Raj Dhesi

[6.0] "I'll be honest, this overly harsh rating perplexes me. I guess it makes a little more sense when you look at it from the perspective that Mahal was never going to move mountains as a worker, & yet was given a 170-day reign as WWE Champion, a reign punctuated by very little of interest, but when you look at what Mahal is capable of in-ring & try to look past the poor way WWE booked him, he's a fierce, beyond-capable, & impressively-built guy that is able to do fairly decent mic work. He belongs firmly in the mid-card, & he lacks the extended character work (or certainly any aspect of his work being "excellent") required to break through that designation. I feel like if they had booked his reign a little better & given him a few more notable opponents to work with (the 6 second Corbin squash certainly didn't help), he could have stepped up & used his ring skills to prove his worth, at least to some degree. He seems like a really nice, humble, professional person IRL, too."

[7.0] "Jinder Mahal was one of the most boring wrestlers going if we're being honest, guy had more or less nothing going for him in terms of charachter but could go to a certain extent in the ring. That being said, nowhere near enough to the leevel that he should have ever held the WWE championship, especially for as long as he did (and it felt as long as roman reigns' reign."

[6.0] "I never got the hate for Raj/Jinder. He was a serviceable midcarder that could put on a match that was never terrible. He put a lot into his character work that was great. He can cut a decent to good promo. He always made the most out of what he did or still does. He plays a heel really well and I love his pairing that he had to keep him as a cunning heel. He is just more of a character worker than a moves guy but you need that in wrestling."

"This moron lost to El Torito and then got pushed for the WWE title years later! Jobbing every week to suddenly being lucky enough to get a random main event push only to go back to being a jobber after the failed push. He's a joke by a group of cult fans who have no intelligence to reason with logic & all they respond with is the annoying "Don't hinder the Jinder" catch phrase. His title run had matches end the same, buried Nakamura, beat Orton way too many times with no good reason behind it, terrible boring promos, and terrible performance in everything. He is the worst world champion of all time, no good promos, not good in the ring, nothing good about him under the foreign heel & 3 MB gimmick nonsense. He climbs the ranks at #1 worst world champion ever along with Jack Swagger, Miz, Vince McMahon, David Arquette, and Great Khali."

[5.0] "Credit where it's due--Jinder did manage to hold the WWE Championship (for 170 days, no less! ), but let's be honest, that reign felt more like an extended vacation for the title. His matches are solid but rarely spectacular, and his promo delivery sometimes has all the excitement of waiting in line at the DMV."

[6.0] "Jinder Mahal is a classic example of a wrestler pushed beyond what their natural abilities and crowd connection warranted. His shocking WWE Championship win in 2017 felt forced, driven more by business interests than organic fan support. In the ring, Jinder is serviceable but lacks the dynamism or charisma of a top-level star. His promos are often wooden, and his matches rarely stand out. To his credit, he improved his physique and worked hard to elevate his game, but the gap between presentation and reality was always glaring. A solid mid-carder at best, not a believable main event anchor"

[6.0] "Jinder ABSOLUTELY is better than his rating on here indicates. He is, however, no where close to being WWE championship level, which is where the heat comes from. Jinder was both average in the ring and on the mic, his matches, while passable, lacked that extra something, he even felt out of place in the US title scene. It's a shame too, because it likely cut him off from thinking he needed to improve anymore, he was quickly buried and pushed below where even he should have been, but for a few month period he can at least say he hit the top, it just wasn't an enjoyable period if you were watching"

[7.0] "This guy has given some of the craziest moments we never thought we see. That WWE Championship win against Randy Orton still haunts some of the wrestling fans and gives an exact amount of pleasure to me. This was suppose to be done and they did it! Also his theme songs are so catchy."

[6.0] "Raj / Jinder is a good wrestler, not perfect but i don't understand why he is so hated ? He has a gimmick that he masters well and I've seen him in a "face" role on the indie circuit and it's a real shame that WWE never wanted to exploit this guy 100%."

