Jinder Mahal has spoken out following AEW President Tony Khan criticizing him last month for something he had no control over.
Khan took issue with the person who runs the USA Network account in response to a post about Mahal challenging Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship on WWE Raw last month.
It began with a discussion of the two stars’ history, with Rollins defeating Mahal to become NXT Champion. The USA Network account inquired: “What was the cagematch rating?” People assumed it was a shot at Khan because he has previously cited Cagematch.net user ratings when discussing the quality of AEW matches.
Khan then fired away by knocking out Mahal, earning a title shot despite not winning a match in a year.
Mahal spoke on The Gorilla Position about Khan’s shot at him.
“I think Tony Khan is forgetting I’m the Modern Day Maharaja, former WWE Champion, and being a former WWE Champion, I should be number one contender anytime I want. The Royal Rumble happened a week after that. If you notice, I wasn’t in it because I didn’t feel there was a need. The Modern Day Maharaja wants a title match, he can just get one. It’s okay. Overall, it’s great. It caused a lot of buzz, and I appreciate the competition because it makes everybody better,” he said.
You can check out the complete podcast below:
(H/T to Fightful for the transcription)