5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Oct 17)
1. Jinder's Terrible Challenge
As had been rumoured throughout the week, last night's SmackDown saw WWE Champion Jinder Mahal challenge his Universal counterpart, Brock Lesnar, to a match at Survivor Series. This is a terrible idea, and the reasons are legion.
For one, it prevents both from defending their belt on the show. Lesnar vs. Mahal has to be non-title, or one man will leave the show with two pieces of gold, completely undermining the brand split. Furthermore, Brock's paucity of appearances makes forgoing potential title matches unforgivable. His part-time schedule and lack of defences are two of the biggest complaints levied against him as champion, and these will be exacerbated if he faces Mahal.
Neither man should be losing at the moment. Lesnar is supposed to be this big, unstoppable force, and after flattening Braun Strowman at No Mercy, maintaining his momentum is paramount. Even a Singh Brothers-induced loss would harm him greatly. As for Jinder, he's holding the most storied belt in the company. Convoluted finishes are fine, but clean defeats are not.
To wrap it all up, the match would probably suck. Lesnar is fantastic when motivated, as demonstrated in his title matches with Samoa Joe and Goldberg, but lazy and sloppy when he's not (see: the Strowman bout). He'd be going in there against a glorified enhancement talent, and one of the most derided WWE Champions of all time. What reason do we have to believe Brock would be up for it?