Former jobber to the stars, Jinder Mahal, took the wrestling world by storm last week when he became the surprise new number one contender for the WWE Championship. And while those plans may be best for business, they were not what the WWE originally had intended.
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Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter revealed that plans for the upcoming SmackDown-exclusive pay-per-view looked very different only a few weeks ago.
Meltzer was speaking on the latest instalment of the Wrestling Observer Radio, and claimed that WWE‘s original plan for the match would have seen The Viper defending his gold against Baron Corbin.
WWE has decided to push those plans back for now to accommodate Mahal, but Corbin is still going to be getting his feud with Orton over the summer, as Corbin is one of three New Era stars in line for a major push.
If reports are true that WWE is looking to make slight modifications to The Lone Wolf’s character which will include new theme music as well as some other changes (possibly a haircut) before they place him in the main event scene for good, keeping him on the sidelines for now is a smart choice.
For now, SmackDown LIVE will live up to its moniker as the land of opportunity as Mahal gets a taste of the main event. With WWE looking to expand its market to India, Jinder and his new stable (the former Bollywood Boys), could be in a great position to help make that happen.
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