Jinder Mahal on Winning the WWE Championship, His Goals as Champion, What the Win Means to Fans in India

May 22, 2017

Shortly after winning the WWE Title at Backlash last night, Jinder Mahal spoke with The Times of India and below are some interview highlights:

Winning the WWE Championship:

“This is honestly the best day of my life. I feel proud, very proud to be representing India in the WWE universe. Obviously, India is a huge part of WWE and I am happy to bring the title back home and will continue to defend the title and make everybody proud.”

Goals as Champion:

“I want to make everybody proud, just like everybody is proud of The Great Khali. I want to represent India in a good way and put on good matches. I just defeated Randy Orton, who is a legend in the business; I want to beat guys like John Cena and establish my name as one of the top names of all time in wrestling.”

What this means to WWE fans in India:

“It is a very big moment for me. There has not been a WWE champion from India after Khali. This is big moment for the fans in India. They are very passionate and hopefully more fans start to support when they see me as champion. I want to say thank you to the fans and without their support I would not have reached this level, so please keep on supporting and keep on watching WWE programming.”

Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.

Nick attended New York University and graduated in 2001 with a degree in Drama.

Nick first entered the internet wrestling community back in 2004 when he became the co-host of The Voice of Wrestling Radio Show. From there, Nick made the transition from radio personality to editor when he began working with WrestleZone in 2008.

Nick is a member of two Off-Broadway theatre companies, Another Urban Riff, and the Drama Desk Award winning Godlight Theatre Company. Nick has appeared in over a dozen Off-Broadway plays since he moved to New York City, and has shot several short and feature length films. In 2010, he completed principle photography on a film titled "How to Score Your Life," which also features TNA Knockout ODB.

Inspiration in his life has come from many people including his family, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, The Beatles, and of course, Lassie.