In a recent interview with the WWE After The Bell podcast, WWE RAW superstar Jinder Mahal discussed several topics, including his release from the WWE several years ago, returning to the company, becoming the WWE Champion and more.

“10 months before I became WWE Champion, I was an independent wrestler, I got released from WWE in 2014, I wasn’t even with WWE, I had come back during the Brand Split, they had reintroduced the separate rosters for RAW and SmackDown and actually, I had just come back to kind of fill a roster space.

I was ready for television, I was a guy that I can throw on and make the other guys look good, but just knowing what I had gone through with being released and having all those regrets and knowing that if I ever had another opportunity, I was going to knock it out of the ballpark, I was going to give it my all, I wasn’t going to compromise with myself, with my training, with my discipline, with my self belief, so I just gave it my all and became WWE Champion ten months later.

I don’t think that’s ever happened before where someone was released and came back, and within that short of a timespan, completely changed and reinvented myself, just the confidence, the swagger, the Singh Brothers, the entire package and the presentation, yeah I really transformed myself into a Champion and that’s what you have to do, you have to become the Champion before you become the Champion.

A lot of it was just working on the mental aspects of the game, I never had done this before where I read motivation books and listened to podcasts on YouTube. When I trained, I would have CT Fletcher in my headphones, I just really worked on my mental space, it’s not mentioned enough you know, a lot of people think like, WWE, I’m just going to work really hard. When things aren’t going your way, unless you really work on your mental headspace, you’re going to get down, and when you’re down, you become unmotivated.

I learned that no one stays down forever, you work hard and you believe in yourself and that’s the main thing, if you believe in yourself, anything is possible, unless you believe in yourself and you see yourself as a Champion, you’re not going to become a Champion in WWE, people can see right through it, you want to have that confidence, that’s the major part of the game, I think what’s neglected is the mental training.”

The full episode is available at this link.