Vince McMahon threatened to fire Jinder Mahal over a botched spot with Finn Balor, nearly ending his path to the WWE Championship before it began. That near-disaster instead became the prelude to the biggest push of his career.
Mahal recounted the moment during a recent interview, explaining how one mistimed forearm nearly wiped out his title run before it began.
Speaking on TMZ’s Inside the Ring, Mahal said the incident happened during a singles match against Balor on Raw, roughly one week before he was moved to SmackDown in the 2017 Superstar Shake-up.
According to Mahal, he accidentally gave Balor a concussion on a spot the two had run cleanly many times before at live events. This time, the timing was off.
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,” Mahal said.
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.
Mahal stressed how narrow the margin for error is in the ring.
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,” he said.
Vince McMahon’s Reaction Backstage
The real shock came when Mahal got back to Gorilla. McMahon was waiting, and the reception was not a warm one.
I gave Finn Balor that concussion. Felt terrible. When I came into Gorilla, Vince told me himself, ‘I should fire you,’” Mahal recalled.
Instead of releasing him, WWE moved Mahal to SmackDown and quickly put him on a rocket. He described just how fast his fortunes flipped after the scare.
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,” Mahal said.
Everything could have ended had I came back to Gorilla and then they said, ‘You’re fired.’ It was very possible.
Mahal’s 2017 title run remains a talking point among fans years later. This story underscores how close it came to never happening: one forearm and one angry McMahon stood between him and the biggest run of his career. For more on that reign, Mahal previously explained the hardest thing about being WWE Champion.
