Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Jinder Mahal Is A Free Agent! WWE Frustrations, Brock Lesnar, Punjabi Prison Match

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Raj Dhesi (@rajthemaharaja) is a professional wrestler formerly known as Jinder Mahal in WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood to talk about his recent WWE release and how it is different from the last time, working with Indus Sher as their manager, whether or not Brock Lesnar actually refused to work with him, fighting for the 24/7 Championship on a golf course and on a long haul flight, working with Drew McIntyre, being a part of the final WWE Punjabi Prison match, a promo he regrets, being paired with The Great Khali and more! Quote I'm thinking about: "It's never too late to be what you might have been." - George Elliot Sponsors: PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! TIMELINE NUTRITION: Save 10% off your first order of Mitopure at http://timeline.com/INSIGHT BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Use the code INSIGHT to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for joining us on this one. And thank you for helping to make Insight, the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. And if you've ever enjoyed any of the interviews we've ever done on the show, could I just ask you to do one small thing? Could you hit that follow button on Apple or Spotify?

It helps the show so much. bigger the show gets, the bigger the guests can continue to get. Speaking of Spotify, comments are back on there. So if you're listening on Spotify, leave a comment on this episode. They actually changed it up. It used to be a question. It used to say, what did you think of this episode and then you could answer it? Now it's an actual comment section like you see on YouTube. So you're able to go in there and see what other comments are. Pretty cool. I like what they're doing here. A lot of advancements on Spotify, if you happen to be a, Spotify listener. So go leave a comment on there. Former WWE superstar Jinder Mahal has a lot to say.

He was on the show three months ago. And the timing of that interview was a little bit unfortunate. We recorded during WrestleMania weekend when he was still under contract with WWE. Then a few weeks later, he was released. Raj Desi is his real name. He is so talented, such a natural heel, but also like the nicest guy in real life. And his 90 days are officially up as of today when this episode's released. So he's a free agent. He is a free agent and he can go absolutely anywhere he wants. So we talk about what's next for him.

We also talk about his year got off to an insane start, right? January 1st, he's in the ring, cutting a promo with the Rock who were turns and takes the rock bottom people's elbow. Then he's in a world heavyweight championship match with Seth Rollins. And then not really much happens after that. So we get into all of that. Snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening and tag us. He's at Raj the Maharaja on Instagram. I'm at Chris Van Vlee. Let's do it. Please welcome Raj Desi, formerly known as Jinder Mahal. I guess a lot's changed since the last time you're on the show. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Free agent now. Yeah, how does it feel? You're like as of right now. You're free. No, it feels great. I always have a positive outlook on things, on life. I know the future is bright. I get to explore other avenues, business ideas that I have,

other stuff outside of wrestling. We can touch on later. But yeah, I'm excited. And obviously wrestling, the independent scene is amazing right now. I got some bookings coming out. My calendar is getting full. So yeah, it's awesome.

I had a great time in WWB, had a great run. And I was always smart with my money. I always invested it. So now I have the luxury of doing whatever I want. I felt bad when the other interview came out. Like we'd obviously recorded that. It was very clear we'd recorded that WrestleMania weekend. Yeah.

It was scheduled to come out that day anyway. And then the unfortunate news came that weekend that you were released. And I sent you a message and I was like, is this still okay with you if we put this out? You're like, yeah, absolutely. Sure. No, it's good. Yeah. There's no hostility, there's no negative feelings at all with WWE.

Very grateful for them for all the years of the platform they provided me. So yeah, it was amazing. It's just funny. It's only 90 days later now. Yeah. And it feels like you're already in like a completely different chapter of your life. Yeah, yeah. So actually, during WrestleMania week, myself and in this year, we talked to TR.

They were wanting to go back to India. A few months prior of years, the year had a religious event that he holds. It was a one-year anniversary of his father's death. He got told that, no, we were needed for Raw. He can't go back home. Sangha is also from India. He wants to go back home.

And we were told no. They were told, no, we were needed on Raw. And sure enough, that week, we weren't booked. We were just sitting at home. So they were quite frustrated and also myself started off the year with the Rock at the WB championship match. Then one week later, I'm not in the Royal Rumble, which was, I thought was very weird. Yeah.

So we talked to TR. We just said, hey, listen, like, if there's nothing for us, we can go our separate ways. And sure enough, a few months later, we went our separate ways. So did you ask for your release? We didn't ask. it was just kind of like, hey, like, let's, if there's no plans, then, you know, we can discuss going our separate ways. So actually, my contract, I signed for five years in 2019.

In April, but they had added on 18 months for injury time, and that was what was remaining on my contract. Whatever I had signed for the five years. Yeah. And when I signed for that five years, I had already kind of told myself, hey, like, after this five years, I do these five years and I got to go do something else now. It just seems so interesting because the Rock's obviously approving who he works with at the stage of the game that he's at now. Yeah. So when he does that segment, January 1st with you, which we did talk about last time, that was so brilliantly done.

Yeah. Right. The return of a former WWE champion. You come out, mega heat. Then Rock comes out. mega baby face reaction before he turned hill. Yeah. So obviously Rock's going, yeah, gender.

Like, sounds great. Let's do it. Yeah. How does it go from that at the start of the year to a few months later? Yeah, nothing. That's what was frustrating. But that's okay because that's what WWE is. And it's time for the next generation.

It's time for the Braun Breakers and the Carmelos, right? It's their time. I had my time. And maybe my time will come back, but it's time right now to step away. and do other things. And if it works out in the future, we come back. If not, it's all good.

There's plenty of other things to do. Yeah, exactly, as you said, starting the year off with the Rock, world title match. Tony, God got you that world title match. Yes, he did. Exactly. Yes, thank you, Tony. And then, like, WrestleMania Week,

I'm in a two-segment match with Tozawa on main event. So obviously there's frustrations. But it's all good. Right, I have many years there. I've done everything that I wanted to do. And yeah, it's a young man's game. How does this release feel different from the one 10 years ago in 2014? Yeah, this one is much different.

