WWE News: Jinder Mahal's next target is John Cena's legacy

What’s the story?

Jinder Mahal defeated Randy Orton at WWE Battleground last night, for the third consecutive time to retain his WWE Championship, thanks to a little help from a returning Great Khali.

Following his victory in the Punjabi Prison match, Jinder was feeling confident in victory and now looks to be setting his sights on sixteen-time world champion John Cena.

In case you didn’t know…

Both Jinder Mahal and John Cena walked out of Battleground victorious in their matches last night.

Cena was able to defeat Rusev in a flag match and a showdown between Cena and Mahal now looks inevitable, with Cena likely looking to defend the honour of America against the "Modern Day Maharaja".

The heart of the matter

Jinder Mahal now holds three victories over Orton and he spoke to The Indian Express about his victory over Randy last night and a possible match with John Cena.

"I put the Vipers’ legacy to rest. I beat a fourteen time World Champion three times in a row, whose legacy am I going to put to rest? Maybe John Cena. He has a legacy of his own, I would like love nothing more than to use his legacy as a stepping stone and cement my own legacy."

A victory over John Cena at the biggest event of the summer could solidify Jinder's position at the top of the card.

To come out of a program with a fourteen-time world champion with no defeats shows that Jinder Mahal really means business and he has plenty of momentum heading into a possible program with John Cena for the WWE Championship

John Cena will have plenty of motivation going into this, with the prospect of becoming the first ever seventeen-time world champion, sure to add extra excitement to this feud.

What’s next?

WWE Summerslam is just under a month away and anything can happen between now and then as we've seen with the AJ Styles Kevin Owens title changes, but current plans look to have Jinder Mahal vs John Cena for the WWE Championship at the biggest event of the summer.

"The Champ" would be the clear favourite in most cases, but with Mahal now backed by the Singh Brothers and the Great Khali, he is now a formidable force to be reckoned with on Smackdown Live.

Tomorrow's Smackdown Live should offer some clarity about where plans for Summerslam are headed.

Author’s take

If you'd told me at the start of the year that the WWE championship at Summerslam would be John Cena vs Jinder Mahal, I would have never believed you, but Jinder has worked hard to get to where he is.

He has one of the best looks in the company and has developed his character to offer something new to the company.

Cena always brings the best out of people in his promos and his matches. I don't think we've seen the best of Jinder yet, so it will be interesting to see what Cena can bring out in him. If Jinder Mahal can go toe to toe with "The Face That Runs The Place", then we may have a solid main event heel on our hands for years to come.