WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, who is scheduled to defend the title against Shinsuke Nakamura at this Sunday’s at WWE Hell In A Cell PPV, recently spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated about various topics. Here are the highlights:

Winning WWE Championship:

“There was originally no plan in place for me to become WWE champion. It felt like I became the number one contender out of nowhere. I call what I did forcing the results. I wasn’t happy with my position. I was putting in the work, but I wasn’t getting the results. I was going to force the result no matter what the cost.”

His planned promo on Shinsuke Nakamura last month that received backlash:

“Every day in WWE is also an opportunity. I have to rise to the occasion every time I am given that opportunity, and that includes every promo on SmackDown, too.”