I am a grown man now. I'll be turning 38 the day after this interview airs. So, yeah, it's just I'm at a different point in my life. I'm at peace with it. I've had a great career because at that time when I got released, The best thing I had done at that point was being 3MB. You know, now I've been a WWE champion. I've been in WrestleMania.

I've headline pay-per-views. I've done everything. I've traveled the world. And I'm in a different place financially. So, yeah, a lot has changed, right? Well, you got your job back last time because you put in the work to get it back, right? Like you proved yourself.

What do you do now? Where do you go from here now? Do you feel like you still need to prove yourself? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like I do, but in different avenues outside of wrestling now, as I mentioned earlier, business. He just did a TV show, right? Yeah, yeah.

I was in a show while I was in WWE on ABC called Big Sky. I did a whole season. So I recently did a few auditions. Didn't get anything, though, but all good. Something will come around. While you're here in Hollywood. Who knows? Yeah, exactly.

Anything could happen. Yeah, any telling agents out here. Gonna go hang out. We'll drive down Hollywood Boulevard. You can stick your head out the window. Tried to get scouted, right? Yeah, exactly. So you've got a lot of other irons in the fire, if you will.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm working on some stuff, yeah. Okay. But still wrestling's at the forefront. Yeah, no, it is. It is. It is. Wrestling is my first love, right?

I just love the business. And even wrestling on the independence now, it's, that's how I started. and that's like when I think of like the best times in my career when I was the most happiest, it was on the independence. Not when you were WWE champion? Because with that is a lot of pressure, a lot of stress.

That was a great time too, but the best time when it's the most fun is when it's low stress and it's just fun, right? Yeah, yeah. And I get to be around up and coming wrestlers, be around that young energy is motivating. Kind of how it was when I went to NXT a few years ago when I got paired with in this year, I really like being in NXT, just being around that young energy again, and it was motivating for me. It was kind of on the main roster, the locker room, you know, you don't, those guys have been there for years, some guys are frustrated, I don't know,

sometimes there's a lot of negativity. You're in a spot now where you also get to pick and choose your age. Yeah, yeah, pick and choose my own schedule. Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. If I feel like doing something, I do it, if I don't want to do it, I don't have to do it. If you've got a friend's wedding coming up and someone offers you an indie book and you can say, no, sorry, I'm busy that weekend. Exactly. And that's something my entire time in WWE, I had never asked for time off. The only time I ever had off was

A, they didn't need me, or I was injured. I never asked for time off. Because I think now it's more normalized in a way requesting time off, but when I started, no, no time. Like, it's not a thing with

the way Vince ran WWE, because he never really took time off. So it was just kind of a thing you just don't do. And I always had that mentality like in WWE. My fiance would always get frustrated. Like she'd have a wedding or some sort of event or want to vacation. She could never understand why I don't have vacation time.

But I could have asked. And like especially now with the new regime running the company now, I think it's normal now. Guys get weeks off. I just stuck in that mindset. I would feel like it would come from a place of fear of like, if I take two weeks off, someone's going to slide into my spot. Yeah, and also, yeah, that, and you're scared about just your job in general.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And it was just, I don't know, that's how it was ever since I was an FCW, just like, it's a grind. There's pressure. Like, you don't ask for time off. There's just things that you do and you do and you don't do and you don't ask for time off. There was a lot of love from the last interview that we did. If you look at the comments, there is a lot of love.

for you as a person and for Jinder Mahal as a character. Yeah. With maybe some of the frustrations you've had over the last year or so in WWE. Did that come as a surprise to feel that love? Yeah, yeah, definitely. I generally get a lot of hate online. But it was one of those rare instances where I got to show my real personality because people have, actually, this happens to me all the time.

I meet people and they're like, wow, like you're not what we expect. You're nice. Yeah, you're nice. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, maybe it's the Canadian. in me. Yeah. Yeah, I'm always respectful, polite. And, yeah, just the Jinder Mahal character

was the complete opposite of me. Like some guys, their wrestling characters, is their personality turned up? Mine, not so much. It was something completely different. How did you find the balance of who Jinder Mahal was? Yeah. The thing is I never really took it too seriously. Like, I was always myself. Some people take the business very seriously,

like the wrestling character becomes their real life. Like I always separated the two. My alone time, I was always myself, stay grounded. Yeah, and I never let things get to my head or a certain position. Because I've seen all sides of this business. I've been at the very bottom and I've been at the very top. So I just know just stay true to yourself. because none of this lasts.

This is all temporary. Yeah. They hindered gender. That's what they did. Never hindered gender. It can never be hindered. I felt like it just seemed like it came out of nowhere. And I'm so glad to hear that you're doing okay and you're processing it well.

And you're excited about what the future holds. Yeah, yeah, exactly. No, it's all good. When I had signed that contract, I had already kind of had my mind made up that in 24. I was going to at least temporarily go. away from WWE. Drew McIntyre said something very nice after you got released. He tweeted out, we showed them

once. Let's show them again, brother. Yeah, yeah, let's see. Drew McIntyre showed him more than I did, but That's not true. You came back, became champion. He came back to him. Before Drew McIntyre. Yeah. Don't you forget that? So, no, no, Drew's the man.

What Drew is doing right now is incredible. This is the best version of Drew. I think the WW universe the fans have ever seen. I can't believe I said, WW universe. The fans, I'm not in that bubble anymore. I don't need to use these words. Can you go to a hospital now?

Or do you have to go to a local medical facility? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, Drew's the man. He's like a brother to me. And to see him in this position, he just signed a new contract. So he'll be there for a few more years. And he's just something about him, man.

Like he's, he's incredible. Just looks like he's having fun. Yeah, having fun. Yeah, yeah. I just don't think he cares anymore. And that's usually. when the best comes out. Like, see him punk.

Yeah. He doesn't care about anything. Yeah. And that's why he's the best. When did you get to that point in your career? I never really did. Or when I did, like I never, like, recently. Maybe you're there now.

Yeah, I'm there now, but I'm not in a prominent position to have fun and enjoy it. In WWE, I will want. That's why I'm excited for this indie run, because I just having fun, right? There's no stress. There's no pressure. Yeah. I get to be myself. Nobody tells me what to say.

