Ranking 2017's WWE PPV Endings: From Worst To Best

16. Backlash: Reign In Crud

While far from the year's worst pay-per-view, May's Backlash ended on the sourest of sour notes, hitting a dismal nadir that no other show-closer could even come close to touching.

Why? Jinder bloody Mahal.

Jarring in the extreme, 'The Maharaja's' coronation was the worst kind of surprise. His push came completely out of nowhere, and while Randy Orton wasn't exactly having a vintage run as WWE Champion, replacing him with a career-long enhancement talent wasn't the right move. It was immediately apparent that WWE had made a huge, huge mistake. If you weren't reaching for your sickbag, Mahal's victory likely had you spewing bile on social media instead, and he'd go on to have one of the company's worst modern title runs.

It didn't help that the celebration followed a nothing match, either. Mahal vs. Orton was drab and lifeless, and ended through textbook WWE heel shenanigans, with The Singh Brothers lending their benefactor a hand. Regardless, this would've been infinitely more tolerable had the company not just made the year's most questionable booking decision.

Shock, disbelief, anger, revulsion: Backlash provoked each in equal measure. May we never speak of it again.