Arune Singh Talks Giving Jinder Mahal the Spotlight in New WWE: Then Now Forever Story

BOOM! Studios has had the chance to spotlight some of your favorite WWE superstars in their WWE series of comics, and fans will get to see a few more in that spotlight later this year. WWE: Then Now Forever Vol. 4 hits stores this October, and will feature a mix of legendary and current era superstars. One such superstar is Jinder Mahal, and ComicBook.com had the chance to speak to writer Arune Singh all about the new story, which looks to show a new side of Mahal and his journey to becoming United States Champion.

“The reason I wanted to write about Jinder Mahal isn’t just the reason that you can probably guess – we’re both Canadian kids of Indian descent and I know I have a responsibility to tell those stories,” Singh said. “If I can’t prioritize telling them, I can’t expect anyone else to do it, eh?”

Singh also wanted to highlight how impressive Mahal’s return to glory was after being shelved by WWE. “But there’s an even more personal reason – namely Jinder’s whole journey back after he was fired from WWE,” Singh said. “He had to remake himself in both body and mind – the latter is what folks gloss over – to come back as an absolute physical specimen who could be a WWE Champion. He recently did a phenomenal interview with Chris Cavallini (who runs the real awesome meal prep company Nutrition Solutions, of which Jinder and I are both loyal customers) where he was completely transparent about how much he had to
fail to become something better.”

“I’ve been pretty public about my, well, colorful health history and I’ve learned the hard way how much sometimes you can’t find the right path forward till you hit rock bottom first. I’ve been lucky to have amazing family, friends and my incredible wife Michelle by me, but it wasn’t till I felt like I’d lost everything a few years ago that I finally learned how I needed to fight to be a stronger man,” Singh said. “Everyone has to find their own way and it starts by making the choice that there’s no acceptable outcome but getting back up every single time. While our situations are different, I saw a lot of parallels in Jinder and my real-life battles to reshape & redefine ourselves to everyone around us – and most importantly to the man we each see in the mirror.”

This story might even give you some new reasons to appreciate Mahal, both as a performer and the determined person behind the character.

“I think it’s easy to conflate Jinder Mahal the character with the real person behind that character,” Singh said. “So to Yuvraj Singh Dhes, I want this story to say ‘thank you’ – because I think he’s become an incredible example of perseverance for everyone who’s ever been told they’re not good enough. I don’t think fans often realize just what kind of journey he went through – and the choices he has to make now – in order to be the elite athlete he’s become.”

“As a wrestler, I think Jinder Mahal is remarkably strong on the mic – it’s easy to forget that he was really funny in 3MB, generated some real heat with fans as the Maharaja and has really brought some fun to the backstage segments in his current spiritual advisor gimmick,” Singh said. “So it was important to me that he hold his own verbally with everyone he encounters in this story, even if there is a strong comedic element to the story – I wanted folks to laugh, but never at him.”

You might think the most interesting story to tell with Mahal would revolve around his world title run, but for Singh, it was always about his United States Championship run, and for several reasons.

“For me, the only story I wanted to tell was with his US Title run – because it not only allowed me to heavily involve the Singh Brothers, but also put Jinder back in the underdog role where I find him immensely fascinating,” Singh said. “So many fans dismissed Jinder after he lost the WWE Championship and this was proof not only that he was more than a one-time champion, but a natural next step in the journey of the guy who’s been told his whole career by fans that everything good he does is the exception to the rule while everything they don’t like is proof he doesn’t deserve to be there.”

One of the story’s biggest strengths is how it handles physical comedy and lighthearted moments (including pretty much everything involving Alicia Fox and Aiden English), and artist Kendall Goode made those shine with his distinct style, as did letterer Jim Campbell.

“I cannot say enough good things about Kendall Goode, who’s an incredibly talented artist and great dude,” Singh said. “After we collaborated on the IRS story in the WWE: Then Now Forever special earlier this year, I wanted this story to give him more opportunities to show just why he’s so great at physical comedy and the quiet storytelling moments because I can see where I was over-scripting in the previous story. That all said, this script simply doesn’t work without Kendall drawing it – I wrote it for him and I wouldn’t have written this same story if there was a different artist. The best parts of it – which include the ones you mention – only work because Kendall brings them to life with his distinct style. So in that sense, while I wrote the script those moments only exist because Kendall’s work inspired me to take that approach.”

