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'The Jinder Mahal Experiment' was an ambitious brainchild of Vince McMahon allegedly planned to woo the Indian market. The experiment saw the perennial jobber, Jinder Mahal, become the 50th WWE champion. Although he was assisted by run-ins from Singh Brothers and the Great Khali, Mahal decimated Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura during his 170 day reign as the champion.
However, not everyone in the WWE Universe was happy with this experiment and Vince finally had to pull the plug. Jinder tapped out (a sure sign that your push has ended) to AJ Styles and even lost to Triple H in India.
Let's have a look at 5 things that could be learnt from yet another failed WWE experiment.
#5 A whining foreign heel is a cliche
WWE loves to pull out a page from the past every now and then. However, it's time they realize that a foreign heel who rants about America is too outdated to capture fans' interest. While the idea of 'us vs them' was massively popular during the cold war era, it has no place in the 'reality era'.
If having a Cena vs Rusev flag match in 2017 was not boring enough, WWE booked the WWE Champion to be an America-hater who talks to the people in his native language to irk the crowds. Instead of building his character on some virtues he had, WWE used Jinder as a stereotype foreigner. This made it extremely difficult for him to get over with the fans or even to garner some organic heat as a heel.
#4 Let every main event player pay his dues first
Looks like WWE never learnt a lesson from the fan backlash Roman Reigns received after he was sky rocketed to the main event. The fans were agitated as he wasn't the best wrestler in The Shield, yet he was treated as the chosen one post their breakup.
WWE repeated the same mistake with Jinder Mahal. Prior to becoming the number one contender for the WWE Championship and winning it, he was losing almost all the matches on RAW and had a dull program with Mojo Rawley. His sudden push to the moon was bound to agitate the fans and it did.
Fans invest into a character when it is developed over time. Winning some and losing some with display of skill and charisma is the way to establish oneself and win the respect of fans. If we look at two of the most popular superstars of the modern era, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, both men rose through the ranks to reach the main event. Heck, even the Rock was booed to death when he was given a gigantic push early in his career. Poor Jinder!
#3 Don't fabricate too much
A part of Jinder Mahal's rise stemmed from his Indian lineage. However, a sad reality is that Jinder is a Canadian citizen and not Indian. His family hails from India, but he himself had never been to India prior to the WWE's tour of India.
Living in the age of internet when kayfabe is dead, WWE still tries to fabricate things which fans obviously know are false. Santino Marella and Kofi Kingston were billed from Italy and Ghana, respectively, in a similar way.
Perhaps his disconnection with Indians could also be due to the fact that he talked in Punjabi (his native language according to the WWE) which is just one of the many languages spoken in India. Everybody knew (you could make it out from his accent) that he wasn't Indian and the whole 'my people' thing felt forced.
#2 India is a hard market to sell
WWE learnt this one the hard way. They put the strap on an Indian (as per their logic) to attract Indian customers. However, if the numbers are to be believed, WWE didn't do well in India by having Jinder as the champion. There wasn't any meteoric rise in the WWE network subscription as they might have expected and neither did the WWE shop do great business.
Moreover, the WWE tour of India in December had to be cut down to just one instead of two dates. Jinder did headline the show but in a losing effort against Triple H. Perhaps this is one of the facts that WWE has actually learnt and I am sure they must be looking at alternative strategies to win over the Indian fans.
WWE definitely has long-term plans for India as Indians form a huge part of its massive social media following. Sadly, Jinder is no longer a part of those plans.
#1 All that glitters is not gold
This is something the WWE should have learnt a long time ago. Vince and co. have this habit of strapping a rocket on the back of people whom they believe have 'the look' required to be 'the guy' in WWE. In the quest to find a guy with the right look, WWE has often overlooked wrestling ability, which has always led to an untimely demise of the wrestler's push.
Jinder is no different. Upon his reintroduction to the WWE, he had completely transformed his body. He sported a much muscular frame which is exactly what Vince wants to see in his top guys. However, he had mediocre in-ring abilities at best. Granted he put a lot of hard work to improve his mic skills, still there was a lot of work to be done in the athletic department.
Jinder joins the long list of wrestlers like Lex Luger, Ultimate Warrior, Chris Masters, Kevin Nash, Roman Reigns, the Great Khali who were pushed on the basis of their appearance despite not being very impressive in the ring. In all fairness, Jinder's fate was similar to these aforementioned men who soon found themselves out of flavor with the crowds.
Sound off in the comments section if you have something more to add!
