"Not proud of doing it" - Ex-WWE Champion addresses controversial promo on Shinsuke Nakamura

There were times in WWE when a promo or two crossed a line and offended a certain section of fans. Meanwhile, former WWE Superstar Jinder Mahal (Raj Dhesi) recently addressed his controversial promo on Shinsuke Nakamura from 2017.

A few years ago, Shinsuke Nakamura joined the Land of Opportunities under Vince McMahon's regime. The King of Strong Style feuded with the then-reigning WWE Champion, Jinder Mahal.

The Modern Day Maharaja cut an insensitive promo on Shinsuke Nakamura in September 2017. Jinder, alongside The Bollywood Boyz, mocked the Japanese star's facial expression. The trio laughed as they presented different images of Nakamura's face.

In an interview on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, Jinder Mahal addressed the racial promo and revealed it was Vince McMahon's idea.

"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 [this]. Is there anything else we can do? He said, 'No, it’s come from Vince.' So I even asked Vince, 'This is gonna get negative backlash!' He said, 'No, no, no, no, don't worry. Who cares? It's not you. It's a character, just entertainment!"' Mahal said.

Mahal also recalled how there were plans to handle the negative backlash, but Vince McMahon changed his mind.

"He [Vince McMahon] came up with something; maybe the PR team wrote it; someone came up with a statement. And as we were about to tweet it, he said, 'Actually, Vince changed his mind; he said no!' So it was just one of those things where it is what it is; not proud of doing it," Mahal said. [H/T: Chris Van Vliet]

Check out the video below:

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Jinder Mahal details scrapped plans for WWE Extreme Rules 2018

The Modern Day Maharaja had an eventful year after losing the WWE Championship, as he captured the United States Championship and feuded with Roman Reigns on Monday Night RAW in 2018.

In the same interview, the 37-year-old star detailed scrapped plans against Roman Reigns inside a Punjabi Prison at Extreme Rules. However, it didn't happen, similar to his dream match against Brock Lesnar.

"Actually, I was supposed to possibly have one with Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules. I think we just had a regular straight-up match, and it was in Chicago [Money in the Bank 2018]. There was talk of the Punjabi Prison match coming back. Me and Roman in the Punjabi prison. [And then did he just say I don't think so?] Yeah, just like Brock [laughs]," he said.

Jinder Mahal officially hit the free-agent market on July 18, 2024, after his 90-day non-compete clause ended.