Jinder Mahal: WWE built character for India or a short-lived fairytale of Canadian Sikh wrestler?

After being portrayed as an extra for years, a comedy act whose defeats were inevitable and victories fluky, Mahal won his first championship in May.

‘Don’t hinder Jinder’ was the best the clever minds on the internet could come up with. A snarky, faux-rallying call to poke fun at Jinder Mahal’s status as a jobber (wrestling speak for a guy whose job is to lose, and make his star opponent look mightier and more invincible than he is). And then, in classic careful-what-you-wish-for fashion, he became the WWE champion.

Win-loss records are largely of academic interest — even more so in the scripted world of professional wrestling. But Mahal’s WWE run of 99 wins and 406 losses tells its own story. After being portrayed as an extra for years, a comedy act whose defeats were inevitable and victories fluky, Mahal won his first championship in May, and it was the big one. With one win, he joined the likes of Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, The Rock and Steve Austin, a narrative equivalent of Podrick Payne taking the Iron Throne or Soorma Bhopali offing Gabbar Singh.

What followed was a barrage of abuse from a rabid fanbase and criticism from the industry’s ‘insiders’, coupled with fleeting adulation from India and Canada for the Calgary-born Sikh. The meteoric rise has been termed both a billion dollar empire’s latest marketing stunt and an underdog’s tale of redemption. Perhaps the reality lies somewhere in between.

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Munraj and Mahal during their days wrestling on the independent circuit.

Mahal, then Yuvraj Singh Dhesi, was 15 when he decided to become a wrestler. Part of it was the turn of the millennium wrestling bug that bit most kids his age. Mostly it was having a wrestling star for an uncle. Gadowar Singh Sahota, better known as The Great Gama Singh (a moniker adopted from the legendary Gama pehelwan) was Calgary’s public enemy no. 1 for most of the 70s and 80s. A spectacular heel (bad guy) in Stampede Wrestling, Gadowar would rile up sold-out crowds to almost riot against him.

WATCH | Triple H does bhangra with Jinder Mahal after fight, watch video

“People used to threaten and swear at me on the street or in a store,” Gadowar, who emigrated to Canada in the early ’60s, says. “Such was the passion back then. I’d be offended if I was a guy on the street. But it was my bread and butter, and the more people hated me the bigger my paycheques were.”

Along with fellow Canadians Bad News Allen and Gerry Morrow, Gadowar trained nephew Mahal and son Munraj, who went on to form the tag team Sikh & Destroy.

“We were always together, literally all the time. Whenever a promotion came calling, we went as a tag team,” remembers Munraj. “Even when sending our applications for the WWE tryout, we used the same envelope.”

At the tryout in 2010, Mahal wooed the trainers with Punjabi promos and an ethnic garb. He was signed immediately, while Munraj, who was struggling with a leg injury, was asked to wait for a phone call.

“I waited for a couple of years but the call never came. I was so happy for my brother but I was also hurt, and upset with myself. I believe in being patient and I know my time will come,” says Munraj, who also laments the decline of one of the hottest wrestling towns.

“It’s not like back in the day when (father Gadowar) wrestled, when thousands would come to watch the shows in Calgary because they didn’t want to miss the wrestling. Now, because of the internet, you get a few hundreds at live events because they can watch any show they want. They are watching the global stars, the Jinder Mahals and the Seth Rollinses on TV but not the local guys so much.”

While Munraj continued to grind away at the indies, Mahal made it to the proverbial big leagues. He came in with a head of steam, aligning and feuding with his “brother-in-law” The Great Khali. Over the next three years, he kept sliding down the totem pole before being relegated to a comedy group called ‘3 Man Band or 3MB ‘ where he, along with two other talented performers, would spend time air-guitaring or getting beaten up. Despite the unfavourable gimmick, the group began to enjoy an ironic, cult-following. And then, in 2014, Mahal was released, along with fellow 3MB member Drew McIntyre. McIntyre too eventually returned like Mahal and is presently making waves in NXT, the kind of under-19 platform in WWE where you prove yourself though with no age-bar in place.

