Jinder Mahal's WWE Championship reign received a mixed response from fans. At the time, it was reported that the former 3MB member had been given the title because WWE wanted to increase WWE Network subscribers in India.
The Modern Day Maharajah's stint at the top of the card wasn't particularly memorable. Even so, it still came as a surprise when he dropped the WWE Championship to AJ Styles weeks before he was set to face Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series.
At the time, the show included champion vs. champion matches from the rival brands, and the plan was for Mahal to square off with Lesnar. WWE even started promoting the bout and had the two heels clash physically, only to suddenly change direction.
Reflecting on the scrapped 2017 match, Mahal said, "Brock’s the heel. I’m a heel. I don’t know how we’re going to do this match. Is he going to turn babyface for the night? Are people going to cheer him? I don’t know who’s going to go over. We’re both champions. I don’t know."
"I lost [the] title on a European tour," he continued. "Before we went to Europe, me and AJ did a promo or something, and then they announced a title match for Manchester. I found out the day of that I’m going to be dropping the title to AJ."
"Basically, I get to TV and I see Michael Hayes, and he tells me, 'Hey, go to Vince’s office.' AJ gets summoned into Vince’s office. Me and Vince are shooting about bodybuilding, [and] AJ comes in. [Vince said], 'Okay, Jinder, you’re dropping the title. You’re now gonna chase it. AJ, you and Brock at Survivor Series.' 'Okay, thank you, boss.' That was it."
Asked if he has any bitterness about losing the title on a random international SmackDown, Mahal said, "It was great. I was a champion. I had the title for, like, six months, or something like that. It’s got to come to an end. Anyway. I wasn’t sad about it. I was actually happy."
"AJ has a really, really good match with Brock. I loved it. It was an amazing match. It was way better of a match than me and Brock would have had, given the circumstances that we were both heels," he noted. "They had an incredible match, the story of the size difference and everything. It was a fantastic, fantastic match, way better than anything I could have done."
Mahal went on to address reports that Lesnar refused to work with him. Explaining that nobody told him that was the case, he pointed out that The Beast always treated him with respect when they crossed paths ("He shows me the utmost respect always, handshake, hug, and...I don’t see him that way with everybody").
Ultimately, Mahal believes it came down to WWE knowing that Styles vs. Lesnar would be the bigger match. It was, and during his final years in WWE—which ended when he was released in 2024—Mahal never came close to holding a world championship again.
You can hear more from Mahal in the player below.