From the WWE Rumour Mill: Was Jinder Mahal originally supposed to lose the title at WWE Hell in a Cell 2017?

What's the story?

In case you missed it, the Modern Day Maharaja, Jinder Mahal, squared off against the enigmatic Shinsuke Nakamura at Hell In a Cell 2017 and managed to silence his critics by picking up a clean win. However, Bryan Alvarez from the Wrestling Observer suggested that the WWE might have had other plans for the night.

In case you didn't know...

A lot of wrestling fans out there think that the booking of Jinder Mahal has made himself look weak and the WWE Title look less prestigious. That's because the SmackDown LIVE champ has managed to weasel his way to every victory, usually with the help of his sidekicks the Singh Brothers.

However, at Hell In a Cell, the Singh Brothers were ejected from ringside (albeit after costing Nakamura the match by distracting the referee) and Mahal still managed to pick up the win by pinning Nakamura clean. It seems that the WWE might be trying to build Mahal up a bit more to alleviate this criticism.

This seemed like the obvious result for a lot of reasons, as the WWE seemed committed to following through on their surprise championship winner. Jinder Mahal had just received a new set of side plates for his belt, which would be an odd thing to spend money on if he was going to drop it in his next match, and there's an upcoming tour of India for the WWE that would probably be boosted by having an Indian champion —even though he's actually Canadian.

The heart of the matter

Mahal left Hell In a Cell victorious but many sites are reporting on comments made by Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer which suggest that perhaps the WWE had other plans for Mahal at Hell In a Cell.

Dailyddt reports on Alvarez revealing that advertisements placed by an arena hosting one of the live tour events in Delhi briefly advertised Jinder Mahal as a 2-time WWE champion. This was, however, quickly changed to read 'current WWE champion' but the implications are clear.

The WWE had plans for Mahal to drop the title belt at some point between now and December when the Indian tour starts but changed their mind before following through with the plan.

What's next?

It's entirely possible that the WWE just made a monumental mistake and actually thought Mahal had dropped the title and won it back at some point, but it's more than likely that their creative plans just changed.

That being said there's still plenty of time for Mahal to lose the belt and win it back before he headlines the Indian tour, but such a decision probably wouldn't benefit the WWE or Mahal himself.

Author's take

I've tried to find a picture of the advertisement but there doesn't seem to be one floating about up there so we're going to have to take Alvarez' word for it. However, if the rumours are true and the WWE did plan on making Mahal a 2-time WWE Title holder, I'm glad they changed their minds.

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