Many fans have been critical of Jinder Mahal's reign in 2017 as WWE Champion, with some labelling Jinder an "experimental" champion as WWE looked to improve its position within the Indian market.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with GiveMeSport, Jinder acknowledged that he is aware of the issues that fans had with him being WWE Champion.

While I was WWE Champion, I was called the the experiment, the unworthy champion, the worst champion of all time

The WWE Raw star went on to say that fans who were critical of his time as WWE Champion were simply "downplaying" his achievements, going on to say that his time as champion had no bearing on the work that WWE was already doing in India:

So this is just people downplaying my accomplishments. WWE Universe in India, their TV deals everything, were just as much in play when I was in 3MB and while I was released I do believe WWE Raw was the live on Sony. When I was brought back who still write live on Sony. I wasn't brought back to become WWE Champion, at that time they separated the rosters again, Raw and SmackDown, and they just needed some people who were TV-ready essentially to throw on and maybe highlight some of the newer talent, but somewhere along the line I knew 'Hey this is my way in. This is my foot in the door. I'm going to knock the whole door down and I'm going to become WWE Champion.'

Mahal then questioned why fans didn't say that Drew McIntyre was only made WWE Champion to improve WWE's position within the UK:

So that's like me saying 'Hey Drew, you were WWE Champion because WWE wanted to expand into the UK'. Why is that? Why are people not saying that? Right now Drew is celebrated, I'm the one who was this experimental champion, which is untrue. I've worked hard for and I've earned every opportunity that I've ever been given, every championship that I've had I've worked very very hard for.

You can watch Jinder Mahal wrestle Drew McIntyre at WWE SummerSlam on August 21 live in the US on Peacock and in other international markets on the WWE Network.