Mahal has discussed one of the most common complaints about his WWE Championship reign.
At Backlash 2017, Mahal shockingly defeated Randy Orton to become the new WWE Champion. Not booked as a strong competitor just weeks before the match, Mahal’s victory was met with a lot of criticism from fans. With a lot of his matches having the same formula and stunting the momentum of Shinsuke Nakamura, The Modern Day Maharaja’s time as champion was not one that was well-received at the time.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Mahal was asked about the disrespect he received while champion. Mahal responded that much like 3MB, fans are more complimentary of his previous reign:
“So you know, what’s weird for a period of time there was disrespect. But now all of a sudden there’s respect, it’ weird, it’s flipped. I had the same thing with 3MB, at that time [peope said] ‘3MB sucks’, ‘what are these guys?’ ‘Release 3MB.’ But now everywhere I go, people are like 3MB was awesome, we love 3MB.”
Another criticism from fans was the belief that Mahal became champion so that WWE could increase their presence in India. Addressing this complaint, Mahal responded as follows:
“You know what it is? People think that I was just given it, I’ve heard Oh, because of India. But I was the same when I got released. And if I didn’t have that transformation and really have that mindset change and apply myself fully I wouldn’t have become WWE Champion. Yes, it’s a business but so was every other champion. WWE is a business. So I think people believe I wasn’t deserving of it, I was just given it because of, oh, we want to expand in India. But India was there while I was released when I was in 3MB, when I debuted. The market has always been big since Great Khali.”
Also in the interview, the former WWE star revealed what The Rock told him after their segment.
Jinder Mahal Reveals The Unlike Story In Becoming WWE Champion
With Mahal being tackled by Rob Gronkowski at WrestleMania, few believed that just a few months later he would be the top star in the company. Also in the interview, Jinder Mahal revealed that he was just as surprised as everyone when he got the news and elaborated on how he found out about the plans to make him champion.
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