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Khali, who himself was saddled with a ‘Punjabi Playboy’ role for a while, gives some insight.

“Goro ne koshish toh bohot kari career kharaab karne ki,” Khali tells the Indian Express. “Jinder too was given some ridiculous characters.”

Mahal has said in interviews that he would have fired himself too. He was out of shape, drinking a lot and being complacent. Once released, he almost gave up on wrestling.

“He texted me five minutes after he was cut,” recalls Munraj. “He was unsure about carrying on. We were all so shocked but told him to carry on, for at least a couple more shows.”

After dabbling with the idea of opening a Subway franchise, Mahal decided to give it another shot. He plied his trade around the world, competing for promotions in US, Canada, Qatar, Japan, Puerto Rico and India. Khali believes the stint with his promotion Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE) helped Mahal earn a recall.

“WWE got nervous when I and Jinder were drawing crowds of 30,000-40,000 here in India, and called him back,” says Khali. “Unko laga ye do bande India me apna hi WrestleMania bana denge.”

But while he was in main events and gaining confidence, Mahal was still in exile. Two years into the run on the independent circuit, he decided to take stock. He gave up alcohol, junk food and revamped his training regimen. Two months later, WWE came calling. On a podcast, Mahal details how he believes in the power of will and positivity, how he would daily jot down “I’ll return and I’ll become a champion” in a notebook and how as soon as he started taking care of himself, he received the WWE offer out of nowhere.

He also mentions another offer on the table, from Impact Wrestling, formerly TNA. Therein lies the key.

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In March, Impact Wrestling — a promotion kept afloat in part due to the TV deal with Sony Six — announced that they will tape two shows in May, centered around their performer Mahabali Shera. Then in April, a sudden WWE creative shift saw Mahal — still a jobber used for comic relief upon his return late last year — being made into a championship challenger. He won the title ten days before Impact touched base in Mumbai.

It does seem simple math, but cousin Munraj protests when asked if Mahal’s push is due to WWE’s expansion in India.

“In my opinion, no. Jinder got the opportunity because of how he transformed his body. He has one of the best, if not the best, physiques on the roster. He looks unreal. When someone looks like that, you have to put the championship on them.”

There’s no denying the truth to that. While owner Vince McMahon’s well-documented penchant to back gigantic men for a push — like with Braun Strowman presently — persists, the proverbial ‘land of the giants’ WWE now showcases performers in all shapes and sizes, making them easier for fans to relate to and get behind. Mahal, at 6’5 and 108kg though stands out.

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But the rocket has been strapped to him because of the same reason a 23-year-old turban-wearing, Punjabi-spouting Mahal was hired; the same reason why WWE has signed seven Chinese wrestlers in a year and company’s figurehead John Cena had to learn to speak Mandarin. WWE needs indigenous talents to make inroads into the large markets, and the company has been going about it with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

In an interview, executive VP of Talent Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque said that India is “an important market” made much more accessible due to “the recent advances on the internet, the social media and mobile phones”. It’s a view echoed by CFO and Chief Strategy Officer George Barrios: “While certain superstars like John Cena are popular in India and the Middle East and Latin America and the US, there’s a certain level of ethnocentrism and when a local character is really popular, it kind of pushes up in that country maybe a little bit more.”

The company has left no stone unturned. The Indo-Canadian Gurv and Harv Sihra — wrestling since 2005 as ‘Bollywood Boyz’ — were signed, rechristened as ‘Singh Brothers’ and thrown in the mix as lackeys for Mahal. Former weightlifter Kavita Devi competed in the WWE clad in salwar-kameez and has since been signed. An online merchandise store for India and a new weekly show in Hindi were launched along with hiring a vice president and general manager for WWE India. The company sent one of its hottest acts, tag team ‘The New Day’, to make a publicised appearance during the Indian Premier League and presented winning captain Rohit Sharma a customised title belt.

