Veer Mahaan: The next top WWE Superstar from India?

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Bengaluru, December 16: WWE has been trying its best to capture the vast Indian market with implentation of strategies and establishing an office in Mumbai, while signing a deal with Sony Sports has been some of those recent efforts.

But as long as they can’t churn out top talents from the subcontinent off their current roster, the company might never receive the needed attention.

This is why they are possibly focusing on Veer Mahaan who is expected to receive an impactful debut on WWE’s flagship program, Monday Night Raw.

For weeks now, WWE has been airing vignettes around the debut of Veer Mahan who was simply known as Veer, in early 2021.

He was seen on TV alongside the former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal and another Indian-origin superstar Shanky. Then suddenly, his name was altered to Veer Mahaan, teasing a solo debut for the Indian superstar.

Going by the vignettes, it’s evident that he could be built as an indestructible force on Raw. The “Mahaan” tag symbolizes “great” or “great man” in India which also suggests that he could end up becoming a babyface superstar.

Born on August 8 in 1988, Veer’s original name is Rinku Singh Rajput. Born and brought up in Uttar Pradesh, Singh earned some fame as he entered a reality show named The Million Dollar Arm.

Created by an American sports agent J. B. Bernstein and his partners Ash Vasudevan and Will Chang, Rinku was the fastest and most accurate baseball thrower and thereby the winner.

After moving to the United States, Rinku was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. He was the first Indian to play professional baseball who spent several seasons in the minor leagues, reaching the Single-A level.

Rinku was signed by WWE in January 2018 as they recently developed the nag of picking up more talents from mainstream sports. At one point he debuted on NXT under the real-name of Rinku Singh as part of the WWE NXT tag team Indus Sher also featuring Saurav Gurjar.

Saurav was released from WWE contract as Rinku got the main-roster callup in May of this year to work as Veer, along with Shanky and Jinder Mahal. The stable was eventually split up in the 2021 WWE Draft as Mahal and Shanky were sent to SmackDown, while Veer remained on RAW.

Earlier in the summer, Veer picked up three straight singles wins – against Drew Gulak on the July 1 edition of Main Event, against Jeff Hardy on the July 8 edition of Main Event, and against Drew McIntyre via DQ on the July 26 episode of RAW.

Afterwards, he has been on the losing side with Mahal and Shanky during six multi-person tag team matches, alongside digesting a singles loss to Jaxson Ryker on Main Event.

In recent weeks, WWE has seemingly repackaged the Indian Superstar as Veer Mahaan who competed under this new name on November 17 Main Event and defeated the former international champion, John Morrison. During this week’s Main Event taping, he also defeated former Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander.

Touted as the 'lion of the red brand’, it’s obvious that Veer will get a big push as a singles superstar once he shows up on Raw. While that’s a good thing, the inconsistency in WWE’s booking could be a big issue for him.

6’4” height and weighing 276 lbs, Veer can be presented as a monster on Raw but it takes a lot to become successful on the main roster. Only time will tell whether he could be entertaining in and outside the ring alongside some great mic skills.

Till date, The Great Khali and Jinder Mahal remain the only two successful Indian wrestlers who had the opportunity of holding the world championship in the biggest league of WWE.