A candid chat with Mahal.
After an eight-year run with WWE, Raj Dhesi a.k.a. Jinder Mahal is now a free agent. He’s back on the independent scene and has multiple in-ring dates and signings lined up.
One of Dhesi’s appearances came in the form of a sit-down interview with Chris Van Vliet. Along the way, he opened up about the racially insensitive promo he cut in 2017 during his program with Shinsuke Nakamura. He made fun of how Nakamura talked, stating that, ‘You always rook the same’ and referred to him as ‘Mr. Miyagi.’
Later on, WWE would issue a statement to The Washington Post in response to the backlash that the segment was receiving. Dhesi stated that he did not want to repeat the verbiage that was given to him but Vince McMahon was of the mindset that it’s just entertainment. When he got backstage, the social media team informed him about the negative reaction and McMahon wanted him to issue a statement via Twitter. McMahon ended up changing his mind about Dhesi doing that.
There was one promo in particular and recently, I actually just seen Shelton Benjamin tweet that if he could take back one thing in his career, it was a promo with Yoshitatsu. Same thing, kind of like a racial promo. So that day, I had the promo, I got the script from the writer, ‘This is from Vince. He wants you to say this.’ I was like, ‘Aw man, I don’t want to say this. Is there anything else we can do?’ He said, ‘No, it’s come from Vince.’ So I even asked Vince (McMahon), ‘Vince, this is gonna get negative backlash.’ He said, ‘No, no, no, no, don’t worry, who cares? It’s not you. It’s a character, just entertainment.’ So, did the promo, was not happy with it and not proud of myself for doing it. Really wish that I could take that moment back, but, unfortunately I can’t and right when we came back, it got a lot of negative backlash. I remember coming back from Gorilla — I was still hanging out by Gorilla and one of the social media managers came up to me and said, ‘Hey, this is getting a lot of bad P.R. and Vince wants for you to tweet something, like a statement.’ I said, ‘Okay, cool’ and he came up with something, maybe the P.R. team wrote it, someone. He came up with a statement and as we were about to tweet it, he said, ‘Actually, Vince changed his mind. He said no.’ So it was just one of those things where… it is what it is. Not proud of doing it. But on the plus side, I don’t think something like that, a promo like that will ever happen again in WWE. Things change, the regime changed, everything is much, much different now. That was a different era, a different time. Under Vince, his style was different and sometimes he was stuck in his ways.
You separate the performer from the on-screen character (in movies or similar forms of entertainment) but for some reason in wrestling, in WWE, it doesn’t happen.
And that’s the explanation that was given to me and I guess I was like, ‘Alright, fine. Okay, we’ll do it…’ I had asked, ‘Can we do something else? Is there anything else we can do?’ I was told, ‘No. This is what Vince wrote’ and you can either do it or you take your ball and go home.
There was a moment this past January that Dhesi recounted. It had to do with him not being in the 2024 men’s Royal Rumble. He asked a producer about not being in the match and jokingly told said producer to remember ‘diversity.’ That individual told Dhesi that someone was placed in one of the Rumble matches for that exact reason.
No, there wasn’t (any talks about me being in 2024 men’s Royal Rumble). I was asking and again, this was two weeks after the Seth Rollins match. A week out, I asked one of the producers who I’m friends with who was doing the Royal Rumble, I said, ‘Hey, am I in the Royal Rumble?’ He’s like, ‘I’m trying to get you in. Your name’s been brought up but as of right now, you’re not in it’ and I actually jokingly said, ‘Hey, diversity’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, actually, someone did get in because of that.’ I was like, ‘What? I don’t count?…’ And day of Rumble, I brought my gear, I was ready to be in the Rumble and the list came out and it wasn’t in it.
Circling around to him no longer being with WWE after eight years, Raj said the following:
It feels great (to be a free agent). I always have a positive outlook on things, on life. I know the future’s bright. I get to explore other avenues, business ideas that I have, other stuff outside of wrestling we can touch on later. But yeah, I’m excited, and obviously wrestling, the independent scene is amazing right now. I got some bookings coming out, my calendar is getting full. So yeah, it’s awesome. I had a great time in WWE, I had a great run and I was always smart with my money, I always invested it so now I have the luxury of doing whatever I want.
He spoke further on the matter. Dhesi remembers Veer from Indus Sher requesting to go to India because it was the one-year anniversary of his father’s passing but was told by Talent Relations that he was needed for Raw. Sanga was told he was needed as well but come show time, they were not used.
Dhesi told Talent Relations that if nothing is in the works, they can discuss going their separate ways. He clarified that Indus Sher did not ask for their releases. Raj confirmed that in 2019, he signed a five-year deal with WWE and prior to his release, all that was left on said deal was the 18 months that were added on due to injury. When he agreed to the new deal in 2019, he had it in his mind that he needed to move on after the contract was up.
There’s no hostility, there’s no negative feelings at all with WWE. Very grateful for them for all the years and the platform they provided me so yeah, it’s amazing.
So actually, during WrestleMania week, myself and Indus Sher, we talked to T.R. (Talent Relations). They were wanting to go back to India. A few months prior, Veer had a religious event that he holds. It was the one-year anniversary of his father’s death. He got told that, no, we were needed for Raw. He can’t go back home. Sanga is also from India. He wants to go back home and we were told no — they were told no. We’re needed on Raw and sure enough, that week, we weren’t booked. We were just sitting at home so they were quite frustrated and also myself, started off the year with The Rock, had the WWE Championship match. Then one week later, I’m not in the Royal Rumble. Which was — I thought it was very weird so, we talked to T.R., we just said, ‘Hey, listen, like, if there’s nothing for us, we can go our separate ways’ and sure enough, a few months later, we went our separate ways… We didn’t ask (for our releases). We were just kind of like, ‘If there’s no plans then, we can discuss going our separate ways.’ So actually, my contract, I signed for five years in 2019 in April. But they had added on 18 months for injury time and that was what was remaining on my contract. Whatever I had signed for the five years and when I signed for that five years, I had already kind of told myself, after these five years, I do these five years and I gotta go do something else now.
It was Dhesi’s second time being let go from the company. He touched on the differences between the 2024 and 2014 releases.
This one is much different (Mahal compared 2024 & 2014 WWE releases). 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 be in 3MB. Now, I’ve been a WWE Champion, I’ve been in WrestleMania, headlined PPVs, I’ve done everything. I’ve traveled the world and I’m in a different place financially. So yeah, a lot has changed, right?
The former WWE Champion has not wrestled since April. He’ll be in action on July 26th at Black Label Pro’s ‘Old Habits Die Screaming’ show. He’ll be taking on Dominic Garrini.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
