Jinder Mahal does not like the Punjabi Prison match.
The former WWE Champion defended his title in just the third iteration of the infamous match type. He battled Randy Orton inside three “bamboo” cages at Battleground 2017, in a match fraught with interference.
While Orton managed to fight off the Singh Bros, it was the one-night-only return of The Great Khali which cost him the match.
Jinder Mahal appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, where he proclaimed that the match type “sucks”. He called it terrible, as the crowd couldn’t see anything, and the cage was hard, yet didn’t make any noise when you hit it.
He said that the match itself was painful to compete in, but the crowd reaction was not what they were looking for.
“So first off, the Punjabi Prison Match sucks. It’s terrible. The inside cages are like the blue old-school cage. You can hit it as hard as possible and it won’t even make a noise. It was terrible. The crowd reaction was poor because they couldn’t really see. There are two cages, so when we’re on the inside, they couldn’t really see us. It was just painful—kendo sticks, chair shots, everything. But then, the Great Khali…”
Jinder Mahal: Great Khali’s Return Was Kept A Secret From Everyone
Jinder Mahal continued. He revealed that the Great Khali’s return was a huge secret – not just to the fans, but to everyone backstage. Khali was hidden during rehearsals, but his size meant the secret was not kept for long.
The Great Khali interfered in the match, attacking Randy Orton and helping Jinder Mahal to win. After the match, Khali posed with the WWE Championship in what was his last WWE appearance before being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
“So, I knew Khali was going to come. A few Singh Bros knew, Randy knew, but nobody else knew. It was supposed to be a big secret. They had the Punjabi Prison tarped off all the way from the roof and kicked everybody out of the bowl. No security guard, no one was in there. But they had to get Khali ringside to rehearse, so they wheeled him in on basically a buggy between crash pads. What are you guys doing? They tried their best to hide him, but everybody saw him. He’s pretty big.”
“He saved my championship. I won, and at the end, he raised the championship like he wanted, so it was good. Yeah, it was amazing. Actually, Khali’s hand is so big. He’s patting me on the back, but it feels like someone is slapping me. He’s like, ‘Yeah, good job, good job,’ and I’m trying to block it with my elbow. It’s the last thing I want right now.”
