How Jinder Mahal almost quit WWE for Subway
Wednesday 14 June 2017 08:54, UK
WWE Champion Jinder Mahal admits he almost quit pro-wrestling to open up a sandwich shop.
Despite his recent surprise success, Mahal was released by WWE in 2014 and confesses he thought about other career opportunities.
"I wasn't going to quit wrestling completely, just not pursue it as my main career. I thought about opening up a Subway franchise," the 30-year old told us ahead of Money in the Bank, live on Sky Sports Box Office at 1am on Monday.
"But I was too young, I wanted to give it one more try and make it to the top."
Mahal admits his first run in WWE was underwhelming and he eventually left after his comic character in novelty tag team 3MB started to get old.
He went back to the independent scene and ended up falling in love with sports entertainment all over again.
"I was stuck in a rut with 3MB, I'd lost my confidence and didn't have long matches. In the independents I got that confidence back, got more mature and regained my drive."
Mahal re-signed with WWE last year and appeared to be stuck on the mid-card again, with the highlight coming, again as the joke character, in a feud with New England Patriots star Rob Gronkowski at Wrestlemania in April.
The last two months, however, have seen Jinder shoot to the top, first becoming No 1 contender and then shocking fans by beating Randy Orton at Backlash to become WWE Champion.
"WWE recognises hard work but my ascension hasn't been that quick," insists Mahal.
"My challenge is to get people to see me as a star when someone is champion for the first time. It can take until the second or third reign for that, that's my biggest challenge."
Orton gets the chance, in his hometown of St Louis, to win back the title from Mahal at Money in the Bank this weekend.
"I'm definitely nervous, there's lots of pressure, I'm nervous for every match," admits Mahal.
"Randy will bring his best in his hometown, he has home field advantage but I've got to keep focused as my main goal is to retain the WWE Championship."
Mahal, who is backing Sami Zayn to win the men's Money in the Bank Ladder match, admits he would like to take on AJ Styles for the title some time in the future too.
He also insists he'd love to go toe-to-toe with RAW's Universal Champion Brock Lesnar but first he has to get past Orton and his devastating RKO.
