SmackDown 1000: The Top 10 Moments In SmackDown History

Credit: WWE.com

9. AJ Styles Defeats Jinder Mahal To Win WWE Championship: November 7, 2017

The WWE universe was shocked to see Jinder Mahal become WWE Champion at Backlash 2017, but fans were even more shocked to see how long his title reign would last.  It started to feel like Mahal would never lose his title, but then a phenomenal challenger stepped up.

The Modern Day Maharaja turned back the challenges of Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura, among others, throughout his six-month title reign, but he would get his biggest challenge yet when AJ Styles stepped up to the plate and challenged Mahal for the WWE Championship.  It went down in England where history would eventually take place.

Styles had already been WWE Champion by this point, but he hadn’t been champion since the Royal Rumble 2017.  It was time for a change and at long last, The Phenomenal One managed to dethrone Mahal and become WWE Champion for the second time and end the reign of The Modern Day Maharaja.

This was Mahal’s best match during his title reign, and Styles still holds the title from this match to this day.  It’s very rare to see a world title change on free TV in today’s landscape of the WWE, but fans were treated to seeing it here in a way that made the WWE universe very happy.

He’s still the champion today, and it all began last year when The Phenomenal One dethroned The Modern Day Maharaja.