Following his emphatic Main Event return from last week, Jinder Mahal made his presence felt on this week’s Monday Night Raw. The WrestleMania Backlash go-home episode saw Mahal coming to the ring with Veer (Rinku Singh) and Shanky (Dilsher Shanky) by his side.
He defeated Jeff Hardy in singles action in the scheduled match by countering a Twist of Fate attempt with his pendant Khallas move. This was Jinder Mahal’s first match on Raw since the win over Akira Tozawa on the April 27, 2020 episode. As noted above, the Indian Superstar made his return to the ring on last Thursday’s WWE Main Event episode where he also defeated Hardy in a one-on-one competition.
WWE’s plan for The Modern Day Maharaja on the red brand isn’t clear for now but in a pre-match promo by the superstar, it was noted that he’s out there to remind everybody why he is a former WWE Champion.
This week’s Raw was the first time that we’ve seen Jinder Mahal since the WWE Superstar Spectacle event that was taped in late January for the Indian audience in Florida for Independence Day occasion. The six-man main event of that event saw Drew McIntyre and Indus Sher teaming to defeat Mahal and The Bollywood Boyz.
Jinder Mahal vs Drew McIntyre feud canceled, last year
Since suffering a knee injury in May 2020, Jinder Mahal was originally back for the first time through Superstar Spectacle. This week’s Raw was also the first time since we’ve seen Singh and Shanky on TV since the Superstar Spectacle taping.
WWE reportedly had a main-event feud planned between Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal on Raw before the latter went into a hiatus as these two share a history, together. The creative team of Raw wanted the Indian Superstar to be the challenger of the-then reigning champion McIntyre, last summer. But the plan never materialized due to Mahal’s injury.
Speaking with Sports Matters TV, Drew McIntyre previously noted that we are likely to see a whole new Jinder Mahal upon return with the following statement,
“He was there the whole time, both getting fired and me trying to go out there in the independents to make my name. He went off, kind of gave up [and] stopped working out. He turned his life around, went back to the promo, and became WWE Champion before me.
It wasn’t exactly universally praised as when I won the WWE Championship, so there are so many possible layers to this story that the world has seen on television and have not seen. It could make for one of the most memorable feuds of all time. There’s so much material.” (quotes courtesy Wrestling INC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcUvQsUBf6c