[3.0] "I would love to say Jinder massively improved by the time he got to the WWE Champion level, but...he didn't, really. His promos were still whatever. He was stiff in the ring. The back-ne. Like, idk, they tried to make it work. And Jinder's still out there, doing his thing. Seems like a nice guy, so, good for him."

[6.0] "While he has a strong presence and his charisma is evident, his in-ring work hasn't made a significant impact this year. He's often been in the background, and his storylines haven't truly elevated him. There's still room for improvement, but he remains a solid veteran on the roster."

[6.0] "Raj Dhesi is one of those wrestlers that is perfectly capable as a mid-card heel but doesn't quite work as a main eventer. I am mostly talking about his bad reign as WWE Champion in 2017 where he wrestled the same boring match with the same boring finish. He was supposed to be a top guy for the Indian market but WWE decided to book as another generic foreign heel that cheated and disrespected the good name of the United States for cheap heat. I will give credit for Dhesi for working with what was given to him but nobody was going to take him seriously because WWE didn't give him time to build any credibility. He lost the belt to AJ Styles and went right back down the card and did nothing of note except for getting a random World Heavyweight Championship match against Seth Rollins last year. He's a perfectly average wrestler and that is okay."

[4.0] "Jinder Mahal (or Raj Dhesi as he's now known) has definitely been a lightning rod for wrestling debate over the years. I believe he gets a lot of undue disrespect, much of it is directed at him because of WWE's questionable decision to make him the WWE World Champion in 2017. Of course, the decision was done to expand the market size in India; But the biggest problem to this is that there were more popular WWE wrestlers in the Indian fan community, like Roman Reigns (who seems to be synonymous with the Indian Pro Wrestling Community, it's no joke that they admire him a bunch). Of course, WWE received massive backlash with the Jinder Mahal title reign, and although his character work was mostly solid during his title reign, I seem to agree with the criticism. Jinder Mahal isn't a good in-ring worker and is considerably the worst in-ring worker to hold the coveted WWE Championship. Although I will say, his character work is solid and he's not a bad promo; So I'll give him a few points, take all the good away (which the bad heavily outnumbers) and Jinder might be a 1 out of 10 rating."

[2.0] "Oh my God an absolute garbage wrestler. His in-ring is terrible, his mic skills are atrocious and his reign as WWE Champion was horrific. The fact that they gave him the belt, over Nakamura was disgusting work and I hate it so much. Jinder showed no improvement over his entire career in the WWE and his independent run hasn't been any better in the slightest. Terrible champion."

[7.0] "In my opinion, his booking has been the worst part in his career, his wrestling is okay and this is a surprisingly low rating for him, he has good height, a good build but is slightly lacking with movement, his body looks slightly stiff when wrestling but other than that he is absolutely fine, his promos are slightly below average but for me that makes him good enough to be a 6.5 - 7/10 in my books."

[2.0] "I do not care how you look at him or what name you want to call him this guy is simply a bad wrestler. He does nothing well. Bad wrestling, bad promos, bad selling. The only thing he does do well, and quite obviously, is take a lot of steroids."

[2.0] "He did not deserve his world championship and did not deserve to hold the title that long. He's really not the worst but he's not able to tell any interesting story when he's in the ring and his mic skills are barely insufficient. Since then, he never did anything that I can remember. Even in a clan he didn't get more momentum. He's slow and kind of boring. I hope he will find a place that suits him."

[5.0] "Honestly, wasn't awful, just saddled with some unfortunate creative (see: the promos on Shinsuke Nakamura). He's an okay undercard wrestler. Let's see how he does on this next indy stint."

[6.0] "Jinder worked well as a "foreign heel" who played on casual american racism towards people with brown skin even though he's from Canada. Overall, Jinder is a solid hand to have who has a great body and is a decent enough worker to have lasted in the WWE for as long as he did. Alot of people hate him because of the 2017 push he received where he ended up capturing the WWE Championship and holding it for 170 days and having wins against Orton and Nakamura till he dropped it to AJ Styles. The fact is the guy earned it, he radically changed his physique and he won the title as a heel so it wasn't like they were trying to turn him into some heroic babyface. It was a solid run for a guy who worked his ass off to get back into the company"

[2.0] "Ultimately, any of the negative feelings I have about Raj Dhesi isn't his fault in the slightest. It's more so the booking that he was given. At the end of the day, he was a jobber that only won the WWE championship simply to spark some interest in India, which failed miserably for a variety of reasons. Below average in the ring, foreign heel gimmick, an awful Randy Orton feud, a racist Nakamura feud, not even an attempt to expand upon his character or move set in any shame or form. He's decent on the mic, and he's a decent person. That's quite literally it, and it's pretty much impossible for him to get past this awful period, because he's legitimately one of the worst world champions of all time, and WWE is at fault for that."

