Drew McIntyre: Jinder Mahal Did A Great Job As WWE Champion

Drew McIntyre believes Jinder Mahal did a "great job" as WWE Champion.

The Modern Day Maharaja rapidly rose up the card in 2017 and he transitioned from a jobber role to WWE Champion in a matter of weeks following WrestleMania 33. Mahal would then hold on to the gold for 170 days, thwarting a Baron Corbin Money In The Bank cash-in and defeating Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura along the way.

Mahal's reign is regarded by many as one of the worst in WWE history because of his in-ring work and rapid rise, but his former 3MB stablemate Drew McIntyre thinks Jinder did a "great job" with the opportunity he was given.

"I think a lot of it came because it just came out of nowhere. It wasn't like myself. There was no build to that big moment and telling the story and history. He has a similar story, the exact same story actually when it comes to getting fired, but the position he was in at the time, it was just kind of hotshotted and I think that's why people were kind of negative. I think he did a great job with the opportunity that was presented. Perhaps low on experience at the time, but still, in my opinion, whatever he was asked, he did to the best of his abilities," Drew told GiveMeSport.

McIntyre and Mahal are currently locked in a feud ahead of the SummerSlam pay-per-view and Drew noted they have hardly scratched the surface of their rivalry yet.

"Where he's at now, we're about to show that he's at a different level right now. When it comes to the character stuff, being comfortable, no one is expecting him in a top role from his end. When it comes to the in-ring stuff, I'm going to bring some stuff out of him that perhaps no one has ever seen. That's what I see as one of my strongest points, the physicality and match quality perspective, I want to show everybody that he can go at a different level in the ring than you remember him being able to go last time he was in a significant match," Drew added.

"You're going to see a lot -- I hate to use the word work rate -- higher work rate than you've seen in the past from Jinder. From a character perspective, he's so comfortable and knows exactly who he is. That's the most important thing when you're in a deep storyline like we're about to get into. We've barely scratched the surface.

"You talked about how people resented when he won the title and how universally praised I was when I won the title. For him, that's a slap across the face. Like, 'Wait a minute, I have the same story as this guy. I was fired the same day as this guy. I came back sooner, won the title three years prior to him, and you're all going to say I'm useless and I'm an experiment and a failed champion while praising the guy who did it three years later?' That's BS from his point of view," McIntyre continued.

"He's working extremely hard as well so he feels like, 'Okay, there's a reason I did it quicker than Drew McIntyre and it's because I'm better than Drew McIntyre. I'm going to prove it to him and I'm going to prove it to everyone else.' There are so many avenues we can go and with SummerSlam coming up, from a storyline perspective, we've barely scratched the surface."