page_title: Jinder Mahal
section_title: Independent circuit (2014–2016)
hierarchical_section_title: Jinder Mahal / Professional wrestling career / Independent circuit (2014–2016)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Jinder Mahal en novembre 2015
context_page_description: Yuvraj Singh Dhesi is an Indo-Canadian professional wrestler currently signed to WWE performing on the Raw brand. He is currently inactive due to a knee injury.
  Having begun his career on the independent circuit, he joined WWE in 2010, making his debut on the company's main roster the following year. After a short-lived alliance with his kayfabe brother-in-law The Great Khali, Mahal formed the stable 3MB with fellow wrestlers Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre, before both Mahal and McIntyre were released from the company in June 2014. Mahal returned to WWE two years later with a dramatically improved physique and received a push following WrestleMania 33, culminating in a win over Randy Orton at Backlash in May 2017 for the WWE Championship. Mahal thus became the 50th WWE Champion and the first wrestler of Indian descent to win the WWE Championship. After losing the title in November 2017, he later won the WWE United States Championship at the 34th edition of WWE's flagship pay-per-view event WrestleMania in April 2018. The following year, he captured the WWE 24/7 Championship twice in June 2019.
context_section_description: Dhesi wrestled for Reality of Wrestling (ROW) under the name Raj Singh at their summer iPPV, ROW Summer of Champions 2014, defeating Jasper Davis. On October 24 at All Star Wrestling (ASW) in Vancouver BC at the live event Fright Night Live, Singh teamed with his cousin Gama Singh Jr. to defeat Kyle Sebastian and Collin Cutler to win the ASW Tag Team Championship. Between 2014 and 2015, he appeared in Puerto Rican promotion the World Wrestling Council (WWC) against local star Ray Gonzalez. He also participated in Qatar Pro Wrestling (QPW) Souq Waqif Championship tournament in April 2015, where he ended up as first runner up. On May 5, Singh made his debut for Japanese promotion Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), losing to Wang Bin. In 2016, he also wrestled for The Great Khali's wrestling promotion Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE) in India.
  In a 2017 interview on Chris Jericho's Talk is Jericho podcast, Mahal revealed that he "hit rock bottom" during his time in the independent circuit. He also mentioned that he stopped drinking alcohol and began working out and eating cleaner, losing 20 pounds in the process, two months prior to WWE calling him to return.
caption: Mahal in 2015
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