Over the summer, Jinder Mahal shocked the wrestling world and became the WWE Champion. For the last five months, “The Modern Day Maharaja” has feuded with Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura, and others to establish himself as a legitimate main event superstar on WWE television. However, his title reign came to a surprising end earlier this week when he lost the WWE Championship to AJ Styles on SmackDown Live.
Before WWE officials changed their minds, Jinder Mahal was preparing for a big match with Brock Lesnar at WWE Survivor Series . Since the title change, there have been numerous reports claiming many different reasons why WWE officials decided to take the WWE Title off Mahal’s shoulder. It’s been reported that low ratings for SmackDown Live caused the change, along with fans preferring the Lesnar vs. Styles matchup more than Brock vs. Jinder. Despite all the possible explanations, here is why Vince McMahon ended Mahal’s WWE Title reign.
WWE officials were serious about expanding into the Indian market and were willing to push through a few short-term issues to make that happen. Most people were surprised by the recent title change because they assumed that Mahal would hold the WWE Title through the upcoming WWE India tour in December. It is being reported that Vince McMahon pulled the plug because Mahal has not helped their business in India.
Apparently, Jinder Mahal’s WWE Title reign hasn’t been a financial success, according to recent reports, so the low ratings and issues heading into WWE Survivor Series might have been too much for Vince McMahon and WWE officials to ignore any longer. There is a lot of speculation that Mahal will win the championship back specifically for WWE’s tour of India, but it seems he won’t be holding the title into WrestleMania 34 .
At this point, it’s unclear what the future will hold for Jinder Mahal on WWE programming. After the India tour, the expectation is his push won’t be as strong, and he may be pushed into the midcard and the United States Title picture. On paper, that could be a great spot for him. No one is calling Jinder’s run as the WWE Champion a failure, but Mahal had a specific goal to achieve, and it seems that part of the plan didn’t work.
[Featured Image by WWE]