Why Did Fans Hinder Jinder?

   Ever since Jinder Mahal won a #1 contender Battle Royal on that fateful Smackdown night, which led to a 6-month reign as the WWE Champion, I've been pondering why.  I'm sure many other felt the same way.  At the time, several heels on Smackdown were much higher in the pecking order, such as Kevin Owens, Rusev, and Baron Corbin.  It baffled me and still does to this day.  He's the last person I thought would have or should been the WWE Champion.  Regardless of how the push went and the Indian market, I still probably would have thought this way and many others as well.  However, I don't think it has as much to do with the fact that he won the Title, as much as that he won it out of nowhere.

   I might have felt that someone like Jinder Mahal shouldn't be WWE Champion regardless but the main reason why is the way it happened.  When Jinder first burst onto the scene in 2011 as the brother-in-law of the Great Khali. He portrayed a wealthy, arrogant man from Punjab, India.  He feuded with Khali and manager Ranjin Singh because he thought the two were acting childish and letting India down.  After that, he moved on to a feud with Ted DiBiase Jr., followed by an unsuccessful group effort to thwart the Brothers of Destruction, and a feud with Ryback.  He was sent back down to NXT as it was replacing FCW as WWE's minor league.  He lost to Seth Rollins in the finals to crown the first NXT Champion.

   In late 2012, he joined Drew McIntyre and the "One Man Band" Heath Slater to form a stable known as 3MB, short for Three Man Band.  They were portrayed as a comedic heel trio that would play air guitar to the ring and other silly shenanigans.  They became glorified jobbers at this point and while they were good for a laugh, you couldn't help but feel they deserved better, especially Drew McIntyre, who I thought had a lot more potential.  Drew left, went elsewhere, found himself as a performer, and came back better than ever.  The same could be said for Jinder.  By June of 2013, Jinder was let go from his WWE contract.

   For most of his WWE career, Jinder Mahal lost a lot of matches and was not a highly regarded wrestler.  He made his return last year.  He had a much more impressive physique and seemed to have matured.  It seemed like an oddball choice for WWE to rehire, though they also rehired Curt Hawkins as well, who was in the same boat as Jinder a few years ago.  From his 2016 return until shortly after this past WrestleMania, he didn't do much of note.  He was the runner up to winner Mojo Rawley in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and then was left laying by Mojo's NFL pal Rob Gronkowski.  

   A few weeks later, another Battle Royal took place to determine a new number one contender for Randy Orton's WWE Title at the Smackdown PPV Backlash.  The last two men left were Sami Zayn and Jinder Mahal.  As Sami was in a corner, ready to potentially win, NXT superstars the Bollywood Boys appeared and held Sami's legs. Jinder took advantage of the distraction and won the Battle Royal, becoming the new number one contender.  At the time, Jinder wasn't even in the conversation to win.  Although he won that match, he still wasn't considered by most fans to win the WWE Title, based on his past as a superstar.

   Then the unthinkable happened!  Jinder Mahal defeated Randy Orton to become the WWE Champion!  It shocked many people and I certainly didn't think they would actually go through with it.  As time progressed, he would call himself the "Modern Day Maharajah."  The Bollywood Boys changed their names to the Singh Brothers, and became Jinder's announcers for his matches.  Jinder would proudly display his Punjab heritage, even though he's actually Canadian. WWE's intentions were  to capitalize on the growing Indian market and Jinder was their representative.

   Now I want to talk about why I believe fans didn't like this.  I'll be more specific, though, because for the casual fan, they just boo him because he's a heel.  For the more hardcore fans, and I hope this is the case, the fans didn't like it because it's unbelievable to take a glorified jobber and turn him into the WWE Champion overnight.  It just doesn't work that way!  That's part of the problem and I really hope there aren't too many people out there that hate it because they're prejudice.  For me, not only is it not believable to take a man from obscurity to main events overnight, but there wasn't any build for it!  I might not have been as upset if there had been some actual buildup to him becoming Champion. For all I know, I may have even liked it.

   If their plan since his return was to make him WWE Champion less than a year later, it would have made sense to start building him up.  Up until he became number one contender, his biggest win so far was against Jack Swagger, not exactly the most formidable opponent at that time.  He had a short-lived partnership with Rusev but still garnered a lot more losses than wins.  I have never booked a wrestling story, nor am I trying to tell people how to do their jobs.  However, I do have common sense!  Without proper buildup, there was no way fans were going to take it seriously!

   Starting small would be good.  He returned in August of 2016 so I'd start him off slowly with a few minor wins.  Have him subtly move up the card and start to get PPV matches.  A win here, a loss there!  Give him a win over a mid-carder like Sami Zayn or an established vet like Dolph Ziggler.  After a loss against a bigger name, have him get the upset win in their rematch.  He's gotta be on the radar but not in your face either.  I'd give him a strong showing in the 2017 Royal Rumble, being in there for 45 minutes, something Rick Martel or Ted DiBiase used to do back in the day.  I'd have him be eliminated just before the final four are determined.

   His performance in the Royal Rumble should get him noticed.  Maybe give him a nice win at Fastlane just before WrestleMania.  Here's where you can really get the buildup going for his Title win down the road.  At that point, he should have actually won the Andre the Giant Memoral Battle Royal at WrestleMania!  Perhaps doing something underhanded to eliminate Mojo to garner heat. Then, instead of getting to celebrate his win, he is confronted by Gronk at ringside.  Jinder gets run off by Mojo and Gronk, and he's seen backing away, but smiling with his big trophy in is hands. Now Jinder has momentum!  With a huge Battle Royal win under his belt, he looks more like a possibility to win another one, this time to become #1 contender.

   In my opinion, it would have made more sense to give him some build before suddenly saying; "here's your new Champion, enjoy!"  I understand his attitude has changed since returning and he has matured.  I understand sometimes you have to go away for a while and then come back a better person.  I understand the growing Indian market as well.  However, let's be real here!  The Indian market is a major reason for this move.  Not only that, I'm sorry but you can't tell me he got this new physique naturally!  Having a physique like this definitely increased his chances for becoming a main event player.

   Even if all of that buildup took place, I still don't think I would have accepted Jinder Mahal as a credible WWE Champion.  As far as wrestlers deserving of the Title, that's really subjective.  There are others that share my point of view, but there are others that feel differently.  The biggest take away to me is that he was a guy that lost all the time and all of a sudden, he's beating soon-to-be legends like Randy Orton and is the WWE Champion.  More than that, they took someone from rags to riches without any buildup whatsoever!  I'd like to think that's why many fans tried to hinder Jinder!

If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments.  Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans.  Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport.  For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
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