5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Sept 21)

2. It's 2017 It's 2017 It's 2017 It's 2017 It's 2017 It's 2017 It's 2017 It's 2017 It's 2017 It's 2017

Jinder Mahal
WWE.com

Wow, is the word.

On this week's SmackDown, WWE promoted a straight retread of last week's dire, semi-racist segment in which Jinder Mahal projected images of Shinsuke Nakamura onto the TitanTron. That is usually the formula for terrible comedy, and Jinder Mahal didn't disappoint. Which is to say, he did. It ranged from offensively awful to simply offensive. One of the unflattering images was met with the following caption: "Ah, the far too familiar face of Shinsuke Nakamura when somebody yells out "Godzirrrrrrrrra!""

Jingoistic Mahal went full racist this week, which both undid the entire premise of his character, already a thinly-veiled excuse to derive heat from the dreaded evil foreigner trope, and confirmed to everybody that this f*cking company really is the worst. You can't even refer to it as cheap heat because the segment died a death in the arena. Probably because it was virtually empty, but still. Nakamura, according to Mahal, "feasts on feline and dines on dolphin." Mahal then projected the same image over and over again. Shinsuke's defeated face looked like his artistic face because he always rooks the same. It's a wonder Mahal didn't give everybody the Paul Orndorff eyes. They're probably saving that for next week's segment, at the close of which Nakamura still won't fight back.

WWE tried to spin this as Mahal projecting our racism onto the screen - it works on two levels, this! - but no. No it wasn't. It was trademark WWE not-racist racism. The most insane development of all? Nakamura didn't go out there and kick Mahal's face in. He stood backstage meekly and said "That was funny...not." He didn't, but he might as well have.

Actually, no. The most insane development of all is that the fans only started chanting "That's too far!" when Mahal compared Nakamura to Mr. Miyagi. Abhorrent racism is fine...but don't ruin our precious childhood memories!

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!