Jinder Mahal’s recent segment with The Rock came as a big surprise.
The Modern-Day Maharaja returned to the company in January, as the company advertised a “former WWE Champion” returning on Raw on January 1st 2024. He cut a scathing promo to the crowd, before being interrupted by none other than The Rock.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet (although filmed prior to his WWE release), the former WWE Champion spoke about his Day 1 promo segment alongside The Rock earlier this year.
“I got a text from creative, ‘Hey, you guys have nothing this week. And then actually, travel text says, Hey, you guys are not flying out. I’m in a group chat with Indus Sher and our travel department. And 20 minutes later, I get a separate text saying, ‘Actually, you are going.’ I thought it was a little weird that it was just me and not Indus Sher. But I don’t think anything of it.”
“And then like a few hours later, I saw the announcement on Twitter, former WWE Champion returns. I knew it wasn’t going to be me but I figured I’m going to be a part of it. I texted Indus Sher, Hey, are you guys going to Raw? They said no, [so] it’s just me going. So I’m like, okay, good chance I think it’s me.”
“And actually, it was Christmas week. I was with my family in Calgary. I was flying back on the 30th and when I was on my flight, I got a text from one of the writers. Hey, can you talk on the phone? I said I’m in the plane for a few more hours I’ll call you when I land. One of the writers said, Yeah, so we got you in the segment with the Rock. Yes 100%. Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. So that’s how I found out man one or two days before.”
Jinder Mahal Said The Rock Is A Class Act
Jinder Mahal continued to speak about working with The Rock. He revealed how he spoke to The Rock before the show, and that Brian Gewirtz wrote the promo he cut before being interrupted by The People’s Champ.
“Oh, it was amazing. I met him at his hotel. And Brian Gewirtz was there, wrote an awesome promo. When he sent it to me [I said] can we say this? [Brian said] Yeah. Okay, I guess with The Rock anything goes. So no he just said have fun, let’s do it. He was excited to work with me and I was obviously excited to work with him.”
“And he’s just a class act, The Rock is amazing for him to give me that moment. And especially Brian, telling me like we got time don’t rush, because I was actually kind of shortchanging myself. I was like, maybe I will walk and talk to the ring. He said no enjoy it, have a full entrance, get some heat. We were allotted 20 minutes, so it was an awesome experience.”
The Rock Left Him A Little Easter Egg In A Voice Note
Jinder was even given a hint about The Rock’s future following their promo segment together. He spoke about how he received a voice note after the show about how much The Roc enjoyed working with him. He then noted how he would be seeing Jinder a lot in the future, hinting about The Rock’s WWE future.
“Yes, he actually kind of left a little bit of an Easter egg. He sent me a voice note like, Thank you, I appreciated working with you, and I’ll be seeing a lot more of you around now that I’m doing things all across the board with WWE and it didn’t click in. After a few days later, it did. I was like, oh, that’s what he meant by doing things all across the board.”
The “across the board” line was a hint about The Rock joining the TKO board.
