10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (June 23)
How Jinder's career was almost so very different.
As the reigning WWE Champion, Jinder Mahal is riding the crest of a wave.
Completely turning his career around, he was able to bounce back from the shock of a WWE release in 2014. During his time away from the company, Jinder actually thought about restricting his time between the ropes and becoming a restaurant owner.
We're not making this up; Mahal really considered become a franchise operator and only wrestling on weekends. This isn't a dodgy throwback to a time when WWE cast wrestlers as plumbers, race car drivers and country singers (because apparently everybody had to have a 'real job' to work matches in the mid-90s): it actually almost happened. Imagine how different things might have been had 'The Modern Day Maharaja' went through on tentative plans outside the wrestling industry.
And you thought the image of Haku once being a car valet was frightening...
10. Daniel Bryan Feels WWE Failed American Alpha
Remember when American Alpha were promoted to the WWE main roster and everybody started giddily jumping around with excitement, wondering what the NXT standouts could achieve? Such feverish commotion has been tempered by the way Chad Gable and Jason Jordan have been handled on SmackDown.
Daniel Bryan told NBC Sports that he agrees Alpha have been let down by the blue brand's creative minds. Sure, they were once SmackDown Tag Team Champions, but that 84-day reign was less eventful than people imagined it might be. In Bryan's words, producing more segments that show Alpha's personality, a la UFC-esque vignettes, would be an idea with which to get them over.
WWE haven't done that. Instead, they've shoved the team out and expected more casual fans to cheer them as hardcore followers did in NXT. Things must look dire for Alpha, because it can't make WWE management happy that Bryan is so openly criticising them.