“I also wanna shout out Jim Campbell, who’s one of the best letterers in the biz and it’s an honor to have him putting my words on the page,” Singh said. “He’s such a master storyteller and it forces me to make things better once I get a proof to revise. On a related note, sorry Jim for all the damn edits I make!”

Jinder’s main foils here are Rusev and English, and they provided what the story needed most from its original incarnation…fun.

“The first idea I had for this story was a lot more serious and leaned into more of my own story…except it wasn’t fun,” Singh said. “I’m also for big, serious stories – I can watch Creed every week – but there needs to be some joy. So as I rewatched matches and promos from that era, I realized that the challenge – making Jinder sympathetic while he’s so clearly betraying everyone around him – was actually the opportunity for something fun. We all assume what he means when he says “my people,” but what if that’s actually OUR biases speaking? What if he just wants to connect with everyone and be seen as a guy who belongs in the locker room? And what if, perhaps, he’s doing it all completely the wrong way?”

“Once that story took hold of me, I knew I need Rusev and Aiden in they’re so damn fun – and could provide the joy I need to counterbalance Jinder’s intensely over-serious approach to life (which is also a trait I share with him),” Singh said.

There’s a big theme of belonging and feeling like an outsider throughout this story, and that’s something that Singh related to and wanted to explore.

“Yeah, let me be real with you – there aren’t many stories about people who look like me in American media,” Singh said. “And there’s even fewer, if any, about people like me – second-generation immigrants who fight every moment to be seen as Americans without any damn qualifiers.”

“I deal with that every day – I get called a terrorist or various racial slurs regularly, even here in LA,” Singh said. “I’ve learned to hate going to airports because I’m always “randomly” selected to be searched and I can feel the eyes on me if I ever get up to hit the bathroom on the plane. When people ask me where I’m from, I know it’s a ten-part question that doesn’t end until we get to saying my parents were born in India.”

While he wanted to explore this a bit, he didn’t want the societal comparisons to completely overshadow the WWE and wrestling side of things and tried to find a balance between the two.

“So it was important for me to honestly explore Jinder’s situation without dropping all that exact real-life stuff into the story – because you’re not coming to a WWE story to see Jinder get strip-searched by the TSA – while also keeping the real emotion behind it,” Singh said. “That primal scream in your head of “When will it be enough?” and the subsequent worry that perhaps it never will be. The anger that sometimes overtakes you and tempts you with the worst decisions even when you have the best intentions.”

“Jinder’s entire career shouldn’t have ever happened – it’s incredibly difficult to become a WWE Superstar,” Singh said. “And when you’re fired, it’s even harder to make it back. If you somehow get that far, you don’t expect to be WWE Champion., But he did it all. He overcame every obstacle and kept being doubted all along the way – and that’s the immigrant (second generation or otherwise) experience.”

“Let me also be clear – you can also totally not be a fan of the character and that’s cool too,” Singh said. “I don’t want anyone to read anything deeper or any personal indictment if his style ain’t your thing.”

Singh has loved being able to write IRS and now Mahal in the pages of WWE, and while he doesn’t have a bucket list per se, there are a few superstars he would be up for tackling.

“I treat each of these stories as the last one I get to tell and put my all into it,” Singh said. “I’m really lucky that my editor Chris Rosa is so into my approach of telling stories outside of the ring and following my own weird instincts about what I’d like to explore about each WWE Superstar. I’m also incredibly grateful for Chris’ support – I wouldn’t have this opportunity without him believing in me and encouraging me to tell this story that he knew was incredibly personal. I guess if you asked me what I’d be ready to write tomorrow it would be a series of short stories about each member of The Undisputed Era – as amazing as they are in the ring.”

“I think there’s so much fascinating subtext to each of those characters and I’d love to explore what makes each of them tick,” Singh said. “They all seem on the verge of betraying and hugging each other at any given moment. It’s a wonderful contradictory state of being that’s so enticing to me as a writer.”

The most interesting pitches might just be his next two though, ie. The Goon and The Mountie, which we now hope become real someday.

“But I’d also love to explore someone like the Goon, who combines two of my favorite things: hockey and pro wrestling, or The Mountie, simply to see if I can figure out how to infuse a bit of Due South into his backstory.”

WWE: Then Now Forever Vol. 4 hits comic stores on October 30th.