10 months ago
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Jinder Mahal recently made headlines for his World Heavyweight Championship match against Seth Rollins, due in part to AEW CEO Tony Khan's social media posts about the booking. AEW's Matt Hardy recently said on the latest "Extreme Life With Matt Hardy" podcast that he feels Mahal's return to the spotlight was welcome.
"I like Jinder as a person and I also liked him as a performer, too," Hardy gushed. "I thought he was an excellent heel. I thought he was good. I thought he really had the ability to piss people off in the most authentic way possible... I am not a Jinder hinderer."
Hardy had just returned to WWE when Mahal had his only run with the WWE Championship. While many thought Mahal's reign was rushed, considering he was an enhancement talent before winning a number one contender's match and defeating Randy Orton at Backlash for the title, Hardy said he didn't mind it.
"I thought he was getting steam as a heel. I'm not huge on the win/loss thing. I feel like wrestling is more about the story than the actual athlete's records," he explained. "That's me though. I know not everybody's like that. It is important to win, there's times that people should win because they're in a scenario and they're in a story where it's time for them to win and the blowoff to happen. But even when that happened, I do remember hearing his reaction at some of the events and he was very booed and people wanted to see him get beat up. So I get why they tried it.... I didn't have an issue with it."
Mahal's match against Rollins has come under fire even more in recent days. It was revealed following the match that Rollins had suffered an injury. It was revealed on Friday that the champion sustained a torn MCL and partially torn meniscus. Rollins is reportedly set to address the "WWE Raw" crowd on Monday about his health and future as champion.
