2024 started well for Jinder Mahal but, shortly after WrestleMania, he was among a handful of Superstars released by WWE.
When the company was attempting to break into India, he was pushed as a top star and won the WWE Championship. After that, he was the victim of stop-and-start booking, a regular on TV for months at a time and then M.I.A. for who knows how long.
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, the Modern Day Maharajah opened up on his release and admitted it was "frustrating" for him. However, he acknowledged that "it's time for the next generation."
"I had my time and maybe my time will come back," Mahal admitted. "But it’s time right now to step away and do other things and if works out in the future we come back, if not, it’s all good. There’s plenty of other things to do. Starting off the year strong with The Rock, then the title match, thank you Tony [Khan] [laughs]. Then WrestleMania week, I’m in a two segment match with Tozawa on Main Event."
"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 being in 3MB," he continued. "Now I’ve been a WWE Champion, I’ve been in WrestleMania, headlined PVVs. I’ve done everything. I have travelled the world, and I’m in a different place financially. So yeah, a lot has changed."
Elsewhere in the interview, Mahal reflected on one of his most infamous matches: the Punjabi Prison match.
"So first off, the Punjabi prison match sucks. It’s terrible. [In what way?] It’s so hard. The inside cage is the blue old-school cage. You can hit it as hard as possible and it won’t even make a noise. It was terrible. And then just the crowd reaction, they couldn’t really see the people in the arena, there’s two cages. So when we’re on the inside, there’s two cages they couldn’t really see. And it was just painful. Kendo sticks, chair shots, everything. But then The Great Khali [appears]."
"So actually funny story. So I knew Khali was going to come. Singh Bros knew, Randy knew, nobody else knew supposed to be a big secret. They have the Punjabi Prison tarped off and all the way from the roof. Kick everybody out of the bowl, no security guard, no one’s in there. But they gotta get Khali ringside to rehearse. So they like wheeled him in on basically like a buggy between crash pads, what are you guys doing? They tried their best to hide him, but everybody saw him."
"Khali saved my championship. I won, at the end he raised the championship like he won it. So it was good yeah, it was amazing . Actually Khali’s hand is so big like he’s patting me on the back but it feels like someone’s slapping me, he’s like yeah good job, good job, slapping my back. I’m trying to block it with my elbow. Last thing I want right now."
He'd later say Roman Reigns refused to compete in a follow-up Punjabi Prison match, no great surprise given how the first effort went.
Mahal has clearly taken his release on the chin, anyway, and given what a big personality he is, we're sure the former WWE Champion will land on his feet. You can watch the full interview in the player below.