I don't feel like this is just going to be an indie run. Okay, indie or, yeah, yeah. You're going to be back on TV. Yeah, yeah. If I'm back on TV, wherever it is, I'm going to be myself. And if I can't be myself, then I'm not interested in going. Yeah, who's Raj? Who is Raj?

We've known Jinder Mahal for your whole career. Yeah, yeah. It's a good question. That's maybe something that I've got to figure out myself too, right? And this is the perfect opportunity to explore, different things. Yeah, because, so you're the modern name Maharaja. Just the Maharaja.

Just the Maharaja. You've trademarked this. Yes. Okay. So you're the Maharaja, but you're wrestling under your real name? Yeah, Raj Desi. Yeah, Raj Desi, yes. I got to be myself and do anything I want to do.

If I want to try something, I do it, want to say something, say it. That's the beauty of the Indies, too. Yeah. Beauty of the Indies, you can do whatever you want. Yeah. It doesn't work in this specific. town on this specific weekend. Yeah.

Can we try something else next weekend? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I just needed to get away from the WWE system. I've been there for so long. Everything's micromanaged, especially when you're wrestling on TV.

Every minute, every really all the spots are already kind of discussed so you can get the best camera angles. And we know the commercial brakes coming at this time. This is the break spot. This is where we come back. Lose time. We get added time right now. blank canvas.

Yeah. Looks like you dialed in your fitness. Yeah, I just did. Yeah, yeah, recently just started. So, yeah, I'm going to be in good shape coming up there. I mean, I already am. Going to be in good shape. Yeah, I like staying in good shape.

I genuinely have like a passion with fitness and dieting. And maybe it's something that I want to do after wrestling, coaching. I really want to open a gym someday. But I'm hearing it's a terrible. Not a wrestling gym. No. Maybe maybe maybe maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, there'll be a wrestling ring in there, too.

Maybe, we'll see, but just like a really good gym, like a gym that I would want to train at. But you were saying I've heard that's not a good idea? I've heard it's a terrible business idea. I've heard it's a terrible business idea. Or like the success rate is not very high. Well, I think it's because you have to put up

so much capital because the equipment's not cheap. Yeah, yeah. And then now you've got to be in the... You could be with the big chains, the crunches and all these gold. LA Fitness. Exactly, yeah. And you're opening up Raj's Rogers, Jim. Yeah, exactly.

And you've had to put up six figures just for all the equipment in there. Yeah. But I do still want to do it. I would sign up for a membership, even if I only worked out there once a year. Thank you. Sign me up for that. Thank you. But it feels like you're, with the videos you've been posting on Instagram, like you're ring-ready.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I always stay ring-ready. Actually, while I was managing in this year, when we got drafted to Raw, I was told that I'm no longer a wrestler. I'm just a manager. But I still stayed in shade. They told you that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I was pitching, well, the writer told me. I was pitching all kinds of storylines, like six-man tags or matches for myself,

where Indus Sher is managing me. Yeah. And nothing was happening. And I asked the writer, I said, what's the deal? Am I? And I also, and I also know this because I saw the roster sheet, mail heels, raw, Smackdown, male heels, tag teams. I wasn't listed under male heels.

There was male heel tag teams in this share, and I was in brackets. So as a manager role. Wow. So I wasn't even listed as an active talent. And I asked the writer, I said, hey, was it discussed? Then I'm not wrestling anymore. He said, yeah, yeah, it was brought up that you're just going to manage in this share.

But then I had the match with Seth Rollins. Luckily, I was in shape already. Like, I stayed in shape. Yeah, yeah, because that could have went. That could have went the opposite way where I started eating desserts and catering every week. But, yeah, no, I'm always ring ready. But motivation comes and goes, right? It's very hard to stay dialed and super dialed in year round.

Generally, if I know something big is coming up, it's a little bit easier. But now that I know that I get to spread. My wings. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's motivation. Yeah. You with hair and you without hair look like two completely different people. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I made a mistake. Buzzing my hair off. I don't know what I was thinking. It was during COVID. I had a knee surgery and I was going to come back. I got to look different. I got to look different. What can I do? Shamed my head. So I shaved my head in my garage during COVID. All the barbershops were closed. I shaved it and an instant regret. I actually tried growing it back a couple times,

but I can't get over that awkward phase. But here you are four years later, and you still shave your head, so it couldn't have been that big of a mistake. No, it looks fine, but I... It looks great. Yeah, but I just really like the long hair. Yeah.

You're right, though, like months two through four or whatever. No longer. Six, seven, eight. It's terrible time. I mean... Yeah. You could have had 90 days right now to grow your hair back. Yeah, yeah, I could have.

Yeah. Yeah, but then maybe we'll see, we'll see. But then you'd be returning with the awkward phase then. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I actually won the championship with the awkward face. With the awkward face.

Yeah, yeah. If you go back and look. You think? I thought it looked great. Not as good as when I could put it in a ponytail. Yeah. Because that's, you know, when I put it in the ponytail was, I can't remember, it was a Royal Rumble in Philadelphia.

That was the first time. I grabbed a elastic man from the makeup. table and I was like, let me try this. And sure enough, I had a ponytail, so it was a big day. Was there ever talk of you being in the Rumble this year? No, there wasn't, I was asking, and again, this was two weeks after the Seth Rollins match. Yeah, so I mean, January, like a week out, I asked one of the producers who I'm friends with who was doing the Royal Rumble.

I said, hey, am I in the Royal Rumble? He's like, I'm trying to get you in, your name's been brought up, but as of right now, you're not in it. And I actually jokingly said, hey, diversity. And he's like, yeah, actually someone did get in because of that. I was like, what? I don't count. So, yeah, and day of Rumble, I brought my gear.

I was ready to be in the Rumble and the list came out and I wasn't in it. Yeah, yeah. But it feels like maybe, yeah, this is the thing that happens every year. Next year, the Rumble comes around. Yeah. Your name's going to float around there. Yeah. 2026 the rumble comes around.

Your name's got to turn around there. It could and I'll stay in shape and I'll be ready if that opportunity comes. Yeah, I would love to be in another Royal Rumble. That's actually one of my favorite pay-per-views. Is the Royal Rumble growing up, the Royal Rumble was my favorite match. And especially when, like, there's surprise returns.

