Chasing Glory Recap w/ Jinder Mahal – WWE Release & Subsequent Return, Earning His Own Push, When Was He Told He’d Be Champion? More!

Lillian Garcia welcomes Jinder Mahal to the show.

Mahal informs that he’s battling a cold right now, but in typical WWE fashion he’s going to push through the interview. Garcia mentions that the WWE schedule is so tough, and whether you’re sick or not the show must go on. She recalls having issues with her voice but having to push through in order to announce shows. Mahal agrees, pointing out that no matter how sick he is backstage, when the music hits adrenaline takes over and he’s ready to go.

Mahal mentions that he writes his goals down on a piece of paper every day. One of those goals is to main event WrestleMania and he’s sure that’s going to happen one day. He informs that while he was happy to be a part of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal last year, it was somewhat disappointing to not be on the main show. He really wants to be a part of the main show this year.

He notes that interacting with Rob Gronkowski was a great experience, and he hopes to have a match with Gronkowski at some point in the future. He doesn’t think he’s had a WrestleMania moment yet, and he thinks that match would check that box for him.

Mahal points out that he was fortunate to sign with WWE at a young age, because he was still only 29 when he returned to WWE a couple of years ago with all that experience already under his belt. Some people criticize him, saying he was undeserving of his recent push. He points out that he made his own push this time around after changing his mindset and devoting himself to the business. He admits to not caring at the end of his 3MB run a few years back, and that’s something he needed to change when he returned.

Mahal says he’s very lucky to work as a professional wrestler and he doesn’t consider it a job at all. He believes that you need to have a reason to work a certain job, more than just paying your bills. He points out that his goal is to prove his critics wrong, and those criticisms only drive him to achieve more.

He goes on to say that Vince McMahon is the hardest working man in the business, and that’s why he rewards people who work hard. If he notices you working hard he’ll almost certainly reward you, but if he notices that you’re not working hard that’ll probably reflect poorly on you as well.

Mahal points out that in the two years while he was released by WWE he weighed several options, but ultimately he changed his lifestyle, stopped drinking and devoted himself to the business. He made his return and within a short period of time he was told that he’d be moving up the card. He was very happy with this news, thinking that  he’d have an opportunity to have a televised storyline where he might be able to compete for a mid-card Title.

Soon he was told that he’d be working with Randy Orton and this came as a shock to him. He had to learn very quickly because working as a main-eventer is very different than any other spot on the card. After working with Orton and A.J. Styles on a live event tour for a few weeks he became more accustomed to working on top, and just hours before he was set to meet Orton at Backlash, he was told by McMahon that he’d be defeating Orton for the WWE Championship.

Mahal informs that working with A.J. Styles was a tremendous learning experience for him. While he learned a lot from Styles in the ring, he points out that Styles is also a great guy and a terrific family man. Mahal considers Styles to be the greatest traditional “white-meat” babyface on WWE’s roster today.

Mahal mentions that he was really looking forward to working with Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series last year, but that match didn’t happen. He suspected that match would be the greatest match of his career, but he hopes to have that match at some point in the future. He was told that plans had changed and he was going to drop the Title to Styles before Survivor Series, and he was perfectly okay with that. He knew that he couldn’t be Champion forever, and business is business.

That sums up today’s episode of Chasing Glory. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!