10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 2017

9. WWE Cancels India Date

Paul Heyman AJ Styles
WWE

A comedy of catastrophic errors in 2017 was best summed up by the grand conclusion - Triple H pinning Jinder Mahal on the main event of a half-empty New Delhi house show.

Unlike every single word a WWE Superstar ever says on television, this wasn't in the script.

'The Modern Day Maharaja' has held the title for nearly 200 days in 2017, though hadn't advanced remotely in the role as a performer nor particularly helped WWE crack a mammoth market any more so than they already were.

A painfully dull Summer as Champion was only memorable for its start and end points and a racially insensitive promo against Shinsuke Nakamura, which explains much of what followed when winter came.

By November, the company had given up on things and moved the WWE Championship back on to AJ Styles, and perceptions of Mahal were presumably lower still when a mini-tour that had once looked likely to feature him as the title-sporting centre of attention was now the aforementioned single-night squash against 'The Game'.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett