On today’s episode of ‘Talk is Jericho,’ WWE Superstar Jinder Mahal, who will square off against WWE Champion Randy Orton at Backlash for the World Title, was the guest, which you can listen to the entire interview at this link. Below are a few of the highlights from the podcast:
On How Positive Thinking Changed His Life:
When I came back, I didn’t come in as good shape as I am now. Maybe about two months before I came back, I had hit rock bottom; I was drinking all the time, I wasn’t watching what I was eating, I was around 260 lbs of fat and not caring. I’m sure there are some pictures out there of me on the internet. Then one day I just stopped drinking, I’m like that’s it, I’m going to get back in shape. I stopped drinking, I got the meal prep from Nutrition Solutions, so shout out to them. I just started dieting and training hard. I lost 20 lbs to 240, literally about 2 months doing this WWE called me. It was the strangest thing ever because for 2 years nobody called me and I was just pretty much doing my own thing, not really caring so it was weird. Out of nowhere, I saw a picture of myself and said, come on, this isn’t me, I’m better than this, so when I came back I was 240 and that was 2 months of dieting and all that and have been dieting ever since. I locked myself in my hotel room every night, which is a complete 180 from what I was doing before. It’s strange how that happens, overall my attitude has changed. I normally drive alone or with Gallows & Anderson. Even while I’m home alone, I’m listening to positive things from Eric ‘Hip Hop Preacher’ Thomas, positive speaking stuff, audio books to just be positive. It’s weird how it’s turned around. It’s kind of like The Secret. I haven’t read the book but I know what it is about, having positive energy around you, things start happening. I’m a firm believer in all this because who would have thought? I was in 3MB, I wasn’t really putting much effort in and it reflected on where I was. I always hear that where you are in life is the exactly where you deserve to be because wherever you are it’s based on how much effort you put in, how much you care, who you surround yourself with, positive and negative people, just the influences in your life. It’s weird because it’s the strangest thing ever; I started to think positive and positive things started happening to me.
On the Bollywood Boyz Joining Him:
I told them the same thing. I mentioned that if they are in NXT they can be a normal tag-team and something will open up in the tag-team division, so yeah, I found out the day of that I was going to team up with them. It’s good, it adds more depth to the character; if I win it’s because of them if I lose it’s because of them, so it’s a great mix. Also, going back to the whole positivity thing, I see positive things happening to me more and more, like the shape that I am in, I dieted extra-hard for WrestleMania and the way that I looked, I was like, I’m just going to keep going because I didn’t have any cheat meals heading towards WrestleMania and that motivated me, even more, to get in more shape. Another thing that I do, as of the New Year I started a day planner I write down my goals, and one of my goals was to have the best body in the WWE. I wrote down every single day I write that I am going to be Champion in WWE and if you put it out there good things happen.
On the Difficulties of Not Drinking:
It wasn’t difficult at all. I stopped cold turkey one day and that was it. I feel great and I didn’t realize this up until a month or two after I stopped drinking, but drinking made me feel terrible. I got used to feeling sick and tired, which I got sick and tired of. I feel amazing, I sleep every day and I want to wake up early. I do my cardio in the morning and I train, it’s just motivating, I see the results and see myself moving up the card and have become closer with Vince [McMahon]. In my first run, I would avoid Vince–not really avoid him because he is intimidating, but now I have a good relationship with him. He had re-written my promo after I won the match. The original promo was totally different; when I finished calling the match, Vince said that he changed my promo so I said, okay, bring it to me, and when they brought it to me I had read the American comment, I said, oh man, I liked the original promo better about how I was once peaceful but nobody was listening to me, and now that I have all of your attention, I beat the top stars of SmackDown all alone, something like that, it was like a regular promo, but the new promo was something like, you Americans, this and that, and I wasn’t sure if we should do it, but since Vince wrote it it’s okay, so after I said it, the reaction I got, I was like, oh man, Vince is a genius, he knows what is going to draw the most heat. After I had said the promo, I went and sat with Vince and we went overtime already, and he’s like, forget about the time, let them boo even more before you start saying something. While we were there, I said Vince, please, every single live event, can I please say a promo, he said, yeah sure, and went and told Michael Hayes, Jinder promo. I checked my email and noticed a script for house show promos, which I have never had before. Even then, a day later, extra notes came from Vince. I feel prepared this time for it because if it happened early in my career—Vince knows what he is doing.
On Coming Back to the WWE:
It was kind of weird. Two months of my training and dieting I got a call from TNA and there was a PPV in Orlando that Sunday and I live in Tampa, so they were like, yeah, can you come to us on Sunday we want to talk with you, talk with ‘Big’ John Gaborik. Saturday, the day before, [Mark] Carrano called me; Jinder, we want to sign you back, that was the weirdest thing. I literally sat for two years and nobody cared about me because I didn’t care, all of a sudden, when I started caring, other people started caring. I told Carrano that I had a meeting on that Sunday so let me just weigh my options first, obviously I knew I wanted to come back to WWE, but I was going to keep my word and go talk to TNA so I went and talked with them, and called Carrano back and said yes, and to send the contract over. It’s possible that they heard I was having a meeting with TNA, it was also around the time the draft was happening so they were signing some people back anyways, timing wise everything worked out. Luckily I was dieting around that time and getting back into shape because I would of looked horrible if I was my original weight when I was out of shape.
