Jinder Mahal on his WWE release and why this time is different, whether Brock Lesnar refused to work with him, the Punjabi Prison match

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Jinder Mahal
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com

On his release: “It was frustrating, but that’s okay because that’s what WWE is, it’s time for the next generation. It’s time for the Bron Breakker’s and the Carmelo’s, it’s their time. I had my time and maybe my time will come back. But it’s time right now to step away and do other things and if works out in the future we come back, if not, it’s all good. There’s plenty of other things to do. Starting off the year strong with The Rock, then the title match, thank you Tony [Khan] [laughs]. Then WrestleMania week, I’m in a two segment match with Tozawa on Main Event. So obviously, there’s frustrations but it’s all good. I had many years there. I’ve done everything that I wanted to do. And yeah, it’s a young man’s game.”

On why this release is different: “This one is much different. I am a grown man now. I’ll be turning 38 the day after this interview airs. So yeah, it’s just I’m at a different point in my life. I’m at peace with it. I’ve had a great career because at that time when I got released, the best thing I had done at that point was being in 3MB. Now I’ve been a WWE Champion, I’ve been in WrestleMania, headlined PVVs. I’ve done everything. I have travelled the world, and I’m in a different place financially. So yeah, a lot has changed.”

On The Punjabi Prison: “So first off, the Punjabi prison match sucks. It’s terrible. [In what way?] It’s so hard. The inside cage is the blue old-school cage. You can hit it as hard as possible and it won’t even make a noise. It was terrible. And then just the crowd reaction, they couldn’t really see the people in the arena, there’s two cages. So when we’re on the inside, there’s two cages they couldn’t really see. And it was just painful. Kendo sticks, chair shots, everything. But then The Great Khali [appears].

“So actually funny story. So I knew Khali was going to come. Singh Bros knew, Randy knew, nobody else knew supposed to be a big secret. They have the Punjabi Prison tarped off and all the way from the roof. Kick everybody out of the bowl, no security guard, no one’s in there. But they gotta get Khali ringside to rehearse. So they like wheeled him in on basically like a buggy between crash pads, what are you guys doing? They tried their best to hide him, but everybody saw him. Khali saved my championship. I won, at the end he raised the championship like he won it. So it was good yeah, it was amazing . Actually Khali’s hand is so big like he’s patting me on the back but it feels like someone’s slapping me, he’s like yeah good job, good job, slapping my back. I’m trying to block it with my elbow. Last thing I want right now.”

On if Brock Lesnar refused to work with him: “This is just my opinion, and obviously there’s a lot of misinformation on the internet. The headline came out, ‘Brock Lesnar refused to work with Jinder.’ I don’t think he refused. I just think it was he probably pitched for a match with AJ because stylistically, it is a much better match. Me and Brock are both heels. Who’s gonna put heat on who? It was gonna be a flat match. It would have just been him suplexing me a bunch of times, maybe Singh Bros get involved. But the match he had with AJ was phenomenal, no pun intended [laughs]. So yeah, I don’t think it was that he refused to work with me.

“I just think Brock has some pull and him and Paul Heyman probably said, Hey, we should talk to Vince and said book the match with AJ Styles. Which is okay, I have to lose a championship at some point anyway, I had it for six months and I didn’t know that I was losing the championship until the day of [the show]. We were in Manchester and we had the title match. We get to the building, Michael Hayes tells me and AJ go talk to Vince, and sent us to Vince’s office. Vince tells me you’re dropping the championship, now you’re going to chase it. AJ, you’re winning it tonight, you’ll work with Brock at Survivor Series, then me and AJ at Night of Champions, one more championship match. And that was it. Yeah, I found out on the same day I’m winning it, lost it the same way, found out the same day.”