[4.0] "He is slightly below the average wrestler. If I had to give the average wrestler 5 points, I could give him 4 at most. He has microphone talent, but he is very lacking in the ring. The only purpose of him becoming a wwe champion is for wwe to realize the potential audience in india."

[2.0] "While it felt a bit harsh to hear Tony Khan talk trash about him so publicly, Jinder Mahal can arguably seen as the worst world champion in WWE history. Going from jobber to world champ in a matter of weeks did him no favours as no one bought his quick rise to the top as nothing more as a ploy to advertise to the Indian community, which was unsuccessful to boot. People often compare his run to JBL's, and though I do not like JBL as a person, he wasn't a jobber before his run and he had memorable fueds during his reign. If they had given him a run with the US title instead, then maybe most people wouldn't look back at him so negatively, but in the end of the day, Jinder Mahal will never be seen as a credible threat to the main event picture again."

[7.0] "I'm sensing a lot of racism in the more negative ratings here, and I'm talking 5 and below. 7 feels most realistic to me, cause much like Jake Hager, they wouldn't put the strap on him if they didn't feel he deserved it, right? If anything, I'd argue the only real bad thing about his WWE title run is when Vince decided on the very agreeable(sarcasm) idea of having him be super freaking racist to Shinsuke Nakamura and Asian people(primarily East Asian, not Middle Eastern or Indian) as a whole. That was just terrible. The guy clearly has the talent to do what's needed for an upper mid-carder, and he proved he can handle being in the main event, especially as a the "needs help most of the time" heel, and even showed his character can do it without outside interference. Here's hoping he can get some good success elsewhere, cause the guy's got the appeal to be a top heel anywhere."

[3.0] "People saying "it's not so bad, it's a great heel...." make me laugh. Jinder is a below average, at best, wrestler. Even if he's decent at the microphone and he's got the fisique du role, his in ring work is embarassing, mediocre at best. It's not enough being hated for becoming a great heel: if you haven't talent, it's clear you're gonna be hated, especially if you are WWE Champion."

[5.0] "Has never set the world on fire with any particular facet of his game. Hes been used effectively in the past as a good heat magnet and is a half decent promo but has always fallen short in terms of work rate. I will say after seeing his recent interview with Chris Van Vliet he does seem like a really likeable person and I think theres a great opportunity for him to create some really fun moments following his WWE release. I could see him working really well in a place like GCW or TNA, so I wish the best for him."

