8 New Directions For WWE Champion AJ Styles

8. Rookarike Retcon

Much like December's tour of India, the grim inevitability of Mahal's mandated rematch clause threatens to douse this uplifting moment.

As aforementioned, the logic behind the switch is incredibly difficult to parse - part and parcel of being a WWE fan, really, but this is especially perplexing. WWE delivered this switch with the poor timing of a Mongol Japanese invasion, on the surface; Jinder is now sleepwalking his way to India just as WWE hopes to breathe new life into the emerging market. A demotion to the blue brand's Survivor Series team is hardly the momentum Jinder needs to drive ticket sales which, at time of writing, aren't hot: over half of the arena seating plan remains unallocated. Sole Survivor Jinder is nowhere near as marketable as Jinder Mahal, WWE Heavyweight Champion.

Which is all a roundabout way of accepting the fact that this may simply represent a fork in Jinder's rumoured Road to WrestleMania. It would be a massively antagonistic move on McMahon's part, but then, so was anointing Mahal as Champion in the first instance.