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WWE SmackDown: Why Jinder Mahal’s Title Run Has Been A Success

By Josh Raibick

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So far most wrestling fans have considered the Jinder Mahal experiment on WWE SmackDown Live a failure.  The reasons that are given for this failure actually point to Mahal’s title run being a success.

Over the past two months, many wrestling fans have been wondering when the WWE Championship would be taken off of Jinder Mahal on WWE SmackDown Live.  The talk so far has been that Mahal is not relatable, has not done anything noteworthy, and is annoying to watch.

Last time I checked, that is exactly what makes a good heel.  In an article published last month, I explained that WWE currently has an issue with their babyfaces and heels because of inconsistencies in characters.

The point is that it is not Mahal’s job to do something exciting for the fans, that is the job of the babyfaces that work opposite of the “Modern Day Maharaja”.  If fans were cheering Mahal, there would be more reason for concern.

Since we have established that it is not Mahal’s job to bring excitement, let’s take a look at his feuds as champion.

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Mahal’s first feud as WWE Champion was with the man he took the title from, Randy Orton.  Now if any superstar deserves criticism it is Randy Orton.  Orton has not elevated a feud in the past two years, and the last time there was anticipation for an Orton match, it was with Brock Lesnar.

After a drawn out feud with Orton, next up was Shinsuke Nakamura.  While Shinsuke Nakamura has been a crown favorite since his introduction in NXT, his limited English vocabulary has eliminated any chance of entertaining promos with Mahal.

So when we look at Mahal’s major two feuds, whether it is Orton’s lack of motivation or Nakamura’s promo limitations, it appears that the babyfaces have not been holding up their end of the bargain.

Is Jinder Mahal an exciting wrestler in the ring?  Well, no he is not.  At the same time that is a classic mistake of main event heels that have preceded Mahal in the past few years.  As a heel, why would you do something in the ring that would garner cheers and eliminate the heat that was built in the promos leading up?

The heat that Mahal has drawn can be attributed to the lack of relatability between himself and the crowd.  This is a positive characteristic of a heel, because being Indo-Canadian, tall, and muscular is something that many fans cannot relate to and other performers cannot duplicate.

Another asset to Mahal is his ethnicity, where he is relatable to fans in India.  While Mahal might not appeal to American fans as a good guy, he does in India.  WWE is currently trying to expand their fan base beyond North America and Western Europe, and Mahal is the center piece of that for WWE in India.

There are over 1.3 billion residents in India.  That is a huge untapped market that WWE could grow their brand in.  Imagine if WWE did a network special in India, similar to how they did in Japan a couple years back?

The time difference in India would make it quite difficult to schedule a pay-per-view or weekly show, but a one-off show on the network could draw interest.  When an event like that would occur, it would have to be Mahal that would be front and center.

Next: Is Sami Zayn Being Booked Correctly?

Even if Mahal has only helped bring in 100 new fans on his own, it is 100 fans that WWE did not have before, and would not have had without Mahal.  When you are criticizing Mahal, remember that he may not be your champion.  At the same time he might be the champion that is appealing to over 17% of the world’s population, and be the reason why WWE expands beyond wrestling rich countries.