10 Times WWE Tried To Present Someone As A Credible Threat (And Failed Miserably)

As unexpected as a Jinder Mahal WWE title run may have seemed at the start of 2017, by May of that year it had become a very definite reality.

In all fairness to WWE, they did have Mahal go over both Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura on multiple occasions during this run - albeit through dubious means. Yet, it wasn't long before fans started to tire of those shenanigans and WWE's attempts to frame 'The Modern Day Maharaja' as a serious top guy in the company started to fall apart before their very eyes.

Mahal's hulking physique and sincere mean streak could have definitely been utilised to create an intimidating heel which didn't have to depend on the lazy archaic 'America sucks' gimmick. If WWE had just given him a bit more time and had him involved in a few more programmes which didn't centre around casual racism, he could have become a welcome addition in an ever-changing SmackDown main event scene.

Of course, we all know this title reign was an obvious attempt to capitalise on the lucrative Indian market. But, it's still a shame that WWE didn't feel the need to double down on Mahal as a big time player when the fans began to revolt and the needle didn't start to move as quickly as they'd hoped.

Instead, they had AJ Styles take the belt off him and shuffled Mahal back down the card.