Yeah. Which there hasn't been in the last year or two. There's been like the surprise NXT debuts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're right. There hasn't been. Yeah. Yeah.

Like I love when there's a legend that comes back. Yeah, exactly. Like when Diesel was in, not Kevin Nash, when Diesel came in, yeah. Yeah, that was a great one. Yeah, I was one in one and Godfather was in it. Yes. Yeah, Godfather was in it. Booker T. came back one time in one. And then he had like a few month run. Yeah. Yeah. I love that stuff. Yeah. I feel like there's, that's the cool thing about the Rumble. Yeah. Anyone could be in that. Yeah. Yeah. But with the roster,

having so many people on it, yeah, it's only 30 spots. Yeah. And it's a terrible feeling to not be in the Royal Rumble and to be there sitting in. the back watching the Royal Rumble. Yeah, it happened to me in San Antonio, too, the same year that I came back when I was with Rusev. Roussev was in it, and I was hoping to be in it,

and the list came out and I wasn't in it, and I watched it from catering. Yeah, that's a terrible feeling. Yeah, I bet. But you're reinventing yourself now. You're doing your own thing. Yeah, yeah. And I feel like, it's cool

because it's kind of like the halfway mark of the year. You've got another half of the year to write your own story. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. This is, it's exciting. Yeah, it's exciting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's no negative feelings or anything. It's all good. Take me back to your, take me back to your WWE debut. And the way that you came in with Great Colley, yeah. Walk me through everything that was going on around that. Yeah, okay, so I'm an FCW for maybe 10 or 11 months, and I randomly get a call from talent relations.

Kristen Altman calls me. She said, hey, we need a math. and promo from you. So I filmed the match and promo. The match was actually against Tongaloa. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Returning Tongaloa. So we did the match and then a few days later I got another call saying, hey, you're coming to TV. So I get to TV and I found out that I'm with great colleague, which was awesome. Such a cool dude. And during that time, I got to travel with Khali. We had so much fun on the road.

We're going on all the live events. Just driving around with Khali and just seeing people experience him as a spectacle in itself, right? Like people's jaws drop when they see him. It was just an incredible time. So, yeah, debuting with him, I believe we had a backstage segment, Ray Mysterio, Rungent Singh, myself and Khali. That was my debut in Greensboro Coliseum. First time I was on SmackDown in a backstage promo. Then the storyline was he was doing the kiss cam and I and I came and I gave him a little paintbrush like, hey, like reminded him like you're, you know, you're the giant.

Like what are you doing? Yeah. Embarrassing yourself with this. And actually I was Khali's brother-in-law. So I was married to his sister. In K-Fame. In K-Fave, yes. Collie's brother-in-law.

Yes. Did they pair you guys together because you both spoke Punjabi? I think so, probably. So like then he'd have someone on the road that he could, you know, converse with? Yeah. At that time, his contract was about to come up and he wasn't sure. They weren't sure if he was going to resign or if he was going to stay. So I think it was kind of almost like a passing out the torch onto me.

But he ended up resigning and then we were together for a little bit. And I think they wanted to keep him baby face. So that didn't last long. And then finally he gave me the big collie job. It sent me on my way. Do you consider yourself Canadian or do you consider yourself Indian? Both represent both cultures, Indo-Canadian. Because it's, you know, when you won WWE, when you became the W.E.

WWE champion, you were the first ever of Indian descent to be the first ever WWE champion. And of course, people were like, well, what about Kali? Well, you won the World Heavyweight Champion, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then you have people online that are going, well, he's Canadian. Yeah, he was born in Canada. But Canada is such a diverse country. You know.

My mom was born in Greeks. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. In Canada, they say, oh, he's Indian or he's Punjabi. Yeah. I don't know. That's like a dichotomy of being Indo-Canadian. Like, I'm not Canadian enough to be Canadian, but then like I'm not Indian enough to be

Indian. So I, yeah. So, but I represent both cultures. The like ice breaking line when you're growing up in Canada is where are you from? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And what they mean is like, where are your parents? Yeah, where's your family from? Exactly, exactly.

Because for the most part, you're probably only one or two, at best, one or two, or maybe three generations removed. Like, my parents immigrated. Right. And my mom immigrated. But like all of your friends, you know, like their parents were born in Italy or wherever. Like, it's funny how Canada is in that way. Yeah. At best, your first or second generation.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's just a funny thing where it's like you can kind of be with both, Indian and Canada. Yeah, yeah. And be very proud of your heritage with both of those. And that's what I want to do now. Now that I have the ability to do what I want,

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Keep your ride or die alive today at eBaymotors.com. eligible items only, exclusions apply. Hey guys, it's Sam Roberts. Thank you for letting me interrupt this episode of Insight. Once you're done listening, why don't you do me a favor and come join us if you haven't already over at Not Sam Wrestling, where we are talking about wrestling like it's the most important thing in the world because quite frankly, it is. Every single Monday, we drop a new episode of Not Sam Wrestling.

And of course, one of these emergency podcasts, whenever, we deem it necessary. We are breaking down everything going on in the world of professional wrestling and going through it with a fine tooth comb as only we can at Not Sam Wrestling. So search us out on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts and join us every single week with yours truly, the last professional broadcaster, Sam Roberts, on Not Sam Wrestling. You feel like there were opportunities in this most recent run in WWE where they could have taken things to another level that could have worked on something that didn't really happen? Yeah, especially with Indus Shear.

So both of those guys didn't come from pro wrestling. Rinku was a baseball player, and Sorv was an actor and kickboxer. So they're brand new to this. They went to the NXT system. Then they go to main roster, which has its own learning curve, right? And from day one, they came back from their first match, and I told Triple H put us on the live events, put us on the live events, put us on the live events.

Because what they need is experience. They just don't have enough experience, are the experience that maybe they were looking for, right? The experience with long matches, they mainly had shorter squash matches where everything was kind of laid out, right? I really wanted for them to experience a live event match where you don't call as much

and you just listen to the crowd and you feel it. And I had even suggested like there's two live events, one on Saturday, one on Sunday. I'll tag with one on one night. The other night, I'll tag with the other one. I'll wrestle both nights. But we just never put on live events. I was put on live events alone for right after that South Rollins match for like two weeks.

