Jinder Mahal says he was surprised by limited Indian representation in WWE

Jinder Mahal, 40, said he was surprised by the limited representation of Indian wrestlers in WWE while speaking to Denise Salcedo in a recent interview published on August 14, 2026. He added that he expected the company to have done more to capitalise on India’s enormous wrestling market.

Born Raj Dhesi, Mahal had his most prominent WWE run in 2017 when he won the WWE Championship and held the title for almost 170 days. During that period he was aligned with The Singh Brothers and later with Shanky.

On the subject of representation at WWE’s highest level, Mahal said: “Very surprised. Very surprised. But at the same time, we can’t just expect representation. We ourselves have to be at that level to compete with Roman Reigns, with Seth Rollins, with the rest of the WWE roster, with the rest of the locker room.”

He also identified infrastructure as a major barrier for Indian talent. “So there’s just no infrastructure in place properly yet. But I think in the future there definitely will be. And there’s some great young talent there,” he said in the interview.

Mahal urged fans to look beyond WWE for emerging Indian performers and pointed to talent on the independent scene. “The promotion that I wrestle for, WXM, if you guys want to look up a guy, his name is Kevin Malik. Kevin Malik, M-A-L-I-K. He’s incredible. He reminds me of kind of a Jeff Hardy type where he’s a little bit of an enigma.”

Expanding on what sets Malik apart, Mahal added: “Kind of quiet. Has a quiet charisma, but super jacked, super agile. He actually had a match with Zack Sabre Jr. It’s on YouTube. I encourage everybody to check it out. Like, India has some lit wrestlers. They just don’t have the proper platform yet,”

Mahal parted ways with WWE in 2024 and is currently active on the independent wrestling circuit.