To the chagrin of hordes of fans, WWE spent half of 2017 stubbornly doubling down on Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion. However, now that Mahal has no title to defend, Vince McMahon and Co. may be ready to abandon the Modern Day Maharaja.
Over the past month, some ominous developments have manifested that indicated Mahal’s time in WWE’s main event was terminal. His heavily marketed prodigal return to India was minimized as WWE canceled some of their shows in New Dheli. It was believed that Mahal would enter the Asian tour as WWE Champion and even after he lost to AJ Styles, the common sentiment had him winning it back in front of his “home crowd.” However, instead of Styles, Mahal will face Triple H at the event.
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But the slide to irrelevance does not stop there. During Survivor Series Mahal cut a promo to remind fans and AJ Styles that he’d be getting his revenge and his WWE Championship back on this week’s SmackDown. Well, just like Mahal’s Survivor Series match against Brock Lesnar, his rematch against AJ Styles has gone up in smoke.
Mahal is no longer set to challenge Styles on Tuesday night marking yet another data point in the sharp decline of the Modern Day Maharaja’s narrative.
For better or worse, Mahal is trying to get in front of the wave of negativity cut a promo today to let us know that his ship is not sinking; even though we know it is.
While it’s a little early to eulogize Mahal, this does appear to be the end of him in the main event. He could certainly return but would need considerable character rehabilitation. Hinging entirely on American’s disposition for xenophobia, Mahal was essential playing the role of a Middle Eastern troll during his reign atop WWE. The psychology behind his character was outdated, to say the least, but to his credit, he did seem to improve by the week.
Where Mahal goes from here is anyone’s guess.