And then that was it. And yeah, they just never got the experience. And you get that from live events. There's no other way. You don't really learn much from TV matches because everything is, especially a squashman. You do. not a squash match. Yeah.

If you have 90-second match, you're planning everything, like A, B, C, D. Yeah. You don't really get to feed off the crowd or change a match based off the crowd reaction. You do that on live events.

So I think it was a missed opportunity not putting those guys on live events because that would have got them to the next level, right? Like if they want to have a 15, 20-minute match with DIY with all these intricate false finishes and saves and, you know, the timing needs to be worked on.

Right. Timing is super important and you get that from live events. And if you mess up, it's okay. It's not on live television. A million people or several million people around the world don't see it. Right. Yeah. So that would have been the place to do it.

But all good. How did you and Rusef get paired up? Randomly. That was when I started to get used more. For a few months prior to that, when I came back, I was just on main event, wrestling on main event. A lot of times it was against Jack Swagger. And it's not on Raw, so nobody really saw me.

And during that time, I had gotten in really good shape, and Vince had kind of seen it. And I think he wanted to kind of use me in a more prominent position. And Roussev at that time was a heel, and we had a program with Big Cass and Enzo. That was cool. The first time I ever made Evented Raw was during that time. That was right before Rusev Day caught on.

It was handsome Roussev at that time. With Lana, was a manager. It was a great time. I loved working with Rusev. He's a tremendous athlete, Amiro, tremendous athlete, tremendous wrestler. Yeah, it was just, it was so much fun being with him. And with Lana also.

And then he got injured. And that's when I became number one contender. He had a surgery for his shoulder at the same time. So when we split up, that's when I went. solo. When you look at your career, you've done it all, right? Yeah. You've been involved in all kinds of different things. All levels. Yeah, right. Babyface, heel.

Not so much baby face. Yeah, well, there's just, there's fun stuff in there, right? Yeah, yeah, a lot of fun stuff, a lot of very serious stuff. Yeah. Wait, does this mean you want to work as a baby face? Yeah, yeah, I want to. Yeah, yeah. I want to go in a deep cell, a little hot comeback, three clothes lines. Come on. Come on, baby.

I can't wait. Yeah. The only time we really did baby face stuff was in 3MB, like pseudo baby face. But some live events like in Scotland. I tagged up with Drew, Santino Morella, and Alex Riley against the primetime players and the Puerto Ricans. What an incredible memory you have for wrestling.

I have a good memory. And anything else, I can't remember any. I can't remember names. I can't remember anything, but I remember matches. And I remember buildings. We can go into a building. I can tell you who wrestled who in this match, even other people's matches. Like, hey, yeah, we go to a building.

Hey, Drew, you wrestled so-and-so in this building. And they're like, how do you still remember this? The amount of times I sit across from someone like this and they're telling stories and they get the opponent wrong or the year wrong. And then the comments are like, I think they meant this. And I think they meant this person. Yeah, yeah. You're like an encyclopedia of your matches.

Yeah, yeah. Let's hope it stays that way. The stuff you did with the 24-7 championship was a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, it was fun. What were you doing in the golf course in full gear? Yeah, yeah. What was happening there? Yeah, about that.

So I got to, we were on live events that week, and I got a text from Adam Pierce. He was an agent on the live event. He texted me, hey, we got to go film this thing. So I could have just showed up in regular clothes, but I was like, I got to go do it in gear. It'll be better. You got to commit, right? So, yeah, yeah, in gear, yes. Yeah, yeah, in gear, yeah.

I just, I didn't have any baby oil, though. If you look, I don't have any baby oil. or I don't have a pump. You're probably the only one who recognize that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we go to this golf course, and luckily W.B. had gotten permission already from this golf course,

so it wasn't that awkward. It still was. But, yeah, showed up in trunks. We did the thing. And actually, I didn't warm up or anything, and I threw on my back, like really bad. And later on and that night,

we have the live event. But luckily, a few hours later, Adam Pierce actually texted me. And I think he, like, he was, kind of giving me the heads up like, hey, sorry. Like, as it's written on the show, it's going to be ding, ding, ding, and Alistair, Alistair's Black. Alistair's Black, just going to give you his kick.

And I just texted, God bless with the hand emoji. I don't think he, I didn't say any. I just said, God, bless. And then when I got to the building, I came, like, limping in. He's like, oh, my God, what happened? I'm like, I threw my back at the golf course. I'm like, yes, please, this is a great finish. It's a great match.

It's gone, yeah, walk to the ring. barely just got kicked, one, two, three. So, yeah, it worked out fine. But if your back's already thrown out, does it hurt to take that bump? No, I don't think I'd flat back. And you have adrenaline. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And actually, when I lost the chance, when did I lose it, on an airplane, on the tarmac, sorry, I wanted on the tarmac, lost it on the plane. We didn't have enough time. It was just like a spur of the moment idea. I was asleep, and one of the producers woke me up, like, hey, we got to film this thing right now.

Like, come, come, come. I wanted to get in my gear and do the tarmac, like, in the same way I did the golf course, but there wasn't enough time. So I did it like wearing track pants, but it would have been so much better if I would have had gear on. That stuff on the plane was fun.

Yeah, yeah, it was. It was on a flight to Saudi. And just randomly, we just did it. Yeah, it was a plan. Our truth turned the 24-7 championship around. So I remember when that was announced in 2019, and it was met with a lot of, like, Yeah.

Why didn't they just do the hardcore championship? That belt looks funny. Like what's with it? Yeah, yeah. It didn't take long for Artruth to get his hands on this and turn that whole thing around. No, no, he did. He did. And a lot of credit to Our Truth.

He turns everything into gold. Yeah, he's just incredible. Yeah. And at that time in my career, like going like a year prior, I was in main events or I was always in a top, like a prominent position, maybe not at the top, but at least like upper mid card. then going to the 24-7 championship at first. I was like, oh, man, this is like, this is not good.

