Jinder Mahal Becomes #1 Contender For WWE Title
Mahal will challenge Randy Orton at Backlash on May 21...
Jinder Mahal is the new number one contender for Randy Orton and the WWE Title after winning a 'Six Pack Challenge' on last night's episode of SmackDown Live.
Aided by The Singh Brothers, who previously worked on NXT programming as The Bollywood Boyz, the Indian star pinned Sami Zayn to win the match and secure his title shot.
Before facing Jinder Mahal at Backlash (SmackDown's next exclusive pay-per-view) on May 21, Randy Orton will first face Bray Wyatt in a 'House Of Horrors' match at Payback on April 30. It's expected that Orton will retain the title, especially now WWE have established his next challenger.
Before winning this match, former 3MB member Mahal had been working largely as enhancement talent on Raw. Forming a short-lived tag-team with Rusev, the Indo-Canadian had also been feuding against Mojo Rawley after just coming up short at WrestleMania in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
Suddenly, Mahal has been rocketed up the card, and WWE have around four weeks to turn him from mid-card villain to main event heel in time for the WWE Title bout at Backlash.