5 Jobbers you would rather see as Champion than Jinder Mahal

The crowning of Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion was a fine example of surprises not always being a good idea. Nobody expected Jinder to be given this opportunity, but not a lot of people wanted it in the first place.

What his unlikely coronation did do, however, was change the landscape of modern day WWE. In the past, only a very select few could salvage a career from being a jobber. Usually, when that dreaded moniker is put on you, the best you can hope for is a shot at a mid-card title or an unexpected, irony fuelled a rise in merchandise sales.

Jinder is somebody who not only served his time as a jobber but was even let go from the company altogether, only to come back and reach the very top.

After spending a good few years in the gym, Mahal was welcomed back into the fold and now stands atop the WWE machine as its main champion. So, the question remains, if Jinder can do it, why not other jobbers who are currently doing very little on RAW or Smackdown?

Here are five WWE jobbers you would much prefer to see as WWE Champion than Jinder Mahal:

1. Titus O'Neil

Titus O'Neil seems to have found a fairly decent role for himself as head of the Titus Worldwide brand. He is effectively a part manager part promoter in a similar way to Paul Heyman, but much lower down the WWE pecking order. However, his time in the ring has been very few and far between recently.

His last real in-ring stint involved a failed attempt to join the New Day, losing to both Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston. Unless the Titus Worldwide brand actually goes somewhere, it's not clear what role he is going to be playing for the company going forward.

However, on paper, it does seem rather strange that O'Neil has never been given a shot at a major world championship. The guy has a very traditional WWE 'look', standing at 6ft 6inches and weighing over 270 lbs. He also has a respectable amount of charisma, something he has been able to really showcase during his time managing Apollo Crews.

O'Neil also does a lot for charity, helping deprived children to access school resources and finding them routes to employment. He also visits numerous hospitals in the Tampa Bay area, spending time with children suffering from cancer. If called upon, Titus would be more than capable of doing the media/PR work that the company normally expects from its champion.

His current treatment might have something to do with the sheer pettiness of Vince McMahon. After a small incident in which Titus put his hands on the boss following Daniel Bryan's retirement speech, he was initially given a 90 suspension, which was later revised down to 60 days. We all know how long McMahon can hold a grudge for, so, unfortunately, we might not be seeing Titus with a world championship anytime soon.

2. Heath Slater

Perhaps it's unfair to refer to a multi-time tag-team champion as a jobber, but it certainly doesn't look like the WWE have any immediate plans for Heath Slater. His transition to the RAW brand following the superstar shake-up now looks like a huge mistake.

The Smackdown tag-team division badly needs Slater and Rhino back whereas the RAW division could easily do without them.

Originally debuting as part of NXT Season One, and later part of Nexus, the future looked fairly decent for Slater. But after the dissipation of the Nexus, he was soon turned into a typical joke character, embodying everything we normally associate with a jobber.

No matter how disrespectfully a superstar is treated, it is always worth keeping an eye on them. How people react to being given bad gimmicks normally says a lot about the kind of attitude and desire they have to improve themselves. Slater has always taken what he is given and made it work.

While he was part of 3MB, you could tell that his other two team mates - one being the current WWE Champion Jinder Mahal - were not at all impressed. Slater was the only one of the three that put some effort into getting the faction over, which is perhaps why he was the only one of the three not to be released.

Heath would probably need to find a new gimmick if he were to hold the WWE Championship anytime soon. The whole 'i've got kids' thing is entertaining enough for a low-level tag team, but would probably fall flat in the main event.

He would probably work best as a transitional babyface champion, giving the fans a short-term reason to get behind a loveable underdog until a bigger, meaner heel came along to rob him of it.

He also has much better mic skills than Jinder and an ability to not take himself too seriously and make people love him for it in the process.

3. Bo Dallas

Bo Dallas is one of those superstars that the WWE seems to be willing to persevere with. After a strong run as NXT Champion, Bo was brought into the main roster during the 2013 Royal Rumble match, lasting over 20 minutes and eliminating then Intercontinental Champion, Wade Barrett.

Fans of NXT gave Dallas a strong welcome, and it appeared for a time that he was going to receive an early push and maybe even an IC title shot. For one reason or another, this all changed, and Dallas was kept off the main roster for quite some time.

