WWE News: Current Main Event Star Had His Gimmick Completely Changed By Vince McMahon At The Last Minute


A little over one month ago, Jinder Mahal was elevated from jobber status to the No. 1 contender for Randy Orton’s WWE Championship, but he can’t take full credit. Yes, Mahal has worked hard to get where he is, and he will main event Backlash this weekend, but someone else is behind how his character has taken off. As a matter of fact, Mahal has now said that Vince McMahon actually changed his entire gimmick at the last minute.

When the Superstar Shake-Up sent Mahal from Monday Night Raw to SmackDown Live, no one really thought much of it. Fans believed he would go right back to being a jobber and it seemed that way after he lost to Mojo Rawley in his first match on Team Blue.

The next week, Mahal defeated five other superstars to become the No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship. He recently appeared on Talk Is Jericho and said that the Six-Pack Challenge was being called right up until about 90 minutes prior to it beginning.

As transcribed by Still Real to Us, Mahal said that Vince McMahon “got to the arena really late, like 6:30,” and that is when he learned of his mega-push. There was much more to come, though, and Mahal said Vince changed a lot at the very last minute.

[Image by WWE]

Mahal knew he would be winning the match, but it wasn’t until about half an hour before it started that everything was completed. The superstar was given one promo to give after he won the match, but Vince McMahon rewrote the entire thing with a “totally different” gimmick and swing.

“So when I finished calling the match, one of the writers was like ‘hey Vince changed your promo’ and I was like ‘okay, bring it to me’ so they brought it to me and I had read the America comment and all that and I was like ‘ugh I like the old promo better.’ Like it was something like, ‘I tried being peaceful but nobody was listening but now I have all you guys’ attention, I just beat five of SmackDown’s very best and I did it all alone.’ Something like that, it was just a regular heel promo but the new one was like: You Americans, this and that — I was like ugh I don’t like it, but Vince wrote it, it’s okay.”

The promo he gave after winning the Six-Pack Challenge on SmackDown Live is one that heard him refer to Americans holding people down who looked different. He really didn’t want to read the promo as it was written, but after giving it, Mahal realized that there is a reason Vince McMahon is in the position he’s in.

“But I did it and the reaction that I got I was like ‘ah man, Vince is a genius.’ He knows exactly what draws the most heat.

“It’s weird, he knows what’s going to draw the most heat. I didn’t see it at first but as soon as I heard the reaction — actually when I came back to I sat with Vince and he was like, cause we went over time already and he was like, ‘forget about the time, let them boo even more before you start talking’ so I was like, okay.”

All of a sudden, Mahal went from jobbing to Mojo Rawley to being the No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship with the Singh Brothers at his side.

[Image by WWE]

No one is going to doubt that Vince McMahon knows what he is doing, and all you have to do is look at his company to realize that. Taking Jinder Mahal and turning him into a main event talent in the course of a few weeks is what he wanted, and everyone made it happen.

Jinder Mahal has been working at being elevated in WWE for years now, and there is no doubt that he has put forth the time and effort. No matter how good someone is, though, there needs to be a little bit of luck and the right gimmick. As he prepares to face Randy Orton for the WWE Championship at Backlash on Sunday night, Mahal does have to give a lot of credit to a man who obviously knows what he is doing — Vince McMahon.

[Featured Image by WWE]

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