"He probably had so much to prove" - EC3 shares his honest thoughts on controversial former WWE Champion (Exclusive)

Former NXT star EC3 recently opened up about Jinder Mahal's much-talked-about WWE Championship reign from 2017.

The Modern Day Maharaja suddenly found himself under the spotlight when he captured the WWE Championship from Randy Orton at Backlash 2017. Fans also struggled to process Mahal becoming a main event star with little to no build. During his nearly six-month reign, Jinder Mahal slowly learned to carry himself as a world-class athlete, regardless of what his critics said.

On Sportskeeda Wrestling's The Wrestling Outlaws, EC3 spoke about Jinder Mahal's elevation to the top of the card. He stated that Mahan constantly tried to prove to fans that he was worthy of the position he was thrust into during his WWE World Title reign.

The former IMPACT Wrestling World Champion also looked back at working with Jinder Mahal in FCW and lauded him for this "work ethic."

"There's a term too, especially for the upper echelon of main event talents, where you can take your time between things and interact with fans, and it's not as physically taxing as, but Jinder never worked like he was over when he became a champion cause he felt he probably had so much to prove. We were training in FCW, blowing up, doing drills, gear changes, aggression, and working holds like an actual struggle instead of just sitting there. So that work ethic, unless you know you don't and seeing him portray that brought him to his legitimacy, then yeah, he had a good run," said EC3. [2:48 - 3:29]

Check out the full video below:

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Vince Russo thinks Jinder Mahal did a great job as the WWE Champion

In the same conversation, Vince Russo, too, lavished praise on Jinder Mahal, saying the former WWE Champion did "nothing wrong" during his title reign. Russo believes The Modern Day Maharaja did a "great job" at the top.

"I was saying this all along. When the belt was actually on him, he did nothing wrong, from what I was watching. Like I thought he did a great job, he didn't do anything wrong!" said Vince Russo. [1:43 - 1:59]

Though Mahal never touched the same heights again, it's safe to say that even if he were to be pushed again, he wouldn't seem out of place this time around.

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Do you see Jinder Mahal becoming a main event act again in WWE sometime down the line? Sound off in the comments section below.

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