[10.0] "Remember when Jinder Mahal was part of 3MB? Yeah, that was a wild ride. We all had a good laugh at their antics, but let's be real, nobody took them seriously. I'll admit it, I was one of those skeptics. I saw Jinder as just another guy filling up the midcard, never destined for much more than that. But boy, was I wrong. Anyways, Fast forward to his return to WWE in 2016. After being released and hitting rock bottom with extreme depression and alcohol addiction, Mahal rose from the ashes like a phoenix. And not just any phoenix, mind you, but one that would go on to capture the most prestigious prize in WWE. Let's pause for a moment and really let that sink in. Jinder Mahal, the same guy we used to joke about in 3MB, became the WWE Champion. It was a shock to the system, a moment that made us all stop and reconsider what we thought we knew about him. It was also a moment that showcased the power of perseverance and determination in the face of adversity. Sure, his championship reign had its critics. Some argued that he was pushed too hard, too fast. Others claimed that his in-ring work left something to be desired. And yes, there were moments when even his most ardent supporters questioned whether he was the right man for the job. But through it all, Jinder kept fighting. He kept grinding. And he kept proving his doubters wrong. Now, let's talk about 2017. It was a year of highs and lows for Jinder Mahal. On one hand, he was at the pinnacle of the WWE, holding the most coveted title in the industry. On the other hand, he faced backlash from fans and critics alike, who questioned his legitimacy as a top-tier talent. Some accused WWE of pushing him solely for their expansion into the Indian market, while others simply didn't buy into his character or in-ring abilities. I'll be honest, there were times when I found myself scratching my head, wondering why Jinder was getting so much screen time. His matches felt lackluster, his promos fell flat, and it seemed like he was being shoved down our throats whether we liked it or not. But here's the thing - despite all the criticism, despite all the doubts, Jinder Mahal never gave up. He kept pushing himself to be better, to prove that he belonged in the spotlight. And you know what? He succeeded. Fast forward to 2024, and Jinder Mahal is a changed man. I'm not just talking about his in-ring skills, although those have definitely improved. I'm talking about his whole demeanor, his presence, his aura. There's a confidence about him now, a swagger that wasn't there before. He's embraced his role as a top star in WWE, and he's owning it every step of the way. I'll never forget the first time I saw that video of him practicing a moonsault. It was like watching a whole new Jinder Mahal. Here was a guy who used to be criticized for his limited moveset, now busting out high-flying maneuvers like it was nothing. It was a testament to his dedication, his work ethic, and his unwavering commitment to becoming the best version of himself. But it's not just about what he does in the ring. It's about the way he carries himself, the way he connects with the audience, the way he tells a story with every move he makes. Jinder Mahal has evolved into a true master of his craft, a performer who commands attention every time he steps into the spotlight. So, where does that leave us now? Well, for starters, it leaves us with a newfound respect for Jinder Mahal. He's proven that he's more than just a former member of 3MB. He's proven that he's more than just a one-time WWE Champion. He's proven that he's a force to be reckoned with, a superstar who's here to stay. And as for his future? Well, the sky's the limit for Jinder Mahal. With his newfound skills, his renewed sense of purpose, and his unrelenting drive to succeed, there's no telling what he'll accomplish next. But one thing's for sure - I'll be cheering him on every step of the way. Here's to you, Jinder. Keep making us proud."

[9.0] "Never understood the hate against him. He is of course not a Daniel Bryan or Cody Rhodes, but he is in the ring with the power based offense. And he also proved that he can carry a segment if he got a well-written promo script, like he did against The Rock. He also has the look and attitude of a champion, and he had a lot of good matches against smaller opponents, for example against Aj Styles, Seth Rollins or even against Jeff Hardy back in 2018. I really hope that he gets a IC or US title run later."

[4.0] "Listen, I get WHY there's a defense of Jinder. Tribalism and all that jazz. But seriously, look at this man's work objectively. He's a midcarder that was used to prop up a deal with WWE expanding into a foreign country and that's why he got the title. There's nothing beyond that. Sure, there were some fun segments. But from an objective standpoint. Jinder has and is always been mid. Stop being weird and enjoy wrestling outside of your comfort zones."

[2.0] "He looks the part and definitely can cut decent promos. But in ring he is one of the poorest performers I have ever seen."

"I truly believe Jinder doesn't get the props he deserves. He has a great size and a good feel to him. He's the typical Anti-American heel but we need that in wrestling. His title run was mediocre and I blame the writing on this. This could have actually worked if done the correct way. From being a jobber to becoming a champ kind of story can actually work and mostly only can work for babyfaces, but if for example I myself have said...making this story of Jinder becoming champ as a purpose for Jinder and proving he belongs in the company. You can have him still stay a heel but as a straight heel and taking care of business. The other issue for the guy he that his move set didn't adjust based on his size, he needed help to keep the title every single time, which makes him look even more weak than he was before. It could have worked if done right....but lets be honest, he should have dropped it to Nakamura at SummerSlam, Brooklyn crowd would have lost it!"

