WWE pulled off their biggest surprise of the year so far last weekend at Backlash when they had Jinder Mahal defeat Randy Orton at the pay-per-view to become the new WWE champion.

The Modern Day Maharaja has now joined the likes of John Cena, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, The Rock, and many more legends of the sports entertainment business that have won the illustrious title, writing his name in the history books.

Mahal winning the WWE title has been a huge talking point amongst fans over the past couple of weeks, as they decide whether or not the company made the right call to put the championship on him in order to, what some reports have been saying, boost their reach to fans in India.

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For now though, whether you like it or not, Mahal is the WWE champion, and some reports have speculated he could be the champion for longer than you think.

According to Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer, via Sportskeeda, The Modern Day Maharaja could be WWE champion up until September later this year.

They also reported: "The reason for this is that WWE are heading overseas to do a tour of India, which would obviously make Mahal as WWE Champion a logical move considering how hard they’re trying to break into the Indian market."

Dave Meltzer also commented saying he believes Mahal's title run could go beyond September, but it's now obvious Mahal's push wasn't going to be a one-week affair if WWE is trying to extend their reach into the India market. A short championship run wouldn't make any sense at all. Mahal being champion until and beyond September might surprise some, but it makes logical sense.

The Modern Day Maharaja as champion truly is a shot in the dark. Right now, you can't tell if it's going to succeed or fail and we won't know the results for months. He will defend the WWE title for the first time at Money in the Bank next month against The Viper.

By then, we should have a decent indication of how he is performing on the main event stage and how this push is coming along. August is when WWE is scheduled to announce their next network numbers, especially in the India market. We'll see by then if Mahal's title run has affected those numbers, which would, in turn, determine if his run at the top has been successful.

Are you happy with Jinder Mahal as WWE champion? Have YOUR say in the comments section below and the third episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here! Check it out via this link. https://soundcloud.com/user-818579649/gms-wwe-podcast-all-the-fallout-from-wwe-payback