When you take a look at the numbers, Jinder Mahal is shockingly one of the most successful WWE Champions in the history of the promotion.
Mahal has been with the WWE since 2010 when he signed a developmental deal with them and was sent to their Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) territory. In April of 2011 Mahal made his main roster debut and would eventually find himself as a member of the Three Man Band (3MB) trio alongside Drew McIntyre and Heath Slater. In 2014, however, his run with the WWE came to an end when he was released from his deal.
He would return to the independent circuit for two years, where he would reinvent himself creatively and physically, before being brought back to WWE around the time of the Superstar Shake-Up. After some time on RAW upon his return, the shake-up moved him over to Tuesday nights on SmackDown Live.
Mahal would win a Six-Pack Challenge match that earned him the status as No. 1-contender for the WWE Championship, which was then-held by Randy Orton who defeated Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33 for the strap.
"The Modern Day Maharaja" went on to defeat the future Hall Of Famer at the Backlash pay-per-view (PPV) to capture not only his first WWE Championship of his career, but the first ever singles title of his career. After two successful rematches with Orton in which he defended his title, Mahal would move on to a feud with former New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) star Shinsuke Nakamura.
Mahal successfully defended his title against Nakamura at SummerSlam, and at last night's (Sun. October 8, 2017) Hell In A Cell PPV as well. Per a report from IWNerd, with Mahal's win he is statistically a more successful WWE Champion (in terms of title reign length) than several future WWE Hall Of Famers. Check it out:
– AJ Styles’ longest reign was 141 days.
– The Undertaker’s longest reign was 133 days.
– Eddie Guerrero’s longest reign was 133 days.
– Kurt Angle’s longest reign was 126 days.
– The Rock’s longest reign was 119 days.
– Chris Jericho’s longest reign was 98 days.
– Ric Flair’s longest reign was 77 days.
– Edge’s longest reign was 76 days.
– Mankind’s longest reign was 26 days.
What are your thoughts on Mahal's statistics as WWE Champion? Does he truly deserve to be passing up the stars that he already has? Or has the WWE let Mahal's reign go way too far? Have YOUR say in the comments section below, and the fourth episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here!
Check it out via this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-818579649/gms-wwe-podcast-money-in-the-bank-fallout
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