Lesnar VS Mahal?!?!?!?!

[Jack-Hammer]

According to Dave Meltzer, the planned main event for Survivor Series next month is a non-title, champion vs. champion match between WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and WWE Champion Jinder Mahal.

If this is true, then I'm so underwhelmed that it's almost sickening, though not surprising. It was announced yesterday that Jinder's opponent for the two December shows in India will be Kevin Owens, so it looks as though WWE is going to somehow try to somehow convince us that arguably the worst WWE Champion in history is some sort of legitimate threat to arguably the most dominant wrestler in WWE history. Suspension of disbelief is an all important factor in the enjoyment of pro wrestling, but there are always limits. In this case, Vince wants you to buy into the notion that Jinder Mahal, one of the dullest in-ring workers in the entire company, is supposed to be on the same threat level to Brock Lesnar as people like John Cena, Triple H, the Undertaker, Samoa Joe, Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman.

Without his physique, Jinder Mahal is, on his very best day, an average pro wrestler and Brock Lesnar is no longer the dynamo he was 15 years ago. I don't know if it's just laziness or what, but there was a time in which Lesnar could put on fantastic 1 on 1 matches with almost anybody but now 95% of his offense is limited to performing German Suplexes and his opponent is someone only slightly above Goldberg in terms of in-ring ability, though that can be argued considering both suck.

Vince is going all out to try to make Jinder look like the star that he really isn't for the sake of this two day tour of India coming up in December. As a fan, I get more and more sickened each week that Jinder is champion because he just doesn't have the ability to be in the spot he's in; I can only hope this match with Lesnar is kept mercifully short. Give Jinder a little offense, let Lesnar do his suplexes, have the Singh Brothers interfere to save Jinder's ass, let Jinder run for the hills while Lesnar decimates his flunkies and try to call it a night inside of 4 minutes.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

I don't know Jack-Hammer, this seems so filler to me and the kayfabe side of this actually seems intriguing to me. Mahal and his bros survive everything that is thrown against them and now they face the biggest challenge.

Nobody cares about Jinder so it's going to be fun watching Lesnar destroy him. This match is kayfabe at its finest and I welcome it. After that though we really should stop going back to the future. Mahal would have been a great heel champ back in 1984.

No titles will change hands, so why not have this match? The real champ vs the fake champ.

2017 seems like a slow year for creative, that's for sure.

About the tour: Are they really going to portray Jinder as a face in India?

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

I know this question has been raised a zillion times, but do you ever think we're all just too smarky?

To a lot of kids out there this will be like their equivalent of Warrior v Hogan.

The two biggest (physically) guys, both champions, at a big show, if you aren't looking at this cynically it really is the 2017 version of "the irresistible force meets the immovable object".

Personally, I really like Jinder as champ. Judging by what I see in the ICW I must be the only person not from Canada or India to feel this way, but to me he represents something fresh, and is a product of perseverance. How many guys have we seen get fired, that never find their way back? But not only did he find his way back he went from working Hornswoggle to WWE Champion.

For the record, I don't care if it was because of the India push for the network either. I mentioned this in a comment somewhere, but WWE is all about getting opportunities and making the most of them when you have them, and who can really fault him for doing that? If the steroid trials hadn't brought the heat down we never would've had guys like Bret and Shawn as a champ, does that somehow make their work less valid since that's the only reason they got that opportunity?

Also, regarding Jinder's work rate since I see that mentioned a lot... I think he's serviceable. He works a classic, safe match, no different than someone like Miz, and from that perspective he's doing a good enough job with the role he's been given.

I'll say this I'd MUCH rather have Jinder in this role than Blandy Boreton on his zillion snoozer of a title reign.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, as long as Jinder isn't portrayed as weak in the match, I'd be happy to see it. I think it'll be fun, and something fresh at least, in an era where I feel like I've seen every match combination already.

 

[GOOZEKING]

LOnly good thing to come out of Jinder vs Brock. We get to find out what Vince loves more Roman or money. If Jinder wins it money if Brock wins its Roman.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I was highly critical of the squash between Lesnar and Goldberg last year at SS. That was kind of unfair since the two teams put on a terrific elimination match beforehand. That's what I'm expecting out of this year's match or matches again - give the fans their high impact long story with guys like Cesaro, Owens, AJ, The Shield, Zayn etc. and make this Lesnar/Mahal match no more than a quick power display.

What's the most crazy about this is the lack of a main title match on the card. It doesn't bother me that much but for a "major" two brand PPV, I figure tons of IWC fans are going to lose their minds when they do the math and realize no major title will be defended.

That's assuming all this is true though.

 

[AnthonyM4]

Unless they are unifying the titles, this match should not happen. Besides who wants to see Jinder give Brock like 5 of his finishing moves only for Brock to give him only ONE F5 to finish it off?

 

[sMark]

If only Jinder lost the title to Styles...
And Strowman interference to cost Lesnar a win...

THEN, this match can be good (cause of Styles), with the right deserved winner, loser have his "shenanigans" promo next night, and Braun can be in title picture again.

