2017 Pro Wrestling Thread

Jinder Mahal has a WWE championship match on a PPV, with weeks of build up. We live in a world where anything is possible.

 

Well, Slater did win a championship belt in recent memory. Kind of interesting to see that push, and now the one for Jinder Mahal, which began when he lost on the Gronk interference at WrestleMania. Nice, subtle start to that push.

 

We are always complaining about how the WWE "never creates stars anymore." Guess that process has to start somewhere, somehow.

 

Meltzer says the six month thing is a work.

 

Here's the thing, though. It works if there's some sort of buildup. Have them start earning wins against the undercard, then move them up, and build them up. Jinder hadn't won a singles match in ... years? Now he's the top contender, and we're supposed to buy that he can actually win. The story of a sudden contender works if it's a babyface jobber (like Ellsworth fluking his way into a title match), but for a heel jobber, it's just weird.

 

This show is insufferable ... or in terms only they can understand, repug. Finally unsubscribed halfway through listening to last week's episode.

 

It's also weird that it feels like he actually has a chance. Orton, one of the "made men" who is pretty much bulletproof whether he's champion or not, is exactly the type of guy Mahal could beat without damaging him. Maybe one of the few championship-level guys in the company you can say that about (Cena and Jericho being two others). I don't really want to see Jinder Mahal as champion, but I have to admit I am curious to see how it plays out.

 

Might get some hate for this, but I don't think this looks bad at all. After all, we've been clamoring for them to do something different for a while now. If given a chance, this could work.

 

And, if not, he becomes the Indian Miz. Except we're already past Wrestlemania, so six years from now he'll be able to brag about main eventing Battleground 2017.

 

He could be a great heel champ, but who's a compelling enough babyface to get people to invest in the chase?

The company is always setting it up like that, it's a formula that works....as long as people can get behind the babyface. At least Roman won't be chasing the title. Jinder would be a face automatically.

So, who chases Jinder all summer? Not Orton. AJ?

 

The elevation of Jinder feels a test for the Trump era—seeing how the crowd reacts to an old school "foreigner" heel, of the kind that was standard when I started watching in the 80s.

An Iron Sheik for our time.

 

Ask this guy how well a championship push with absolutely no buildup works: