WWE: The Jinder Mahal Problem

WWE SummerSlam wasn’t a major disappointment, but of course, it had its flaws.

While many fans agree that WWE SummerSlam was a huge success this year, it didn’t come with out its fair share of controversies. Rusev being squashed in less than a minute, Baron Corbin getting “buried” in the opening match against John Cena and  a kickoff show that featured The Miz, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, The Hardy’s & Jason Jordan performing in an arena that was a little less than half full are all prime examples of this.

Fast forward to much, much later in the broadcast and you get to Shinsuke Nakumara vs. Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship. The Modern Day Maharaja retains his title with a huge assist from The Singh Brothers. Yeah, the sky is also blue. Mahal retaining his title isn’t really the problem. Sure, Nakumara winning would have made more sense. The crowd in Brooklyn was ready for it, his entrance was on point, Cena put him over clean, etc. Point blank, SummerSlam 2017  just seemed like the right time. Well apparently it wasn’t and that’s honestly okay. What wasn’t okay was the awful ending.

Having someone retain their championship via their opponent getting distracted and them taking advantage of it should be done on occasion if you’re a heel. Doing so all the time makes the said wrestler look extraordinarily weak and unthreatening. That was the case here, as Mahal proceeded to retain the title the same way he’s kept it since becoming champion.

At this point, Mahal isn’t getting heel heat, fans are just tired of seeing the same old predictable finish or in the case of SummerSlam; an anti climatic outcome, that left many fans frustrated and disappointed at the same time. And of course, if the WWE Universe is getting tired of something, one thing is certainly for sure: you’re going to know about it.

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This is usually the part about “the bright side”, but in this case, I can’t see one. Mahal is a phenomenal wrestler and someone who a lot of fans wanted to see succeed in the WWE with proper character development. Instead he went from jobber to WWE Champion in a matter of months and nobody bought it. Had the creative team given it time, it may have been different. Unfortunately, It’s not and now we’re stuck with something that could have been so much more.