His second opportunity came when he officially made his debut on RAW under a brand new gimmick. Bo was essentially turned into a motivational speaker, telling everyone on the roster to 'Bo-leive' in themselves.

The gimmick shouldn't have worked on paper, but after a small winning streak where Bo would pick up unlikely wins and do a victory lap around the ring, fans were beginning to warm to him again. For some unknown reason, the rug was pulled from under his feet yet again, losing to R-Truth and ending any momentum he had built for himself.

Both of these examples show that Dallas can connect with the fans, and most of us look back with fond memories to his time as NXT Champion, meaning he can hold a title and make it meaningful. He also has a strong heritage behind him, being the son of WWE legend IRS (Mike Rotunda).

In terms of how he measures up to current WWE Champion, Jinder Mahal, he certainly has better mic skills than the modern day Maharaja and would at least better be able to fill that role of cowardly heel champion where he finds little ways to retain his belt.

A championship reign could even lead to a brother vs. brother feud with Bray Wyatt, somebody who has held that same championship before.

4. Luke Harper

Not so long ago, Luke Harper was on the very cusp of being granted a WWE Championship opportunity. During Bray Wyatt's title reign leading up to Wrestlemania 33, Harper looked set to face his former leader for the belt, maybe even at Wrestlemania itself. Instead, that honour was given to Randy Orton, but fans certainly did show some enthusiasm at the idea of it being Harper.

Since then, he has all but fallen out of grace with the WWE. There's a pretty good chance that he might be returning to the Smackdown tag-team division with Eric Rowan, but this is nothing we haven't seen before. Harper's descent down the card is baffling, considering there was no good reason to take his momentum away from him in the first place.

Initially seen as the least exciting member of the Wyatt family, Harper worked hard on his in-ring and mic skills throughout much of 2013/14. He even had a great series of matches with Dolph Ziggler for the IC Championship. When he finally turned face and left the Wyatt family for good, people backed him and wanted to see his new found freedom turn into something.

The only thing Harper would still have to work on in order to be a good WWE Champion is his mic skills. He can definitely go in the ring, and actually has a very impressive style considering his size. He has the ability to connect with the audience given the right storyline, so he already has two things on Jinder Mahal.

Harper is one of those characters that doesn't need to do a lot of talking. If you turned him heel and had him run as a monster champion, you would be able to tell a pretty decent story involving him and a younger, fresher baby face who would eventually wrestle the title away from him. The problem with Jinder at the moment is that nobody really hates or cares about him enough to see him lose. Harper could potentially solve that problem.

5. Fandango/ Johnny Curtis

If there's one trait that WWE superstars ought to be rewarded for, it's tenacity. Anyone can work on their in-ring game or hire a voice coach to help with their mic skills, but the ability to constantly prove people wrong, no matter how bad a hand you are dealt, is a truly special talent.

This is how most people would describe Johnny Curtis. He, like many people on this list, appeared to have a promising career once upon a time. People had some awareness of his talents in the ring and were looking forward to what he was going to bring to the table.

After winning the fourth season of NXT, Curtis was essentially left out to dry. His gimmick ideas ranged from the unconvincing to the outright bizarre. Even when he was afforded a longer-term opportunity to get himself over on the main roster, it was as a ballroom dancer called Fandango.

The early signs were promising, defeating Chris Jericho in his debut match at Wrestlemania. He then went on to experience unlikely success following the 'Fandango-ing' trend where fans would sing along to his theme music while waving their arms up and down. The WWE missed the ball by not turning him babyface here, instead of having him reject fan support when he needed it most.

The Fandango character soon became another jobber and it felt like Curtis wasn't too far away from the dreaded 'future endeavors' letter.

That was until his move to Smackdown Live following the brand split. At the time, he was involved in a jobber tag-team with Tyler Breeze who called themselves Breezeango. Again, the gimmick should not have gotten over in the way that it has, but they are actually one of the most entertaining parts of the Smackdown show right now.

All this perseverance ought to be rewarded one day, and I don't think many people would complain too much if that came in the form of the WWE Championship. Whether he would be crowned champion as Fandango or as Johnny Curtis is up for debate, but as the man has shown, the loveable ballroom dancer gimmick just refuses to die.