14 WWE WrestleMania 34 Impulse Reactions
9. Maharaja Rising
Jinder Mahal was one of the most talked-about wrestlers in 2017, but in no way in the manner Vince McMahon so desperately desired when he inexplicably put his coveted WWE Title on him in April.
Mahal was allegedly deployed in the role to cater to an untapped Indian market flooding the company's official YouTube channel with views in their millions, appearing equipped based on a physique from the 1980s and racially insensitive verbiage from a decade or so earlier.
It was a creative, critical and commercial catastrophe in terms of connecting the company with the intended audience. It caused active alienation of the United States crowd too, leading to an abbreviated reign after fans recoiled at the prospect of him locking horns with Brock Lesnar at November's Raw Vs SmackDown Live!-themed Survivor Series.
Plan B? The B-level Championship, of course.
Mahal's victory didn't attract a fiftieth of the vitriol his one last year did, especially considering how little interest had for anybody other than Rusev in the battle. 'The Bulgarian Brute' taking the pin was the only way McMahon could inflict damage with the move, but Rusev's momentum has stalled to such a degree that it didn't have half the heft anyway.