The Complete History of the WWE Championship - Part 21

Jinder Mahal (May 21, 2017 - November 7, 2017)

Jinder Mahal: The first Indian born WWE Champion

Is Jinder Mahal the most undeserving WWE Champion of all time? There is a strong argument for that cause, certainly.

Although the title wins of The Iron Sheik, Sgt Slaughter, JBL and Sheamus all came out of nowhere, without the usual build-up of creative support, those aforementioned gentleman had all either had long careers or a degree of mid-card success before they won the big one. Mahal, in contrast, went from opening card act to World Champion overnight.

Mahal's title win was essentially the same as Koko B Ware winning the strap in 1990, Savio Vega in 1995 or Crash Holly in 2000. Impossible to imagine. What makes Mahal's win even more unbelievable is that Ware, Vega and Holly were moreover in their respective eras than Mahal was in May 2017.

His win over nine-time WWE champion Randy Orton at Backlash 2017 was a colossal shocker.

To his credit, Mahal, did improve on the microphone and inside the ring, during his six-month reign, which featured successful defenses over Orton, Baron Corbin and Shinsuke Nakamura.

Mahal's run as champion was finally ended by AJ Styles in a superheated bout on the November 7 episode of SmackDown held in Manchester, England.

After his title loss, Mahal slid back down the card. He briefly reigned as United States Champion in 2018, before disappearing as a regular on television. He is currently sidelined with a serious knee injury.

It remains to be seen whether Mahal can ever replicate his 2017 success.

One of the major reasons for Mahal's elevation was WWE's live event scheduled in India. They wanted Mahal to be the face of the company during this episode and hence booked him as their top guy.

Mahal joined fellow 3MB member Drew McIntyre as the top champion in the business. Quite an upgrade for the faction that was once mainly jobbing to other talents not long ago.