6 Damning Things Jinder Mahal's Title Reign Says About WWE
4. Artistry Is Dead
Jinder Mahal's push is the most cynical in modern WWE history. It wasn't done to elevate the product's artistic qualities, but to increase profits and raise interest in a foreign market. It reveals the true, depressing nature of WWE's list of priorities.
We already knew that the company don't value match quality, but Jinder's reign really hammers this home. He's a subpar worker whose big title defences have dragged each of his opponents down to his level (seriously, name a worse Shinsuke Nakamura match than his SummerSlam title shot), and lean heavily on The Singh Brothers' bumping talents to hide his deficiencies.
Storytelling clearly isn't important either, as Jinder seemingly went from lifelong jobber to PPV main eventer overnight, with no build at all. Character direction is trivial, too: why else would WWE saddle their supposed top champion with such a derivative gimmick?
None of this should be surprising, though. They're out to make money rather than create meaningful content, and while the latter should theoretically lead to the former, WWE's decision-makers aren't wired that way. The company increasingly resembles a soulless revenue-generation machine in 2017, and this is one of many reasons why keeping them at arm's length is integral to enjoying the modern product.