7 things that didn't go as well as WWE wanted them to this year

Whi
There were a lot of things that could have gone better for WWE this year.

#1 Jinder Mahal's title reign

Ad
Jinder was no
Jinder was not hindered this year...but was it worth it?

Let's start this one off with some good things - first off, kudos to Jinder Mahal for his remarkable physical transformation. He was "somehow" able to go from a somewhat doughy, average looking wrestler to an absolutely jacked paragon of physical fitness in the course of a few months. And good for him for shooting up the card the way he did. He went from a jobber in 3MB, to a jobber not in 3MB, to winning the WWE Championship.

Ad

Unfortunately, the latter is also the biggest problem with Jinder Mahal.

Is this man the funniest man in wrestling?

In order to make someone seem deserving of a title opportunity, you have to spend some time building them up. You have to have them rack up a few key victories over the course of a few months, and then *maybe* they can be considered a credible challenger to the company's top prize. This was not how they carried out Mahal's push.

Ad

When it was rumoured that WWE wanted to expand the Indian market, Mahal was almost immediately shoehorned into the limelight in April, despite having jobbed to Mojo Rawley and Rob Gronkowski at WrestleMania just weeks before.

When he surprised the world and became #1 Contender to Randy Orton's WWE Championship, the fans were not wowed (which was clearly WWE's intention) - they laughed. They knew for certain Mahal was just a placeholder opponent for Orton before building towards something bigger.

Ad

But it wasn't. He won. Jinder Mahal, a man who once lost to El Torito, won the WWE Championship.

As if it was stupid enough to put the title on a guy without building him up first, Mahal would go on to cut the same promo week after week after week about how the fans are ignorant or whatever. He would also wrestle the same match time after time after time - a slow, plodding affair reminiscent of an old-school foreign heel.

Ad

No disrespect to the pioneers of wrestling, but that style simply does not work in 2017. Despite this, they still routinely put him over guys like Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura (I am still bitter about the latter).

Not only did Mahal's victory/reign do little for the Indian market (even when they brought back Indian-hero The Great Khali back one night to help him), but it somehow made SmackDown boring. Imagine that - a show that features some of the world's most talented and entertaining acts...was boring.

Ad

Thankfully, his snooze-fest of a reign ended at the hands (or, in this case, forearms) of the much more deserving AJ Styles, bringing prestige back to a Championship that had been tarnished and devalued for 170 insufferable days.

In short, WWE wanted so much to come from Jinder Mahal's title reign...yet none of it did. I don't believe they'll be putting the title back on him anytime soon. At least I hope.

Quick Links

Edited by Nishant Jayaram
sk promotional banner
Sportskeeda logo
Close menu
WWE
WWE
NBA
NBA
NFL
NFL
MMA
MMA
Tennis
Tennis
NHL
NHL
Golf
Golf
MLB
MLB
Soccer
Soccer
F1
F1
WNBA
WNBA
More
More
bell-icon Manage notifications