The Great Khali Explains Why Vince McMahon Made Him a Comedy Wrestler, the Punjabi Prison Match

Former WWE Superstar and World Heavyweight Champion The Great Khali joined Insight with Chris Van Vliet for a recent interview to discuss his career, why Vince McMahon transitioned him into a more comedic role before his WWE exit, and more. Below are some highlights from Insight:

The Great Khali on Why Vince McMahon Made Him Into a Comedy Wrestler

“After WWE finds out Khali wants to leave, so then he made me a comedy wrestler, because he wants to kill my character. When I start wrestling in WWE, all of India watches wrestling. Everyone, kids, women, men, young and old. So he’s thinking he wants to leave, so he made me a comedy wrestler.”

On Why McMahon Thought He Wanted To Leave

“I think so, because I wanted to work on my own thing.”

On If He Knew He Was Done in 2014

“Yeah, I wanted to work on my own things.”

On the Backstory for the Punjabi Prison Match

“Punjabi prison match. First, when I had the Punjabi prison match set up for me and Undertaker. They called me. ‘You can’t work this one.’ I said, man, come on, man. I think 2 days before [he called me]. Oh, you can’t work Undertaker. I said, come on, why? ‘You have something wrong with your blood.’ I’m so sad. I don’t know what happened. So I was there. So Undertaker and Big Show in that ring are practising. You can’t work, Big Show and Undertaker work in this Prison match. I said this is a bad decision. All the things build, then 2 days before they say you can’t work. Some health issue.”

On Where the Idea Came From

“My character is Punjabi. Everybody say he worked in the Punjab police, so the idea came from there. It’s bamboo or something.”

WWE held the last Punjabi Prison match at WWE Battleground 2017, featuring Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Title. Mahal retained the title thanks to help from Khali, who made a surprise appearance.

The Great Khali was previously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2021.