WWE Backlash 2017 Match Card: Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal to Main Event

WWE Backlash 2017 has received its first match on Tuesday night, which will be for the WWE Championship.

WWE Backlash is a SmackDown Live-exclusive show, and will take place on Sunday, May 21. It’s their first event since February’s Elimination Chamber, if you don’t count Bray Wyatt’s House of Horrors match and Kevin Owens’ United States Championship defense at Payback.

Well, Wyatt won’t be going for the WWE Championship in this Payback match. Instead, it will remain on Randy Orton, but that may change at Backlash, as his opponent was set on Tuesday night.

On this edition of SmackDown, a Six-Pack Challenge match took place to determine a No. 1 Contender to the WWE Championship. Sami Zayn, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Jinder Mahal, Mojo Rawley and Dolph Ziggler battled, but after stealing the pin, Mahal won the match and will face Orton at Backlash.

If you called Mahal earning a main event spot at a WWE pay-per-view in 2017, you win. It’s a surprising turn, especially after how he has been used since returning last summer. This has seen him “job” to talents given bigger pushes, and team with Rusev in a feud about Enzo Amore being nude in front of Lana. So, it hadn’t seemed like an opportunity was on the horizon.

However, here we are. Mahal has a spot in the potential main event of Backlash, facing future WWE Hall of Famer, Randy Orton. It’s a matchup no one could have expected, but for a headliner, this may be as fresh as it gets.

Next: WWE SmackDown Review, Apr. 18

We have over a month left to build Backlash, which should be another interesting PPV. What else could be added to the match card?