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What's the story?
On this week's SmackDown LIVE Jinder Mahal declared that he had beaten everyone on SmackDown LIVE and that there were no longer any worthy competitors on the blue brand so he was challenging Raw champion Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series.
However, it turns out he had forgotten about the 'Phenomenal One' AJ Styles.
In case you didn't know...
Jinder Mahal has beaten several of SmackDown LIVE's top stars. He won the title from, and came out on top of a feud with Randy Orton and embarked on a short-lived programme with Shinsuke Nakamura, in which Mahal would win two title defences.
At the same time, AJ Styles was the United States Champion until he dropped the belt to Baron Corbin at Hell in a Cell 2017 and failed to win back his championship during his contracted rematch.
The heart of the matter
The 'Phenomenal One' AJ Styles seemed to take exception to Jinder Mahal stating there was no worthy competition on SmackDown LIVE.
Jinder Mahal then proceeds to insult AJ Styles leading to a small brawl in the ring. I think Jinder Mahal shouldn't forget that AJ Styles had one hell of a year in the WWE in 2016 and had a 140 day WWE title reign.
He also has the Pele Kick.
What's next?
This seems like a clear build towards a WWE Title match between the two men, but first Jinder Mahal has to get the whole thing with Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series out of the way.
And then, if there's anything left of the Modern Day Maharaja after his visit to Suplex City, he'll almost definitely be facing Styles for the title. It also looks like AJ Styles will have to get through the Singh Brothers first as well.
Author's take
This is good booking, Styles is a fantastic ring worker and he should be able to help Jinder Mahal elevate his own ring work and subsequently make the Modern Day Maharaja look like gold in the ring.
This would be an especially good thing to do if the WWE are planning on keeping Mahal as their champ for the foreseeable future.