[1.0] "A preface: I would be lying if I said I wasn't driven here by recent discourse, review-bombing, etc... I certainly would have no other interest in discussing Jinder Mahal if it weren't for his presence on TV in recent weeks, and for if it weren't for the backlash to Tony Khan's derisiveness toward his being booked in a World Heavyweight Title match. While my perspective on all of that social media hubbub was what drove me here, the sentiments I am about to express are not spurred by tribalism or any such thing. I understand the value of enhancement talent, I really do. Most major wrestling companies that have had any longevity, built their name largely off the backs of their use of jobbers at one point or another, and they still have their place today. The history of the business is littered with underappreciated jobbers. Jinder Mahal is not one of those jobbers. It's mind-boggling that after fourteen (FOURTEEN) years as a performer, he still hasn't managed to cultivate any strong in-ring work, any lasting character traits, or even managed to look anything other than awkward and uncomfortable in a wrestling ring. When that bell rings, he is a shitter to a legitimately rare degree, especially for someone of his veteran status. He can only put on one format of match (and he did it again last night) that invariably features a lot of smoke and mirrors, in place of actual storytelling prowess on Jinder's part. And maybe one could argue that the expectation for him to have any storytelling chops beyond being a one-dimensional, imposing meat man is unfair. After all, what is he there for other than to be a pin-eater? But I would argue that being this bad, for this long, at this level, regardless of placement on the card, should be completely unacceptable. Granted, his bewildering run as WWE Champion earned him the kind of scrutiny that career jobbers don't often encounter, but even so... That he's employed in a company like WWE, that purports to be the greatest wrestling product with the greatest wrestling roster on earth, is insane to me. Not that I begrudge Yuvraj Dhesi for earning a paycheck, I don't wish ill upon him personally or even professionally, but if we're evaluating what he brings to the table in his capactiy as Jinder Mahal... It's literally nothing."

[5.0] "An Ok worker, with ok mic skills. He is a generic wrestler who is just roided up to the max and has a good look. His booking as world champion was bad, it was abrupt, and fans weren't seeing him a threat, more as a lucky winner."

[2.0] "Jinder is terrible and if you genuinely think he's "underrated, " I sincerely hope you go see your doctor and get your brainworms removed. My man looks like a roided up jerky man and has less charisma than a bag of fish. Has never worked a single great match. Indian Tyrus on the gas. Just wretched."

"A highly underrated wrestler and overall good guy who has unfortunately been wasted on a number of occasions."

[7.0] "I don't get the hate against Jinder. I know his matches aren't 5 stars, but it doesn't mean he can't work out or fulfill the role they assign him. He is also a great heel with a well defined character that gets organic heat. Although he is far from being a main eventer, I have always felt that he can work it out as a solid midcard and so on. I agree that his run as WWE Champion needed some more build up to be more realistic, but he surely made better than others like Kofi Kingston or Big E."

[6.0] "I don't understand the major distaste for Jinder Mahal, he's a heel and he does pretty good at it. If it was still like 2013 when he was in 3MB, I would get it, but now guy has been hugely solid on the mic, and average wrestling (average, with nothing coming to mind that is bad, but nothing too interesting thus the 6 rating)"

[1.0] "You know, I am going to ignore the fact that he's Canadian of Indian descent and been pushed to get the Indian market, I am friends with several Indian natives and they agree it was weird for him to be; quote "the face of India for WWE". That is not why I am giving his such a low rating. The reason I am giving Jinder a 1.0 is the fact he has no memorable matches. Going way back to The Great Khali's "brother in law" to some comedy act in 3MB to the "Modern Day Mahraja" pushed as the WWE Champion with the Bollywood Boyz wasn't enjoyable. I have NO problem with the Bollywood Boyz at all but being relegated to his manager never gave me a reason to care about his run. Now, being pushed in to face Seth out of nowhere after to segue in The Rock to beat him up feels like some throwaway match. All in all, as a performer, never made me pop or be interested in his career, his match with Seth was adequate way back in the day, not terrible, but nothing to seek out really."

[7.0] "Jinder passes the "airport test" with flying colors. His look just commands attention, and he can go in the ring like anyone hired to a company on cable after 2013. Promo work is above the majority of his peers today. May be overpushed as champion but the reign is not nearly as bad looking back at it."

