Jinder Mahal

His uncle, Gama Singh, was considered a legendary wrestling villain in the original Stampede Wrestling and wrestled around the world (and briefly for the WWF, now WWE) in the 1980s.

Growing up in a wrestling family, Dhesi began his professional wrestling career at the Martial Arts Fitness Center in Calgary, training with Rick Bognar.

He debuted in Premier Martial Arts Wrestling (PMW) as "Raj Dhesi" and then went on to train with Allen Coage and Gerry Morrow, wrestling in a revived Stampede Wrestling alongside fellow future WWE wrestlers Natalya, Tyson Kidd, and Viktor.

As "Tiger Raj Singh", he won various tag team championships in Stampede and Prairie Wrestling Alliance (PWA), spending much of his early career teaming with his cousin Gama Singh Jr. They were known as The New Karachi Vice and also as Sikh & Destroy, winning the PWA Canadian Tag Team Championship.

Yuvraj Singh Dhesi (born July 19, 1986) is a Canadian professional wrestler.

He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Jinder Mahal and is the leader of the Indus Sher stable.

Yuvraj Singh Dhesi was born in Calgary on July 19, 1986.

He is of Indian (Punjabi) Sikh descent.

He holds a business degree in communications and culture from the University of Calgary.

In PWA, he was the PWA Heavyweight Champion from 2008 until January 2010 and also spent time in Great North Wrestling (GNW), where he feuded with wrestlers such as Hannibal and Samoa Joe.

Dhesi tried out for WWE's developmental promotion Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW).

At the tryout, he believed that his Punjabi gimmick and promos made him stand out, stating that he "came out wearing a turban and had [his] full outfit on" and that "they like guys who speak different languages and have different looks".

Having started his career on the independent circuit, Dhesi joined WWE in 2010 and made his debut as Jinder Mahal on the company's main roster the following year.

In February 2010, he signed to a developmental contract with FCW under the ring name Jinder Mahal and wrestled there for a year.

Mahal made his televised WWE debut on the April 29, 2011, episode of SmackDown, greeting backstage fellow Indian wrestler The Great Khali and his manager Ranjin Singh by speaking in Punjabi that he was really happy and excited to see Khali and Ranjin.

The next week on SmackDown, Mahal, unimpressed by how Khali and Singh have been partaking in childish activities instead of winning matches, confronted Singh about his mismanagement of Khali, establishing himself as a heel.

Mahal interrupted a Khali Kiss Cam segment the following week on SmackDown, slapping Khali twice.

On the May 20 episode of SmackDown, Mahal interrupted Khali's match against Jey Uso, leading to Khali confronting Mahal.

On his first televised match on the June 17 episode of SmackDown, Mahal defeated Vladimir Kozlov and on the July 1 episode of SmackDown it was revealed that Mahal was married to Khali's sister, making them (kayfabe) brothers-in-law.

On the September 5 episode of Raw, he suffered his first loss when he and Khali lost to WWE Tag Team Champions Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston in a non-title match.

In a rematch on SmackDown, they lost again to Bourne and Kingston, leading Khali to walk away from Mahal after the match, thus ending their alliance.

On the September 16 episode of SmackDown, Mahal attacked Khali during his match with Heath Slater which Khali won by disqualification.

On the September 23 episode of SmackDown, Mahal suffered his first loss in a singles match to Khali.

On the October 14 episode of SmackDown, Mahal competed in a 41-man battle royal and Mahal made it to the final three before being eliminated by Randy Orton.

In November, Mahal targeted wrestlers whom he deemed as beneath him or embarrassing and in November began a feud with Ted DiBiase.

On the December 30 episode of Smackdown, Mahal broke DiBiase's winning streak via submission to end their feud.

In December, Mahal tried to make a name for himself and went after Sheamus, constantly disrespecting him, but was defeated and for several months they were involved in multiple matches, with Sheamus always getting the best of Mahal.

At Mahal's first Royal Rumble on January 29, 2012, he was eliminated by The Great Khali, rekindling their feud and leading to a match on the February 3 episode of SmackDown, which Mahal lost.

At Over the Limit on May 20, Mahal participated in and lost a battle royal match where the winner was to receive a shot at the Intercontinental Championship or the United States Championship when he was again eliminated by The Great Khali.

In late April, Mahal began confronting several wrestlers, starting with Randy Orton, interrupting one of his promos and being attacked in retaliation with an RKO.

On July 23 at Raw 1000, Mahal confronted Kane, leading a group consisting of Camacho, Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntyre, Hunico and Tyler Reks and claiming none of them had been given an opportunity within WWE and would make one by taking down Kane, but The Undertaker's sudden appearance halted their advance and The Brothers of Destruction attacked the group and took them out.

On the July 27 episode of SmackDown, Mahal lost to Ryback by countout and then began a feud with him, winning by intentional countout and disqualification.

To try and prove himself to Ryback, Mahal requested a match against two local wrestlers in a match style similar to Ryback's, defeating them quickly by submission.

In spite of this, Mahal continued his feud with Ryback, attacking him during their matches and after Ryback's, but was ultimately pinned by Ryback on the August 24 episode of SmackDown to end their feud.

When WWE rebranded its developmental territory FCW into NXT, Mahal began appearing on the rebooted NXT, where he started a winning streak by defeating several wrestlers, including Derrick Bateman and Percy Watson.

On the August 8 episode of NXT, Mahal was inserted into the Gold Rush tournament to crown the first NXT Champion, where he defeated Bo Dallas in the first round.

On the August 15 episode of NXT, Mahal defeated Richie Steamboat in the semi-finals of the Gold Rush Tournament.

After a short-lived alliance with his kayfabe brother-in-law The Great Khali, he formed the stable 3MB with fellow wrestlers Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre, before he and McIntyre were released from the company in 2014.

He returned to WWE in 2016 with a drastically improved physique and received a push in 2017, culminating in him becoming the 50th WWE Champion and the first of Indian descent.

His reign lasted approximately six months, after which he became a one-time WWE United States Champion and two-time WWE 24/7 Champion.