Predicting The Next 10 WWE Champions
Life after Jinder doesn't look bad at all...
The WWE Championship isn't in great shape at the moment. Currently around the waist of perhaps the most unconvincing title-holder in history, its credibility and prestige have been ground to dust in 2017, with pointless switches, dire storylines, and weak matches making AJ Styles' tremendous reign feel like a distant memory.
SmackDown has suffered greatly under Jinder Mahal's run, with ratings dropping to a crippling new low this week. Designed to boost WWE's popularity in India, it's having the opposite in their home market, and it'll take a while for WWE to undo the damage. Fortunately, the roster is full of top-level stars ready to grab the title and make it feel like something worth fighting for again.
WWE have plenty of options for life after Jinder, but it's hard to plot their future course. Mahal's ascension came out of nowhere, and with SmackDown branded "the land of opportunity," there's every chance they'll spring another huge surprise. High roster turnover and the company's propensity to change their mind add to the unpredictability, making a fantasy booker's job harder - but much more interesting.
10. Baron Corbin (Battleground 2017)
The WWE Championship’s immediate future looks relatively clear. Reports suggest that Jinder Mahal will successfully defend the strap against Randy Orton at Money In The Bank, before moving into a program with John Cena, who returns on July 4th. The first pay-per-view after that is Battleground on the 23rd, which is where they’ll likely meet.
It’s quite conceivable that WWE would put the strap back on John at that point, given how SmackDown’s ratings have gone since Jinder hindered them. Battleground feels like too small a stage for Cena’s record-breaking 17th world title, however, and pulling the trigger there would feel anticlimactic.
It therefore makes sense for Mahal to retain, probably through shenanigans. Extending his reign feels counterproductive, mind, making this a perfect spot for the MITB winner to strike. Baron Corbin is the odds-on favourite at the moment, and while this cash-in would mean rare heel-on-heel violence, it plays to Baron’s opportunistic character, and would squash Mahal’s reign of error. WWE clearly likes ‘The Lone Wolf,’ and given the main event scene’s recent chaos, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him grab the gold by summer’s end.