‘The Great Khali’, needs no introduction, the man has won accolades for the country in the field of wrestling and has done India proud on several occasions. But, how much do you know about Jinder Mahal? For the unaware, allow us to enlighten you. Jinder Mahal was the new number one contender for the WWE World Championship.
Though he failed to become the WWE champion, he has managed to win the six-pack challenge on SmackDown Live by defeating Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan, Mojo Rawley, Luke Harper, and Sami Zayn.
Mahal winning came as a shock to many, as the young wrestler had suddenly been catapulted from a minor WWE player who makes occasional appearances into someone who was part of the main event.
So who is Jinder Mahal, exactly, and how did he come to work for the WWE? Here’re a few things you need to know about him:
- His real name is Yuvraj Singh Dhesi and is 30-years-old, making him the youngest person who competed in the six-pack challenge.
- Jinder Mahal identifies himself as Canadian. His family migrated to Canada from India in the 1960s, and they are of Punjabi Sikh descent.
- His first storyline in the WWE was with The Great Khali, with him slapping Khali on an episode of SmackDown. A strange twist in the feud soon came when it was revealed that Mahal was married to Khali’s sister; obviously, this was not true in real life.
- While he was in the middle of his alliance with Drew McIntyre and Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal was suddenly released from his WWE contract in 2014 and was hired back in 2016.
- Jinder Mahal is not the first person in his family to become a professional wrestler. His uncle is Gadowar Singh Sahota, who wrestled under the name Gama Singh in the 1980s. Singh performed for the WWE during this time, back when the company was still called World Wrestling Federation.
