10 Pleasant Surprises For Wrestling Fans In 2017
2. AJ Styles Wins The WWE Title
Sweet relief, sweet succour or a combination of the two washed upon the wider wrestling audience at large as news travelled fast of a hero's liberation on a November Manchester night.
It's to WWE's eternal credit that they can still make a Heavyweight Title change feel very important indeed in 2017, but it f*cking ought to have mattered to at least offer scant justification for an abhorrent experiment gone very very wrong.
Jinder Mahal's WWE Championship stint was an unmitigated disaster. The single biggest misfire from the company this year (and presumably the recipient of the most McMahon stubbornness behind the scenes) Mahal's insta-push failed to hit even one of the myriad of apparent targets set when he dethroned Randy Orton in May.
Jinder didn't increase viewership by measurable margins in India, despite internal research suggesting there were pay-per-view and television riches awaiting the company with him atop the mountain. Jinder didn't show marked improvement in the ring as Champion, dragging down his opponents and the alleged topline matches they were supposed to be competing in. Jinder didn't generate heat even when the company scripted him to scrape the bottom of a bigoted barrel.
The 50th WWE Champion will sadly go down as one of the very worst. In tribute to AJ's own religious bent, thank GOD he was beaten by one of the absolute best.