Highlights of Jinder Mahals’ WWE Championship Reign

After nearly 171 days, Jinder Mahal has been dethroned. His reign clocks out at a nice and even 170 days. Think about that. That’s around 6 months. We got 6 months of the Modern Day Maharajah.

There’s more than enough low points to make a full blown top 10 list, but let’s not do that. I’m going to focus on the positives. Surely there were enough high points for me to make a blog post about it. Just watch; I’m going to do it.

So what were the highlights of the Mahal Madness?

Randy Orton Murders a Singh Brother

Yes, I am aware that that is not a Singh Brother in the picture. I am also aware that I am abusing a technicality here. Technically Jinder did become champion on May 21. This happened on May 21. It counts.

During the surprisingly solid match betwen Orton and Mahal, something shocking happened. It was something that would eventually be abused to the point where every match ended that way, but it was shocking. The Singh Brothers interfered in the match. Randy “Apex ‘Legend ‘Viper’ Killer’ Predator” Orton was incensed that these plebs dared to interfere in his title defense, so he promptly murdered them. You probably know the bump I’m talking about.

Orton’s reaction was then turned into the 2nd biggest meme of the night (Jinder actually winning the WWE Championship was the first), and the rest is history.

Randy Orton Murders a Singh Brother

Look at that glorious photo. It’s almost breathtaking. Here it is in .gif form.

In case some of you have forgotten (or refuse to remember) the context of this nasty ass-fall, Jinder defended his WWE Championship against Randy Orton in a Punjabi Prison match. Despite the cage being designed to keep out ne’er-do-wells from interfering, this hilariously overbooked (but actually not that terrible) match saw the Singh Bros get involved anyway. Orton murdered both Brothers and then murdered Mahal. At one point, that big ol’ bump above happened, and the world (at least, those who were still watching) collectively crapped their pants and let out a big round of applause for Singh Brother.

And then the Great Khali interfered (for reasons still unexplained [after all, when Jinder debuted he was Khali’s nasty brother-in-law who was threatening to divorce Khali’s sister]), choked Orton, and then tried to raise the WWE Championship. Jinder was having none of that, and then he held onto the title for another 3 months.

Dream Matches

I gotta be honest with you guys. Never in a million years did I ever think that I would witness Sunil Singh going one-on-one with the Phenomenal AJ Styles. Never in a billion years did I think that AJ would face Samir Singh just one week later. These matches happened less than a month after AJ Styles fought Finn Balor in a much anticipated match, and they happened on free TV. WWE was really spoiling us.

Without Jinder at the the top of the Smackdown mountain, I doubt we’d ever see Sunil and AJ cross paths. Samir and AJ wouldn’t have so much as glanced at each other. But once AJ set his sights on the Modern Day Maharajah, it was clear that these matches were bound to happen.

Some time earlier, Shinsuke Nakamura also was able to vanquish the Brethren Singh in a handicap match, and that too was a fun and exciting contest.

So long, Jinder. Until we meet again (when you win the title in like 3 weeks or whatever).