Former WWE star reveals Vince McMahon threatened to fire him before major championship reign
Jinder Mahal recalled an incident from 2017 when Vince McMahon almost fired him for a botch during a match.
Speaking with TMZ’s Inside the Ring, Mahal revisited a match with Finn Balor on an edition of Raw in 2017. During which he got concussed in a botched move. Things intensified when McMahon threatened to fire him for the incident. However, Mahal was drafted to SmackDown and won the WWE Championship shortly after.
“So, actually, it was one week before getting drafted to SmackDown, before I became WWE Champion. It was myself and Finn Balor in a singles match on Raw, and I accidentally gave him a concussion. He was coming off the ropes, I gave him a forearm. We would do this spot every night on the live events as a hope spot. He would come off the ropes, I would give him a forearm, but it was just mistiming and wrestling is a game of millimeters. If you’re a millimeter off you could end your career. You could have a broken neck or anything can happen. A serious injury. I gave Finn Balor that concussion.”
“Felt terrible. When I came into Gorilla, Vince told me him, said himself like, ‘I should fire you.’ That would again change the trajectory of my life because a week later I went to Smackdown and a week after that I was number one contender and a month after I was WWE Champion. Everything could have ended had I come back to Gorilla and Vince said ‘you’re fired.’ Like it was very possible.”
“And I remember I came to TV the next week and Road Dogg, I had got drafted to Smackdown and I had told Road Dogg that ‘Hey Dogg, if I’m in the doghouse and I got to learn to eat, you know what? I’m going to learn to love it. It’s all good.’ I was just willing to whatever the punishment was, I was going to ride it out.”
Mahal’s final WWE appearance was in the first half of 2024. Since then he has been active on social media sharing advice with wrestlers on financial security and overall well-being.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.