WWE RAW 11/6/17 feat. Spoilers, Lots of Booing, and A Couple of Surprises or Not

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat Jinder would have been way better off getting a US title or solid mid-card push first then a WWE title push afterwards but WWE in recent years has the really bad habit of skipping this area when its arguably the most important part to develop a star. Supposedly Jinder's market value in India tanked a lot after the initial couple of weeks into his reign. Mix of him being a heel and the market favoring faces more, WWE's terrible booking of him, and Jinder's own limitations.

I'm not expert on India, but I could have told you that from day dot. It's a logical paradox:

Indian fans are marks: Then they'd be preconditioned to knowing that Jinder sucks.

Indian fans are smarks: Then they know Jinder Mahal sucks.

This is without even going into the geopolitics of just how complicated a place India is. Each province is like its own country. Sikhs make up a very small amount of India's population, and there are some Indians who don't even consider them Indian. And the metrics were always there. The Indian diaspora means that there are so many Indians all over the western world, yet Network subscriptions and live attendance did not go up.

I really don't think this was about India. At all. I mean, sure, it would be great if they could get it, and I'm sure it was thrown around as extra justification for the push, because Vince saying "I like him because he looks a man and you all look like geeks," whilst being more honest, probably wouldn't fly.

If it were about India, they would have pushed him as a babyface. As a true babyface I mean -- none of this "the commentators treat him like a babyface in India." He's a rat-shit coward who cheats all the time and used to lose every match. They also would have had an Indian tour lined up, as opposed to booking one in December, where you can't safely bank on Mahal to still be around, because he's not very good and is liable to hurt himself or someone else in that window of time (and Meltzer insists that he is, in fact, hurt). You also don't book the opposite show to the one he is on.

There are plenty of reasons I think Vince could have possibly decided to put the belt on Mahal:

* He likes that he's jacked and he's subconsciously pissed that he's had to rely on tiny flippy guys for the past few years. He wants Lex Luger; they want Bret Hart. You know the deal.

* He wanted to reward Jinder for turning his life around. Vince is not a heartless bastard, believe it or not. He rewarded AJ with the belt for winning him over for his talent. He gave the belt to Bray as a reward for his character work, and he gave it to Orton for agreeing to let Brock rough him up. Vince has been giving that secondary belt to people as a thank you since the brand split. He did one for ring skills, one for promo and one for look. He might give one to Kurt for a nice moment, or to Kane as a thank you for twenty years with the company, or whatever next. He can do what he likes with it and giving the belt to talent he appreciates is what he wants to do right now.

* He lost a bet after a few scotches. "Hey Vince, I bet you can't flip a car on your own." "Yeah?! Wanna bet? I'm Vince McMahon, dammit!" "Okay. Um. Whose the worst guy on your roster? You have to make him champion for 100 days if you can't do it." "Screw you, pal. I'll get him to 200."

* To pop the boys. Mahal seems quite popular. It's also an interesting thing for morale if people think their careers can turn around like that. Keeps them on their toes.

* A writer trying to get their own shit in worked out that Triple H likes Jinder, Vince likes Jinder, Jinder is jacked, he's got a foreign background, and suggested a push to try to pop the room or just get something in so he didn't look completely fucking useless for suggesting Luke Harper for the 1,000th time. It passed through several safety checks where someone would normally nix it, because Jinder is popular with the agents, Triple H likes him, Vince likes him, etc., and it suddenly became about the belt.

All or none of that could be true. I just don't buy this idea that Vince McMahon, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, that new Indian executive they hired and everyone in the fucking company sincerely believed that if they put the SmackDown Title on Jinder Mahal, India would open up to them. They did this exact same thing with Khali in 2007 and it didn't work then. It would be insanity to expect different results doing the same thing with someone who is less of a star. If it happened, which it was never going to, then it would have been nice for everybody. But I don't think they were seriously sitting around a table discussing that it would change the direction of the business forever and add 100 million subscribers to the Network.