30 Most INSANE Things Wrestlers Have EVER Said On Live TV
7. Jinder Mahal Is Racist
Jinder Mahal’s WWE Championship run in 2017 was already a relentless struggle before his feud with Shinsuke Nakamura somehow made it even worse. Instead of crafting a compelling rivalry, WWE resorted to tired racist tropes, having Mahal repeatedly mock Nakamura’s appearance and accent in segments that felt both outdated and needlessly defensive. "You look stupid", as pronounced in such a way to mock a Japanese dialect, was the lowest point, but none of it ever escaped the gutter once the company found their way there.
The problem wasn’t just that Mahal was a heel using cheap heat - it was that the entire angle hinged on barely coded hate speech (that has since often been left out of re-runs on YouTube and the like) rather than any meaningful conflict. Fans weren’t booing because they wanted to see Nakamura triumph; they were groaning because the whole thing felt uncomfortable, uninspired and pathetically out of time.
Despite the offensive promos, Mahal retained the WWE Championship against Nakamura in back-to-back pay-per-view matches that were as lifeless as the storyline itself. There was no real sense of good triumphing over evil - just two performers trapped in a feud that felt more like a corporate obligation than a battle for the industry's "richest" prize.