But then it ended up being a lot of fun and it got a lot, so many views, like millions of views. Yeah. And, yeah, made the best of it. Let's go back to Kali and the Punjabi prison match. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It feels like anything can go in one of those. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So first off, the Punjabi prison match sucks. It's terrible. In one way? It's so hard. it's it's the blue the inside cage is the blue old school cage the cage match

yeah like the 90s you can hit it as hard as possible and it won't even make a noise like it was terrible um and then just the crowd reaction they couldn't really see the the the people in the arena there's two cages

so when we're on the inside there's two cages they couldn't really see um and it was just painful the candle stick chair shots, everything. But then the great Khali. So, actually, funny story.

So I knew Kali was going to come. A few, Sing Bros knew, Randy knew. Nobody else knew. It was supposed to be a big secret. It's supposed to be a big secret. They have the Punjabi present tarped off, like all the way from the roof, kick everybody out of the bowl.

No security guard. Like, no one's in there. But they got to get Khali ringside to rehearse. So they, like, like wheeled him in on basically like a buggy between crash pads. Like, what are you guys doing? He gets to the, yeah, they tried their best to hide him,

but everybody saw him. Hey, he's pretty big. Yeah, he's pretty big. So hard to hide him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kali saved my championship. I won. And at the end, he raised a championship like he won it.

So it was good. Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. And actually, his, Kali's hand is so big. Like, he's patting me on the, back, but it feels like someone's slapping me. Like, he's like, yeah, good job, good job. He's slapping my back and I'm trying to block it with my elbow. It's the last thing I want right now.

How do they put together even like the infrastructure of what this match is going to look like? I don't know. Like, you know, I'm sure somebody, you know, who's much smarter than you or I, it comes up with what Helen Assal is going to look like or elimination chamber. Yeah. How do they come up with even just the idea? I don't know.

It was already thought of, because they had two of them prior. Collie was in one and then Undertaker and Big Show Undertaker and Big Show in the first ever Punjabi Prison match. You're right, there is something about those matches that they don't play well on TV. Yeah.

It's difficult to see what's... It's difficult to see. And it doesn't make any noise. Yeah. But, yeah, I think that'll be the last Punjabi prison match ever. Because of those reasons? Yeah, it just didn't go over well.

Yeah. The internet did not like it. So... You're right, though. Yeah. You're right with cage matches. There's like some flex there. It makes some noise.

Yeah, yeah. Helena Sells the same thing. Yeah, yeah. Elimination chamber when they throw them into the plexiglass. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. It sounds good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's a tough one. Well, that's a notch in your belt, right? Yeah, I'm in the last Punjabi prison match. In the last, hopefully, yeah. Hopefully. Oh, maybe I'll have another one. Actually, I was supposed to possibly have one with Roman Reins at extreme rules. I think we just had a regular straight-up match, and it was in Chicago, too.

There was talk of that being? There was talk of the Punjabi prison match coming back. Yes, me and Roman in the Punjabi prison match. And then did he just say, I don't think so. Yeah, just like Brock. Yeah, so what happened with this match you were supposed to have with Brock? Survivor Series 2017. The lead-up was there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is just my opinion. And obviously things, there's a lot of misinformation on the Internet. Right? And the headline came out. Brock Lesnar refused to work with gender. I don't think he refused. I just think it was, he knew he, like, he probably pitched for a match with AJ, because stylistically, it's a much better match. Me and Brock are both heels. Who's going to put heat on who? It was going to be a flat match, right? It would have just been him suplexing me a bunch of times. Maybe Singh Bros. Get involved. But the match he had with AJ was phenomenal. It was. So pun it did.

So, yeah, I don't think it was that he refused to work with me. I just think he, Brock has, you know, he has some pole. And him and Paul Heyman probably said, hey, we should talk to Vince and said, hey, put the match with AJ Stiles. Which is, which is okay. I have to lose a championship at some point anyway. I had it for six months. And I didn't know that I was losing the championship until the day of, We were in Manchester

and we have the title match. We get to the building. Michael Hayes tells me and AJ go talk to Vince. Send us to Vince's office. So when Vince tells us, to me, you're dropping the championship. Now you're going to chase it. AJ, you're winning it tonight. You'll work with Brock at Survivor Series.

Then me and AJ at Night of Champions. One more championship match. And that was it. Yeah, I want it knowing I found out the same day I'm winning, I lost it the same way, found out the same day. The thing that was exciting about that era

is titles would change hands on TV. For you to lose the championship on SmackDown, that has, I don't know the last time that happened, but it doesn't feel like that's, we're living in that time right now. Like when there's a title match on Raw or Smackdown right now, you kind of already know who's winning, yeah.

Or it's going to be, you know, DQ. Yeah, yeah, yeah, DQ, yeah. Although I think, I have a theory that when Raw goes to Netflix. Yeah. It's like fair game. Yeah.

It's going to happen. Yeah. To make people go, ooh, I need to tune in. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If it's on Netflix,

I got to tune in. I think they should do it more on live events too. Because you go to a live event, you see title, kind of know, it's not going to happen. And they could do that with the intercontinental title or tag titles, totally.

U.S. title. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you. Yeah. Even if you're in Europe for like a week on tour, change it one night,

change it back to the next. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it goes all over social media. Everybody knows, everybody finds out anyway, right? You don't need to, it doesn't need to happen on TV. Yeah, and then enough people are filming it in the arena. Yeah, exactly.

WWE is filming it for their social team. It'll get out there. Exactly. Just as quick like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something that needs to happen more. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. soccer podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg.

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The U.S. soccer podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Is one of your best matches against Seth Rollins, that inaugural NXT championship tournament? Yeah, yeah, that's one of my favorite matches. Yeah, exactly. So at that point, I was already on the main roster. and I would go to NXT on my day off.

I was on all the live events at that time. And yeah, the concept came of the Gold Rush tournament. Drew was in there, Justin Gabriel, myself, maybe even Heath Slater from the main roster. Yeah, I think us four. Then I got to the finals. I actually wrestled Jason Jordan in his first ever NXT match, its debut in that tournament,

round one. And I think Bo Dallas, Bo Dallas are EC3, maybe both matches I had. I think I had both. Final against Seth Rollins. Yeah, we had three segments. Yeah, it was awesome.

