10 WWE Nightmares Vince McMahon MUST Regret Booking
9. Jinder Mahal As WWE Champ
Jaws hit the deck when Jinder Mahal pinned Randy Orton at Backlash 2017 to become the new WWE Champion. That was a booking call not even Puerto Rico's rowdy live crowds could've saved. Unfortunately for those in Chicago, this happened in Illinois rather than elsewhere.
Mahal as champ was surely a bid to crack into the Indian market and further WWE's global reach. Fair enough, but at least build Jinder up for a while first. He was elevated from career midcarder (and a bit-part one at that) to World Title status too suddenly, and nobody was prepared for it.
His reign was abysmally booked too. Mahal feuded with Shinsuke Nakamura after Orton, and WWE reached into lazy xenophobia to explain it. Then, Jinder dropped the belt to AJ Styles because Brock Lesnar didn't want to work with him at Survivor Series in November.
It was a mess. McMahon wasted much of 2017 on an unconvincing title reign nobody asked for.