Jinder Mahal Wins WWE World Championship

Jinder Mahal just shocked the world by defeating Randy Orton at Backlash and becoming the WWE World Champion.

This occurred at the end of the May 21st event in Chicago, Illinois. Mahal faced Randy Orton in the main event, defeating him with the help of the Singh Brothers, who intervened and continuously protected Mahal from Randy Orton.

For several minutes after Mahal’s victory, the WWE broadcast cut to the shocked expression of those in the arena, who could not believe what they just saw.

When Jinder Mahal became the number one contender for the WWE World Championship, this was already a huge surprise, and the majority of WWE viewers thought the Backlash main event was about as far as Mahal would ever go. But instead, Mahal, who was performing as a jobber only about seven months ago, defeated one of the most popular WWE superstars of modern times in the main event of a major pay-per-view.

This is a significant story development that will have major implications on SmackDown Live going forward, though it remains to be seen how long Mahal will keep the title and whether Orton will immediately win it back. After all, Orton is entitled to a rematch, and it is relatively common for a pay-per-view match to shock viewers, only for an upcoming episode of Raw or SmackDown to reset things to where they were before.

Jinder Mahal first signed with the WWE in 2010, and in 2012, he teamed up with Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre to form the tag team 3MB. In June 2014, the WWE terminated Mahal’s contract, but they resigned him in 2016 shortly after the brand split. For the next few months, Mahal mainly was placed in brief matches that he immediately lost, and that didn’t really change much until late April, when Mahal managed to win a six-pack challenge and become number one contender for the WWE World Championship.