There has, however, been a misreading or two regarding the flagship product WWE Network. While salivating over the 462 million internet users in the country, the company has overestimated the connection (India ranks 89th globally in average internet speed) and willingness to splurge for a streaming video on demand service. Global giant Netflix, which costs about as much as the Network, is still trying to find its feet with cheaper options such as Hotstar and Amazon Prime around. Also, Sony Ten shows all major programming live and free of cost, making the Rs 700 Network subscription strictly for the hardcore fans interested in the exhaustive archive library. And with negligible monetisation of the massive social media traction, the millions of ‘likes’ and ‘views’ from India hold little value.

Although it’s still early days, Mahal hasn’t been able to move the needle decisively. The total revenue from Asia-Pacific (mostly India) for the quarter has largely been unchanged from last year.

One could also draw conclusions from how the much-hyped tour of India transpired. For one, Mahal’s six-month long reign ended unceremoniously in November, a month out from his homecoming. He lost the title to AJ Styles, who then went on to face Brock Lesnar as a result in place of Mahal in the next pay-per-view. Internet critics put down the last-minute title change to potential fears of Mahal not being able to hold his own against Lesnar.

The tour itself was announced as a two-show event, but was reduced to Saturday’s ‘supershow’, and 48-year-old Triple H had to lace up the boots to cause some buzz. That he was pitted against one of the biggest stars of the past two decades didn’t help Mahal’s reception. A stellar designer robe and billing from Punjab notwithstanding, the applause for Mahal was regularly drowned out by the cheers for his opponent — a 14-time champion. And then, in a head-scratcher, Mahal lost.

In a moment of unintended irony, Triple H pinned Mahal in New Delhi and then told the crowd, “India is in good hands.”

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Fellow wrestlers believe whatn happened for Jinder Mahal couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Experiment or not, now would be an inopportune time for WWE to pull the plug. For one, fellow wrestlers believe it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Khali swears by Mahal’s politeness and work-ethic, even though he slips in a remark: “When people think champions, they think Undertaker, Great Khali and John Cena. Nowadays, sometimes you need to go to the internet to find out who the champion is.”

In an interview to Calgary Herald, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart—the last Calgarian to hold the title (which he lost in an unforgettable manner)—said, “There’s a long history of great professional Indian wrestlers who would be very proud of this moment—he’s going to be a huge hero in India. I know it hasn’t been an easy career for Jinder in Calgary, and he’s just one of those wrestlers who’s continually climbed the ladder. I’m a big fan of his.”

Munraj believes it’s good karma. “I have seen him pay for a random person who lost his credit card at the airport. For such a polite and soft-spoken guy, he’s doing a good job of turning it on and be a villain. Especially in America, where they’ve got some political turmoil going on.”

Some political turmoil is putting it mildly. President Donald Trump’s campaign was built around deporting undocumented immigrants and cutting legal immigration. And in front of a wrestling audience made up largely of working-class Americans, Mahal’s two most heated segments have been a Bhangra celebration and a live rendition of India’s national anthem. As a result, unlike the largely cartoonish foreign heels of his uncle’s time, Mahal—along with proud Bulgarian Rusev and rebels French-Canadian Kevin Owens and Canadian-Syrian Sami Zayn, the other top villains on the SmackDown brand—can afford to be more incisive about the intolerance. He has enough experiences to draw from.

“When we were in the ring as bad guys, occasionally someone from the crowd would say something extremely mean and racist. We had to hold our laughter and continue wrestling,” says Munraj. “The negativity doesn’t affect Jinder at all. Even comments like ‘You can’t wrestle’. Nowadays we like to go through the negative comments on social media and have a laugh.”

Gadowar talks about the ideal scenario. “In my days, it was very difficult for a minority and very easy for a white Canadian to hate an Indian wrestler. I became an instant draw as a villain. But when I used to tour places with large Indian population such as the Middle East, the West Indies, South Africa and Australia, I was the superhero for them. It was best of both worlds.”

Mahal has the potential to play that role. And while plans change at the whim of an impulsive septuagenarian up top, the company would do well to neither turn him into a caricature nor thrust him into the top spot, but allow him a chance to grow into it as a layered character. All everyone needs to do now is leave him unhindered.