Jinder Mahal Takes Credit for Drew McIntyre’s Success as WWE Champion

Now that Jinder Mahal is back on WWE television, there’s plenty of fan speculation that he and Drew McIntyre are going to feud in the near future given their history. Mahal appeared on Sunday’s special edition of The Bump on Sunday and made it abundantly clear he has issues with “The Scottish Warrior,” going so far as to claim McIntyre owes his success as WWE Champion to Mahal’s 2017 run with the same title.

“My problem is not with Drew. My problem is with the idea that Drew McIntyre was celebrated as a champion like he overcame such enormous odds… Let’s back it up. Me and Drew were a part of 3MB together. Me and Drew got released the exact same day. I made it back to WWE faster [and] better. I became WWE Champion faster than Drew McIntyre, yet I wasn’t celebrated,” Mahal said. “I was called ‘the experiment’ or whatever. I don’t have a book right now. Drew has a book. Drew is doing media nonstop. This is one of the only times I’ve done media in the last few months. Why am I not celebrated the same way Drew McIntyre is celebrated? Our stories are parallel. You know, just because you don’t hear about my hardships in life [that] doesn’t mean I’ve had an easy route to the WWE or becoming WWE Champion. I’ve had just as many challenges as Drew has had. Yet I’m not acknowledged. So my problem is not with Drew. It’s the idea that Drew is celebrated. Why am I not celebrated? I did it in better fashion than Drew. I bet if I didn’t become WWE Champion, Drew wouldn’t have. You know why? Because I showed him the way.

“… I laid the blueprint down for Drew. Drew followed the same game plan that I did — come back, best shape possible, target the biggest guy, make an impact,” he added. “But here we are. I’m injured. I’m on the sidelines, Drew is celebrated. How do you think that makes me feel? You talk about what motivated me through the rehab? That, Drew McIntyre motivated me. But in a different way than I motivated him.”

Meanwhile, McIntyre was bringing up the idea of feuding with Mahal as far back as last May. Tonight’s WrestleMania Backlash event will see McIntyre try and become a three-time WWE Champion when he faces current champ Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match.