In a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet as part of the INSIGHT With Chris Van Vliet podcast, former WWE superstar Jinder Mahal discussed several topics, including being told that he would become the WWE Champion.

“Vince appreciates a good physique, not just because it’s a good physique, but he understands the discipline it takes and the hard work it takes, especially with the schedule at that time, the amount of live events we were doing.

To maintain the single-digit body fat percentage while travelling that much is a sign of dedication, so WWE is a place where they reward hard work, but also that hard work and the right opportunity, at that time I had done the spot with Gronk at WrestleMania, and I remember WrestleMania week in Orlando, I’m at a hotel and I see Road Dogg in the hallway and he’s like, hey Jinder big things after WrestleMania coming for you, and I said okay, okay I think maybe I move up to the IC level, or US Championship level, a little bit more TV time, which is good.

The Draft happened, I got drafted to SmackDown and Rusev was actually supposed to work Randy at that pay-per-view, Rusev gets hurt, he has shoulder surgery and I guess I was just picked. We had a six-pack challenge match, how I actually found out, the night before, we were on a live event and I remember I was taping my wrist, it might have been Luke Harper, I saw on Twitter that the six-pack challenge was for the Number One Contender, I think it was Luke Harper who told me like, you’re going over, you’re going to work Randy, because I was thinking Harper is going to work Randy.

I looked at the list of guys, me, Sami Zayn, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, one other I can’t remember, maybe Mojo, I can’t remember who it was, I figured it is going to be Luke Harper, and Luke told me and then Randy came a little bit later and said, I guess we’re working, and then before the match Randy told me, I think it’s just a one-off because I’m still supposed to work Rusev and I’m like okay, whatever, that’s great, I get a Number One Contender Match at Backlash in Chicago, even if that’s it, just one title shot, I was just released not even a year ago, and then I don’t know what changed.

I got some momentum leading up to Backlash, cut a couple of promos Vince really liked, and I found out the day of, like the afternoon, maybe 5pm, I saw Road Dogg in the hallway, he said hey, you’re going over, and I believe he told Randy hey, go talk to Vince, Randy went and talked to Vince and we put the finish together and yeah, that was it.”

The full interview is available at this link.