The Forearm That Shook the Empire

Pour me a double of the cheapest whiskey in the well and don't bother with the ice. We need to talk about Jinder Mahal's recent comments regarding the time he nearly got his walking papers for scrambling Finn Bálor's brains on live television.

During his interview with TMZ's Inside the Ring, the man now known as Raj Dhesi spilled the beans on how close he came to being thrown out of the promotion. It turns out that a single mistimed strike nearly cost him his job, just days before he was handed the keys to the kingdom.

The date was April 10, 2017. WWE was hosting the Superstar Shake-up at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. Finn Bálor was the golden boy of the moment, fresh off returning from a shoulder injury that forced him to vacate the Universal Championship the previous summer.

Bálor had abs that looked like a freshly baked pull-apart bread and the backing of every internet fan. Jinder, on the other hand, was just a guy on the roster. He was a muscle-bound heel doing jobs on Monday nights, looking like he was carved out of granite but treated like a footnote.

Then came the spot that changed everything. Bálor ran off the ropes, expecting a routine forearm smash. Jinder threw the strike, but his timing was off by a fraction of a second.

"He was coming off the ropes. I gave him a forearm, just missed timing,"
Mahal said. He noted that wrestling is a game of millimeters, and if you are off, you can end a career or break a neck.

His elbow connected directly with Bálor’s head. You could see the impact from the cheap seats.

Bálor went down like he had been shot, his face bouncing off the canvas. He got a nasty patch of mat burn across his forehead. It was a terrifying moment for a guy who had just spent eight months on the shelf.

Somehow, Bálor finished the match. He hit the Pelé kick, the Sling Blade, and climbed the turnbuckle.

He delivered the Coup de Grâce and got the pin, but everybody backstage knew something was wrong. Bálor was dazed, and the medical staff immediately went to work on him.

Jinder knew he had messed up. In the wrestling business, injuring a returning top babyface is a cardinal sin. If you cannot protect the office's favorite assets, you do not get to stay in the building.

As WrestlingNews.co reported, Jinder walked through the curtain expecting the worst. He knew he had just concussed a major star.

The Wrath of the Chairman

The Gorilla Position is usually a quiet place of business. Not that night.

Vince McMahon was waiting for Jinder, and he was not happy. The boss was absolutely livid that one of his biggest stars had been sidelined again.

McMahon looked Jinder in the eye and did not hold back.

"I felt terrible when I came into Gorilla. Vince told me himself, like, 'I should fire you,'"
Mahal recalled. It was a threat that would have broken a lot of younger talent.

Jinder was devastated. He knew his career could have ended right there. He expected to be sent home or buried at the bottom of the card for the next decade.

Instead of panicking, Jinder decided to face the music. He sought out Brian James, better known as Road Dogg, who was helping run the creative side of the show. Jinder wanted to know exactly where he stood.

He told Road Dogg that if he was in the dog house, he would learn to accept it. He said he was ready to eat whatever garbage they threw at him and learn to love it. It was a smart veteran move, showing he was willing to pay his dues.

But WWE creative is a weird machine. Sometimes, the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. While Vince was screaming in Gorilla, the writers had other plans.

From the Outhouse to the Penthouse

Exactly one week later, on the April 17, 2017 episode of Raw, the Superstar Shake-up sent Jinder to SmackDown. It was a fresh start, but nobody expected what came next.

On the very next night, SmackDown hosted a six-pack challenge to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship. Jinder was thrown into the mix with Sami Zayn, Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler, Mojo Rawley, and Erick Rowan.

Nobody in the arena thought Jinder had a chance. He had been a jobber for years, a member of Three Man Band who was released and then brought back as midcard fodder. But then the Bollywood Boyz showed up.

Gurv and Harv Sihra interfered, grabbing Sami Zayn's leg. Jinder capitalized, hitting the Khallas to secure the pin. The crowd was stunned into silence.

Jinder Mahal was going to face Randy Orton for the richest prize in the business. The push did not stop there.

On May 21, 2017, at Backlash in Chicago, Jinder did the unthinkable. He defeated Randy Orton to win the WWE Championship.

It was a neck-snapping transition. He went from nearly being fired on Raw to holding the WWE Championship on SmackDown in just six weeks. The wrestling world was left scratching its head.

The Anatomy of a Failed Experiment

Now, let's be honest about this title run. It was a complete disaster. WWE wanted to expand its business footprint in India, and they thought putting the belt on a guy of Indian descent would automatically print money.

It did not. The matches were painfully slow and incredibly formulaic. Every single defense followed the exact same script: Jinder would get beat up, the Singh Brothers would interfere, Jinder would hit the Khallas, and the match would end.

His matches with Randy Orton were a chore to watch. The Punjabi Prison match at Battleground was a clunky, over-produced mess that featured a random appearance by the Great Khali. The crowd was completely checked out.

Jinder held the title for 170 days before dropping it to AJ Styles in Manchester, England. During that time, television ratings did not skyrocket, and the tour of India had to be scaled down. The grand experiment had failed.

The workrate just was not there. Jinder is a great heel promo and looks like a million bucks, but his in-ring work was too basic for a champion in 2017. When AJ Styles took the belt, the entire locker room breathed a sigh of relief.

Yet, the most fascinating part of the story is how close it came to never happening. If Vince McMahon had followed through on his threat that night in Long Island, Jinder would have been out of a job.

Instead, Jinder got the push of a lifetime. He survived the backstage heat and became a permanent part of WWE history. It is a reminder of how unpredictable the wrestling business can be.

One day you are on the chopping block, and the next you are holding the gold.