WWE SmackDown Live!: 10 Things You Might Have Missed (Oct 10)
2. Where's Your Champion Now??
Literally, where the f*ck is he?
Worst still, you'd be forgiven if it's taken you until reading these very lines to realise that Jinder Mahal wasn't remotely featured on this week's edition of the broadcast.
It's worth noting however, that this is less a complaint against not getting to see Jinder himself, more the bejewelled strap he undeservedly lauds over his contemporaries.
Mahal's reign has reduced the value of the WWE Championship to dust. His win over Shinsuke Nakamura at Hell In A Cell was one most fans confidently predicted, but that same supporter base were no less dishearten when the result actually came to be. Vince McMahon hates the word 'belt', but his championship title has never been more of a prop than it is today. And a valueless one at that - it wasn't just that the title was a missing piece, more that SmackDown's puzzle didn't look incomplete without it.
Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, AJ Styles and Baron Corbin all acted like main event talents, the aforementioned Nakamura/Orton combo dazzled in the show's biggest non-title scrap, and the women and tag ranks were well serviced.
The Jinder Mahal-as-champion experiment has failed to such a degree, that even the idea of using a title to elevate somebody has now been destroyed. An incredible feat indeed.