Current Champion On ‘SmackDown Live’ Planned To Open A Subway Franchise After WWE Release Three Years Ago
All superstars have their ups and downs during their careers in WWE, but there is one current champion on SmackDown Live who almost opened a fast food restaurant as recently as three years ago. Jinder Mahal is sitting on top of SmackDown Live as the WWE Champion, and he is seen as one of the top guys in the entire company. Little did he know that he’d be in this spot when the company released him from his contract three years ago.
During his time in WWE, Mahal has been in a tag team with Rusev and a member of 3 Man Band. He has been down the road of a jobber. After capturing the WWE Championship from Randy Orton, he has officially risen to the top of the ladder, but that’s not where he was a few years ago.
In June of 2014, Mahal was released by WWE, and he ended up spending more than two years wrestling on the independent circuit. It wasn’t until July of 2016 that he had been re-signed by the company, and Mahal had feuds with Jack Swagger and Darren Young before teaming up with Rusev for a few months.
Believe it or not, his super push just started after being sent to SmackDown Live during the Superstar Shake-Up in April.
As he told Mirror, though, Mahal had other plans during his time away from WWE, and they were extremely different from where he’s at now. Mirror said that Drew McIntyre, Mahal’s former partner in 3MB, said that the current champ was contemplating retiring from wrestling completely.
“Yeah ha ha, I think it got misconstrued a little bit, I wasn’t going to quit wrestling, I would never quit wrestling as long as I can wrestle, but I wasn’t going to pursue it as my main career. I was exploring other options, other businesses, I was in fact going to open up a Subway franchise, but I decided I’m too young, I’m not even in my prime yet, and if I give this my all, give it my best one more time, I could make it top the top. Which I did, I gave it my all, and now I’m WWE Champion.”
Now, Mahal didn’t deny that he almost opened up a Subway franchise restaurant, but he wouldn’t have stopped wrestling if he did.
From there, Mahal went on to talk about being in great shape and even wanting to have another run at New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. The two men tangled at WrestleMania 33 which caused Mahal to lose the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal to Mojo Rawley.
If Jinder Mahal had chosen to give up on wrestling and devote all of his time to a Subway franchise, WWE would look very different right now. As the current WWE Champion, he is involved in a major feud with Randy Orton on SmackDown Live and they will likely main event the third pay-per-view in a row next month. Mahal is living proof that if you persevere and keep working hard, you can make a lot happen for yourself.
[Featured Image by WWE]
