10 Wrestlers Who Ruined Gimmick Matches For Everybody Else

4. Jinder Mahal - Punjabi Prison Match

Hell Cell Mick Foley Undertaker Mankind WWE
WWE.com

Just when you thought the gimmick was dead and buried, WWE decided to bring back its Punjabi Prison concept for 2017’s Battleground PPV after a ten-year absence.

Was anybody clamouring for the return of this gimmick match? Absolutely not. Still, that didn’t stop Vince McMahon thinking it was a great idea to pit Jinder Mahal against Randy Orton in the confines of the unforgiving Punjabi Prison setup.

The match itself was horrible – much like the two previous Punjabi Prison outings back in 2006 and 2007 – and this well and truly cemented this particular gimmick as being a complete dud.

Jinder would retain his WWE Championship thanks to the help of the returning Great Khali, and the crowd went mild.

Here’s hoping this is the last we’ve seen of the Punjabi Prison. But then again, we all thought that the gimmick had been shelved years prior, only for it to return after a decade in the wrestling wilderness. Fingers crossed that us seeing another Punjabi Prison match is as likely as another Jinder Mahal run as World Champ - i.e. it's never going to happen!

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.