The Summer of Jinder Mahal has made history. If he makes it Hell in a Cell as WWE Champion (he will) then his reign will officially become lucrative.
Since becoming WWE Champion back in May, Mahal has successfully defended his title at 3 consecutive pay-per-views. His reign has champion has spanned exactly 109 days. So what, you say?
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Well his dominant summer has him zooming by some legendary names in WWE history who never held a WWE Championship as long as the Modern Day Maharaja:
Here’s the short list Mahal has already jumped in his lengthy run:
Chris Jericho: 98 days
Ric Flair: 77 days
Edge: 76 days
Mankind: 26 days
Think that’s impressive? Well if Mahal does indeed hold onto his WWE Championship to October 8th’s Hell in Cell, it will make 139 days. Such a run would put Jinder above some of the greatest names in the history of WWE.
The Undertaker:133 days
Eddie Guerrero:133 days
Kurt Angle:126 days
The Rock:119 days
Suddenly an apparent one-off WWE Champion finds himself in the rarest of WWE air. When Mahal pinned Randy Orton at May’s Backlash, few took it seriously. And those that did believe that it was just a cheap trick to penetrate the juicy Indian market. However, WWE continues to double down, triple-down and quadruple-down on the Modern Day Maharaja.
We would have never thought that Randy Orton, a WWE legend in his own right, would lose to Mahal in 3 consecutive pay-per-views. But he did. We never thought that WWE would deny the up and coming Shinsuke Nakamura’s signature win and WWE’s monstrous SummerSlam. But they did. And now, even if Mahal loses at Hell in Cell he would have already accomplished something truly gratifying.
Now he’ll never catch Hulk Hogan’s infinite run of over 1,400 days. And logic tells us that he won’t eclipse Cena’s of nearly 400 or CM Punk’s gold standard of 434. Yet he could reasonably run past Randy Orton’s best (around 200) or Seth Rollins rookie run (about 220).
However, before you go too crazy just know that there are other dynasties that are posted by some questionable names like Yokozuna (280) and Diesel (358).
We’ve been wrong to doubt Mahal and WWE’s dedication to his character. Rumors have him beating Nakamura again at Hell in Cell to ultimately face John Cena for this series 17th Championship. Is WWE building Mahal just to feed him to Cena? It makes all too much sense, but it’s just too early to know at the moment. Regardless, Jinder is demanding you to take him seriously. And by now, we’d be foolish to not.