Because at that point, I hadn't had a long match or a title match, like a main event style match in WWE. So that was like the first one for myself also. And Seth is amazing. I've wrestled him several times after that. I always loved working him, one of my favorite opponents. But yeah, that's definitely a match that is a highlight match for myself.

It just feels like it was one of those matches that kind of like, if people weren't aware of how good you were in the ring, they watched that match and go, oh, damn, like, we got to stop sleeping on gender. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, um, yeah, I think as a heel, not so much anymore, everything changes, but at that time, especially for myself and during the time that I was a champion, I was a heel, especially the time that I was a champion, Vince wanted me only to work holds. He's like, I just want you to work holds, that's it. Just to get you heat.

Just to get me heat. Yeah, the baby face will do all the exciting stuff. You just work holds. That's it. He just wanted me to put on holds and like cheat. Like if I have a hold, the baby face comes up, like pull his trunks down and put the hold back on. Like he loved that. Like, that's all he wanted from me.

Huh. Just flex, have long hair, get oiled up, and work hold. That's it. That should be a T-shirt. Yes, yeah, repeat. How did you get the name, Jinder Mahal? When I was in FCW, there was a guy, Matt Mart Laro. He was in charge of a little bit of creating and helping Dusty Roads.

His duty was the names. So we came up with a list of first names and last names. And he really, really he decided. Because I said like a bunch of first names. He liked gender. We went to the list of last names. He's like Mahal. But your real name's a pretty good wrestling name too.

Yeah, yeah. Or I wanted to wrestle with my last name is Singh. Like all the Punjabi wrestlers, we have like a tradition. Dara Singh, Gama Singh, Tiger Azim, Tiger, Singh, Ali Singh, Tiger Jit Singh. Sing bros. Like, it's our, in a way, pro wrestling. has a tradition in Punjabi culture.

Like all the main pro wrestlers, even Kali, Punjabi. Before Indus share, there's been a few others since then, but like for a long time, starting from the original great gamma, like late 1800s. Now that's modern Pakistan,

but at one time it was Punjab. He was the lion of Punjab. So Gama Singh, the original. So sings just have like a kind of like a lineage in pro wrestling. So I really wanted to keep Singh, but we ended up with Mahal. I mean, Jinder Mahal is a pretty great name too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was cool. How about wrestling Jeff Hardy, the work you did with him for the U.S. championship?

Yes, yeah, that I had just gotten drafted to Raw. Won the U.S. championship at WrestleMania. first week drafted on Raw, opened up the show with a promo, with Kurt Angle as a GM, Jeff Hardy came out and we do the match. If you go back and look, the amount of heat that I got when I came out,

and it was segment one, kicked off Raw. The not first pick, they didn't have picks at that time, but it was like the first trade that was announced, gender Mahal to Raw, gender Mahal to Raw. And the promo that I cut,

it was like, Awesome crowd reaction. And then Jeff coming out, amazing pop, him beating me, making him a Grand Slam champion at the same time. Crazier pop. Then we went to Saudi Arabia for the rematch. And I got to clear the air about the botch.

That's super viral with Jeff Hardy hitting the whisper in the wind. That doesn't touch me. And I take a bump, which I get a lot of flak for online. It was actually Sing Bro's fault. It was Sineal Singh's fault Because usually when we When we do anything from the top rope

He tells me I'm selling He would say not now, not now, not now, not now Okay, now. So he's telling me not now, not now, not now And then I feel something touched my back. I don't know, it was just like an instant reaction. I took a bump. But what I felt was actually just wind.

That's how he gets the name, The Whisper in the Wind. I felt the whisper in the wind. It took a big bump And when we came back, I thought Vince was going to be pissed. And I was like, oh, Vince, sorry about the thing. At first he's like, what are you talking about? He's, I'm like, oh, the thing that I missed, he's like, ah, he starts laughing.

Luckily, he wasn't mad. He just had like a big laugh. So were you feeling the wind of Jeff falling next to you? Yes, exactly. I felt something. It was just like a little touch. I took the big bump, but it was Sineal Singh's fault. I'll never remember all of the things you do right.

Yeah. It's just funny, though, like one little thing like that. Yeah, it's all good. It's all good for me because it wasn't my fault. It was Sineal Singh's fault. Yeah, yeah. Push the blame to somebody else. Sunil Singh.

Yeah, totally not your fault at all. It never is. What about wrestling in the Thunderdome? Because that was a big adjustment. But you were able to do some great work there. Yeah, yeah. The first time I wrestled in the Thunderdome, I was actually injured during that time.

But they had announced the superstar spectacle, which was going to air only in India. and I was on injury, but they announced it, and I told Triple H, I think, three weeks prior, they announced it and it was going to happen instant. Like three weeks later, the show was going to be filmed in the Thunderdome at that time at the Rays Stadium in Tampa. And I was in Orlando doing my rehab, and I told Triple H,

I said, put me in this match. Put me on the show, I'll be ready. He's like, are you sure? Like, you're good? I said, yes, I promise you, I'll be ready. I did like a crash diet for three weeks. AJ Sims, cement factory, got me ready in three weeks. He's the best.

Yeah, he's the best. Got me ready in three weeks. It came in in really good shape. We had a six-man tag, me and the Sing Bros. versus Drew and Indus Share. And then I went back to recovery. So it was just the one-off. And then when I got ready to come back,

now the Thunderdome is in Tampa at the USF. And I debuted with Shanky and Veer. At that time, a week prior to the debut, I talked to Vince. I said, hey, Vince, what do you think about me being paired with Indus Share, Veer and Sanga? He said, ah, great idea. I get to TV the next week. I see Veer, and then I see Shanky.

What's Shanky doing here? Sanga was in India, and now he's landlocked. He can't come back, so they just stuck Shanky in there, which was cool, too. and then after the draft, Veer went his own way, and then I stayed with Shanky for a little bit. When we started going back on the road, it was me and Shanky.