[2.0] "God knows what was going through Vince's mind when he made Jinder champion. He does not have the star quality nor wrestling ability to be an actual main event star in wrestling. Only memorable thing is his theme and the state of his bacne when he was on the juice."

[2.0] "Gefühlt gewann er die WWE Championship nur um den indischen Markt anzukurbeln, ein Musterbeispiel dafür wie man die WWE Championship entwertet hat."

[7.0] "He is a great promo and a great look, an underrated promo even, everything he says is very believable. People hate him for having a world title push years ago yet Roman Reigns gets a free pass for being pushed for years in the main event? I think he is an above average wrestler, which is perfectly fine."

[3.0] "Very bad wrestler with almost nothing interesting about him. He is another one of those guys WWE stereotypes, but in his case he was elevated at some points, and showed he belongs at best to the low card as an irritating heel. Very bad in the ring and on the mic, and with basically zero charisma."

[3.0] "When I first saw Jinder, I thought he had a good look and a nice gimmick. He had decent enough in ring skills but his moveset wasn't flesh out enough and he was still very green. He worked hard and managed to win the WWE Championship but his in ring work was mediocre at the best though he was good speaker. His run as a Champion was very bad imo, and he didn't feel like the main event."

[7.0] "Jinder Mahal est un excellent catcheur contrairement à ce que disent les haters. Je l'apprécie beaucoup, surtout quand il a été champion WWE. Il mériterait d'être mieux mis en avant dans les semaines et mois à venir. Et j'aime bien son clan avec Veer et Sanga."

[1.0] "Jobber, który sta sie ofiara fatalnego pomysu finansowego. Koszmar - jego praca w ringu, jego moc skill. Poziom Diesela z 1995 roku. Jedyne co zapamietam z jego fatalnego Title runu to jego ciagle wscieke miny, którymi chcia pozowac na kogos powaznego xd"

[5.0] "Think Jinder can get a bad rep. He had a pretty decent first run in WWE with his pairing with Khali being kind of interesting and 3MB being fun. He came back after being cut clearly roided up and that got him a bad WWE title run out of nowhere. Since then he has kind of just been a jobber again. Overall has pretty good mic skills and charisma and is alright in the ring."

"He has a decent look and is sort of charismatic, but does not have much else going for him. A very boring style in the ring and the mic skills should be better given how much time was invested in him as a main eventer. Then again, I suppose he has progressed in some ways since the earlier days of his career. At the very least, he is not bad like Great Khali."

[4.0] "Good enough for a background character or mid card roster filler, but he got pushed way too far and fast and beyond his abilities because politics and selling the WWE programming to his home country. Same thing with Great Khali. Got a world title run out of the deal because they wanted to market to India."

[6.0] "Jinder Mahal gets a bad wrap. I started watching WWE in early 2017, so Mahal's title run was the longest I had seen up to that point. I was happy when he beat Orton, and sad when he lost to Styles (even though I knew it was probably time for him to drop the belt). You can tell that he tried very hard. He has really good facial expressions and he is a decent promo and had a killer entrance, but the anti-American stuff didn't resonate with the US crowd. Why should it? India has no reason to be seen as a heel country to Americans. It might work with Russia/USSR, but not India. The material this dude was given was not very good. The racist promo against Nakamura being the one comes to mind first. Given how bizarre his victory at Backlash was, he might have worked as a meme babyface but not as a chickenshit foreign heel. They gave this dude no merch when he was the champion. I think he had like one shirt design and that was it. Why would they push him as a heel if their goal was to break into the Indian market? It does suck that they dropped the ball on him after the botch with Jeff Hardy at the Greatest Royal Rumble. His in-ring stuff was a glaring weakness, so when you make him the Champion on a show like Smackdown, which had recently been carried by champs with a high work rate like Styles and Ambrose, it is a huge change of pace. Might have worked in a different era or a different show, but it was not meant to be."

[2.0] "Mahal's best assets is his looks. In a previous age he'd excel as a main event powerhouse heel but in today's era he is too slow-paced and botches too much. His generic heel promos make his WWE title reign a huge failure."