Jinder Mahal (WWE)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jinder Mahal

• Does Jinder Mahal smoke: No

• Does Jinder Mahal drink alcohol: No

• An ardent wrestling fan from a young age, Mahal began his professional wrestling career at the Martial Arts Fitness Center in Calgary, Alberta.

• At the age of 19, Mahal started wrestling as ‘Tiger Raj Singh’ at Stampede Wrestling, Canada’s premium wrestling promotion based in the city of Calgary.

• Not many people know that Mahal is the nephew of former wrestler “Gama Singh”. Originally hailing from Punjab, Gama immigrated to Canada in the early 1960’s and started training under Stu Hart, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart’s father. He even worked with the WWF as a heel (negative character) in the 1980’s. The former wrestler, owing to his heel character, had to often bear the abuse of the fans on the streets.

• He has trained under as many as 4 former wrestlers. The most notable of the lot being late Olympic bronze medalist and former wrestler Allen Coage alias Bad News Bronze. 

• Whenever WWE held selection camps in Canada, Mahal was one of those who would always turn up for an ‘audition’. In fact, in order to qualify for the future rounds of the selection process, Mahal was put in a short match against future fellow wrestler Tyler Breeze. However, due to some misunderstanding on Mahal’s part, he was rejected and Breeze was instead given a developmental contract.

• A dejected Mahal did not give up hope though and kept trying for future competitions. When The Great Khali’s contract was coming to its final stage, the WWE were desperate to hire some Indian talent who could fill up the void that would be created by Khali’s absence. As a result, when the ‘Maharaja’ attended an open tryout in Florida, he was signed right on the spot. Mahal’s fluency in the ‘Punjabi’ language also earned him some brownie points while selection.

• After getting into the American wrestling industry, the road for Mahal was not an easy one. The aspiring wrestler was often used as a jobber and a lower mid-card athlete; meaning, that he was only used as a guy who would put over other guys to portray them as strong and himself as weak. Thus, Mahal’s first 4-year stint with the company ended on a disappointing note.

• For the next 2 years, he wrestled on the independent circuit and even went to as far as Japan looking for opportunities. In 2016, he made a return to his ‘dream company’; once a jobber, Mahal rose slowly to the ranks, and even defeated veteran Randy Orton for the WWE Championship.