Jinder Mahal Clears Up Brock Lesnar "Refusing" To Work With Him
Jinder Mahal discusses the change in plans to his planned match with Brock Lesnar
Jul 21, 2024
In the build up to Survivor Series 2017, a champion vs. champion match between WWE Champion Jinder Mahal and Universal Champion Brock Lesnar was scheduled, announced, and actively promoted. However, mere weeks before the PPV took place, AJ Styles defeated Mahal to become the new WWE Champion and took his place in that match against Lesnar.
Over the years, rumours have emerged that Lesnar refused to work with Mahal at Survivor Series, leading to the title change. Mahal has now sought to clear up that misconception, revealing during an interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet that it wasn’t a “refusal”, but more a pitch for something different.
"Obviously there's a lot of misinformation on the internet," Mahal said. "The headline came out, 'Brock Lesnar refused to work with Jinder.' I don't think he refused. I just think it was he probably pitched for a match with AJ because stylistically, it is a much better match. Me and Brock are both heels. Who's going to put heat on who? It was going to be a flat match. It would have just been him suplexing me a bunch of times, maybe Singh Bros get involved. But the match he had with AJ was phenomenal, no pun intended. So yeah, I don't think it was that he refused to work with me. I just think Brock has some pull and him and Paul Heyman probably said, Hey, we should talk to Vince and said book the match with AJ Styles. Which is okay."
After his release from WWE this year, Mahal recently made his debut in GCW under the ring name of Raj Dhesi. He also recently revealed scrapped plans for yet another Punjabi Prison match.
H/T WrestlingInc