Veer was on his own coming for many weeks. Yeah, many, many weeks. Beer is coming. There is coming. Yeah, yeah. So that was a Thunderdome. It was fun. It was actually kind of like wrestling

on a poorly attended indie show. The good thing about the Vira's coming, I mean, it was just so funny to say that as a sentence. But the era of the vignettes seemed to be gone for a long time. Yeah. But when we grew up watching wrestling,

late 90s, Vegas were awesome, so many vignettes. Mr. Perfect, Razor Ramon. Yeah, they were amazing. I remember Kurt Angles vignettes. Like, you knew everything

you needed to know about that person before they debuted. Yeah, yeah. So by the time they debut, you know if you like them or you don't like them, you know a little bit of their backstory. I think now with NXT,

You don't really need vignettes. I don't know. There's a lot of people that don't watch NXT that just watch Ron Smackdown. But everybody's online. Everybody is online. Everybody's online. It's true.

Yeah. It's true. Yeah. How did you feel about the work you did with Shinska Nakamura? Because there was some, there were some like racial undertones, overtones, if you will. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, no, there was a, there was a, promo in particular. And recently, I actually just seen Shelton Benjamin tweet that, like, if you could take back one thing in his career. It was a promo with Yoshitatsu, same thing, kind of like a racial promo. So that day, I had the promo. I got the script from the writer. This is from Vince. He wants you to say this. I was like, oh man, I don't want to say like, is there anything else we can do? He said, no, he's come from Vince. So I even asked Vince, Vince, like, this is going to get

negative backlash. He said, no, no, no, no, don't worry. Who cares? It's not you. It's a character. Just entertainment. So did the promo, was not happy with it, not proud of myself for doing it. Really wish that. I could take that moment back. But fortunately, I can't. And right when we came back, it got a lot of negative backlash. Like, I remember coming back from Gorilla.

I was still hanging out by Gorilla and one of the social media managers came up to me and said, hey, like, this is getting a lot of bad PR. and Vince wants to write, like, for you to tweet something, like a statement. I said, okay, cool. And he actually wrote, he came up with something. Maybe the PR team wrote as someone, he came up with a statement. And as we were about to tweet it, he said, actually Vince changed his mind. He said, no.

Take the hate. Yeah, yeah. So it was just one of those things where it is what it is, not proud of doing it. But on the plus side, I don't think. Something like that, a promo like that, will ever happen again in WWE. Things changed, the regime changed. Everything is much, much different now. That was a different era, different time.

Under Vince, his style was different, and sometimes he was stuck in his ways. The lines are so blurred, though, because when a character on a TV show or in a movie does something like that, we don't associate that. You separate the performer from the on-screen character. But for some reason in wrestling and WWE pro wrestling, it doesn't happen. Like I don't. It is the character and the- I don't think Edward Norton is his character

from American History X. Yeah. I just go, that's an actor with a great performance. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. So funny in wrestling how they can't be separate.

Yeah, and that was the explanation that was given to me. And like, all right, fine, we'll do it. Okay, we'll do it. What are you supposed to say, though? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

But you in a bad spot. Yeah, I had asked, like, can we do something else? Is there anything else we can do? Let's told no. This is, Vince wrote and you either do it or you take your ball and goal. Yeah. What are you most proud of in both of your WWE runs?

What I'm most proud of is from where I started before WWE, like I started with a bus pass. It took the bus to go training. Everything struggled, came up, set up rings, did everything that I needed to do to learn the business to the heights that I reached. Becoming WWE champion. I'm most proud of the journey. That's what I'm most proud of. It's not one moment. It's the whole thing.

The journey. Because the journey is the best part, right? All these achievements, they're cool, but the journey, the things you experience, the struggles. that's the best part. I feel like you're still on this journey. Yeah, yeah, of course. The journey never ends, yeah. Is there a, like, a rejuvenated, like, fire inside of you?

Yeah, yeah. Over these last three months? Definitely, yeah, yeah, there is, yeah. And I needed this because I was, like, not phoning it in, but I was told I'm a manager now. Yeah. And, like, that's my role. And on the inside, I want to do more. So just a lot of frustration.

So now, No more frustration. Yeah. Just optimism. Yeah, you seem like you just put a positive spin on everything. I love it. Yeah, yeah. That's what I have to do, right?

But there's a lot of people that could go, man, that was my dream job. It was taken away and like, I'm going to do everything I can. Yeah, but the thing is nothing lasts forever. I had a 12-year run with WWB between both runs, 12 years on the main roster. That's amazing, got to do everything, right? Yeah, literally. Yeah, exactly.

So it's all good. Yeah. So I'll ask you the same question that we wrapped the last interview up with. And by the way, thank you for making the time to do this. Oh, thank you. Thank you for coming out here. Great to have you in the studio. If we can get you another audition here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are three things you're grateful for now? Trying to think of what I said last time. Okay, I'm grateful for... You can say the same answers. Yeah, yeah. I'm grateful for the future because it's going to be bright. It's only up and up from here, right?

Things get better, only get better, only up from here. So the future, the past for all the lessons that I've learned and all my experiences and all the people that I've met. And family. It's actually for the first time this past week. I've been in America for 14 years. My family came to visit me because I had time off. So that was amazing. So family.

I love that. Great shirt, by the way, too. Look at this. He's got an alligator in one pocket and a flamingo and the other. Yeah. He can tell. Rolex. Tell I'm from Florida.

You can tell this man lives in Florida. Styling him profiling here. Yes, sir. Raj, I'm excited for what's next for you. Yeah, thank you. And I can't wait to watch the journey continue. Yeah, I'm excited, and hopefully we get to do this again sometime. Let's do it.

Appreciate it. Big thank you to Raj for joining us in the studio, and thank you for being with us and staying all the way until the very end like this. Very excited to see what's next for him. And since he's officially a free agent as of today, there is a real possibility that we could see him pop up somewhere this weekend. And, I mean, there's some big shows happening this weekend. And I'm not saying that I know anything.

But I'm saying there's a possibility we could see him show up somewhere very soon. Snap a screenshot and tag us on Instagram. He's at Raj the Maharaja. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And what a great quote here from George Elliott. to wrap this up. It's never too late to be what you might have been. Be great and be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Ask CVV number 40 coming at you tomorrow. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand

bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom.

Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.