WWE: The Importance Of Jinder Mahal, One Year After AJ Styles’s Iconic Title Win

On Nov. 7, 2017, AJ Styles won the WWE Championship for the second time in his career, defeating Jinder Mahal at a taped episode of SmackDown Live in Manchester, England. A year later, Styles remains the champ, but Mahal, the man who made Styles’s win so special, hasn’t had a set program for months.

When Jinder Mahal won the WWE Championship at Backlash 2017, fans were in a state of absolute shock. Mahal pinned decorated WWE Superstar Randy Orton to win a championship from out-of-nowhere. Over the ensuing months, Mahal would receive overwhelmingly negative reactions as an undeserving champion, and these reactions were compounded by his poor Pay Per View matches with Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura.

Mahal’s title reign was poorly-received by the majority of WWE fans, though a few observers enjoyed the surprise of his run at the top. They pointed out that many fans wanted to see new superstars get a chance to hold a world title, noting that if, say, Sami Zayn had won the WWE Championship (Mahal screwed over Zayn in a multi-man match to earn his title opportunity against Orton), they would be singing a different tune. WWE was trying to build a new star in Mahal, and some fans were intrigued by this change in direction.

Of course, the logic goes both ways. The Zayn supporters, for example, retorted that Zayn would be a more welcome champion due to his superior in-ring skills and underrated promo work.

Regardless of which side of the coin you fell on, Mahal’s WWE Championship run was both unexpected and offered a completely different dynamic. In a way, Mahal was a throwback to heels of the past. The uncomfortable “U-S-A” chants bellowed by WWE fans during his matches were reminiscent of the way old-school heels from foreign background would take advantage of the audience’s ingrained xenophobia.

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Mahal exposed some fans as xenophobic, even if they were unwilling to admit that they treated Mahal differently because he embraced his Indian heritage. He would explain to the crowd that they wouldn’t accept him due to his background, and while some didn’t accept him since he was a blatant cheater, others would chant “USA” back at him.

From disrespecting WWE legends to escaping low-quality matches by relying on his almost comically loyal henchmen, the Singh Brothers, Mahal used every single old-school heel trope in the book. The audience couldn’t hate him enough, and fans were practically beginning for anyone, specifically Nakamura, to win the WWE Championship.

That win for Nakamura didn’t come at SummerSlam or Hell in a Cell, leading some fans to become almost despondent. Here was Mahal, against all the odds, retaining the title Pay Per View after Pay Per View with the same tactics and essentially the same promos. But no matter what he said or how he won, the fans reacted just as vociferously. The hatred for Mahal didn’t wane, meaning that in this era, WWE essentially created a throwback heel from scratch.

Yes, WWE initially used its fan base’s desire for, you know, exciting matches as a way of building heat for Mahal, but the idea that the veteran wrestler couldn’t work a match was patently false. Just months ago, Mahal quietly had a quality television match with Roman Reigns, hinting that his poorly-received matches with Orton and Nakamura was a case of WWE going for “results” over “process”, so to speak.

That said, a Survivor Series 2017 match between Mahal and Brock Lesnar was hardly intriguing. Paul Heyman pretty much dismissed Mahal as not being worth of Brock’s time, and why would Mahal be a valid challenger for Lesnar? “The Beast Incarnate” defeated Goldberg, Samoa Joe, and Braun Strowman in a matter of months, so why would Mahal stand a chance? How would Mahal vs. Lesnar feature a compelling angle? And if Lesnar defeated Mahal, would some of the luster of finally beating Mahal on PPV be wasted on a non-title match against the undefeatable Lesnar?

All of these questions made it abundantly clear that Mahal would lose the title to somebody on the SmackDown Live roster prior to Survivor Series, and the only real option seemed to be AJ Styles. He had the clout, fans were pleading for a second title run for the “The Phenomenal One”, and a Styles vs. Lesnar clash at Survivor Series sold itself.

So when Styles vs. Mahal was announced for the pre-taped SmackDown Live in Manchester, England, the WWE Universe started buzzing. This was a chance for three incredible things to happen. Firstly, it would be a historic world title change outside of the United States; secondly, it would set up a “dream” match between Lesnar and Styles at “Big Four” Pay Per View; and, thirdly, a fan favorite would be the one to finally take the title off of Mahal.

Even though it was on a pre-taped show in an era where spoilers run rampant, Styles did win the WWE Championship, and more viewers tuned in to the show than usual (2.6 million). The reaction Styles received from the Manchester crowd following this feel-good title win was incredible. This was the first world title change to occur outside the United States in 54 years, so it needed to have emotional significance attached to it. Based on how badly the crowd wanted Styles to defeat Mahal, it’s safe to say that this championship victory will stand the test of time as one of the greatest moments in SmackDown history.

One year later, Styles is still the WWE Champion. He’s withstood challenges from some of the industry’s best performers, including Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens, Andrade “Cien” Almas, and Sami Zayn. Now, fans are waiting with baited breath to see who will eventually dethrone Styles, who is gunning for one of the longest title reigns in WWE history, just months after Lesnar’s record-breaking run with the Universal Championship came to a close.

Meanwhile, Mahal doesn’t have much of a presence on Raw. He shows up every week, but he doesn’t have a set program. Mahal will pick fights with wrestlers like Finn Balor, Apollo Crews, Bobby Lashley (prior to Lashley’s heel turn) and Elias, but there’s no stability for Mahal.

It’s a shame, too, because while some view Mahal’s WWE Championship reign as a failure, that honestly isn’t the case. Mahal won the United States Championship in 2018, and even though he had a brief reign, he did help elevate Jeff Hardy as US Champ on his way to SmackDown Live during the Superstar Shakeup.

More importantly, Mahal has grown greatly as a performer. He’s had some slip-ups in the ring, namely his mistake against Hardy at The Greatest Royal Rumble, but nobody bats a thousand (except maybe Orton). Mahal shined in tag matches during his program with Roman Reigns, as he was an excellent punching bag for Reigns in the lead up to their match at Money in the Bank. It was kind of a throw-away match for both wrestlers, but Mahal has become an entertaining promo and a fun part of the show after once being seen as a weak point of the roster.

So as you enjoy Styles’s “dream” matches against the likes of Bryan, Almas, and Joe (and hopefully The Miz is next…), don’t forget that the special start to his championship reign was made special by a man who was thrust into a sink-or-swim situation and made the most out of it.

The matches leading up to his title bouts against Styles weren’t necessarily the best, but when it mattered most, Mahal delivered and left the WWE Universe with a truly memorable moment. Wrestling is all about those moments, and nobody can take that from Mahal, even as he currently wanders in Raw’s mid-card. At any given moment, Mahal could become a real player again, because he’s shown that he belongs.