Mahal should be in title picture, but in USA one. There his promos will be much more effective and this is his level really. Main event picture should be Styles, Owens, orton, Nakamura & Rusev (+Jericho and Kane who i believe will come back soon)
...
I just realized how poor SD Starpower is.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Not the biggest fan of this for multiple reasons.

The first being that Brock needs to defend the Universal Championship at Survivor Series. Are we SERIOUSLY going to go all the way from No Mercy until the Royal Rumble without another title match? That's FOUR MONTHS. Not even The Shield reunion could keep Raw interesting for that long. The main event tier guys need SOMETHING to aim for. And before anyone even tries to mention the other titles available on the red brand I am referring to the guys who are above the Intercontinental Championship, and WAY above the Cruiserweight Championship.

The second reason is Jinder Mahal's involvement in this. If Brock has limited appearances on his contract why are they wasting one of his matches on Jinder!? Are they crazy enough to have him defeat Brock when Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman couldn't pull it off? I get going for the Bragging Rights route and having at least one Champion VS Champion match helps out in that aspect. To draw a video game analogy Brock is booked as a final boss type. If Brock is the final boss, then Jinder is the weak enemy type you fight outside the first town who get defeated from one attack. He's not believable in even holding the title he holds, now he's supposed to believable against BROCK!? No. I'm not buying it. He has no chance.

Last but not least we have the biggest issue. Where is the World Championship match if both of the guys holding a top tier title are busy with this match? If Jinder were to lose the belt between now and Survivor Series then he becomes even less believable against Brock. I won't bother addressing the possibility of Brock not being Universal Champion by that point since that won't happen. Jinder without the World Heavyweight Championship in this match makes significantly less sense in being there. If it ends up being a unification match then there is literally no good outcome. Either both brands would be without a top prize until Roman "saves" us from Brock (which is a whole other issue) if Jinder loses or we would be seeing one of the single dumbest decisions ever made in the WWE if Jinder were the Undisputed World Champion of both brands. Nobody wins. It better not be unification.

As much as I would want to see Jinder get sent to Suplex City, there's just no good outcome of doing this match. I'd much rather have both guys be defending their belts. Strowman or Balor could be challenging Brock. AJ could be challenging Jinder. We NEED a World Championship title match at the show or else it would be incomplete. Inevitably someone will bring up that the original Survivor Series did not have a World Championship match. That's great, but this isn't 1987. It's 2017. The product is different now and within kayfabe both brands need a top prize available for winning.

 

[The Life Of Pablo Ren]

My immediate reaction wow, "Wow, this is awful".

But after sitting with the news for a few days and having a chance to think about it, I have to say...

Wow, this is REALLY awful.

The concept of WWE Champion vs. Universal Champion is an intriguing one, but when those respective champions are Jinder Mahal and Brock Lesnar, I can't think of a scenario where the end result manages to help either Mahal or the WWE Championship.

It doesn't matter whether the WWE Champion is Jinder Mahal, AJ Styles, Randy Orton, etc. whoever, we all know Lesnar isn't gonna lose. Not just because he's Brock Lesnar, but also because Smackdown got the biggest bragging rights during Survivor Series last year, and WWE wants to firmly establish the fact that the Universal Championship > WWE Championship.

BUT, when your champion is Jinder Mahal, I can't help but think this is not going to be a very competitive match. Maybe that's just the stigma surrounding Jinder Mahal, hopefully I'll be wrong, but god forbid Mahal gets squashed, you do serious damage to the "integrity" of the WWE Championship. I know it's stupid to say that a fake belt has integrity but it really does. It's one thing to show superiority of one title over another but you don't want to run the risk of having the WWE Championship turn into what the World Heavyweight Championship was towards the end of its run.

As far as the other things surrounding it like no World Title defense on RAW throughout essentially the entire season of Autumn, I really don't mind. The last year or so has taught us that there's virtually no line anymore between the world championships and the mid-card championships. Really nobody is "above" the US/IC championships anymore, it's interchangeable for the most part.

It's a good idea in theory if they can make it competitive, but given who Lesnar and Mahal are, I can't see any way that it will be.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Personally, I feel like this is a great idea and here's why, jinder as run out of challengers on smackdown and what's left will by tied up in other feuds for the event so that keeps him on tv for another month.

Lesnar not defending the title every months doesn't really bothher me either because I saw this practice happens alot back in the 80's and for me it makes the title feel special instead of just another title the wwe as. Plus again, when the only go to match they have left for the title is finn balor vs lesnar, I rather they keep that for the rumble anyway.

Finally, I feel like were being to hard on jinder, the guys as been working is butt off to become a credible champion and he's been doing a fine job as champion. So I respect that. I can wait for cena to come back to smackdown and take the title away from him but until then he doing a really good job as a heel.

So this match make sense as they being using survivor series as the show to do cross promtion matches and I rather have th champions face each other then being stuck in a tag match.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I know this question has been raised a zillion times, but do you ever think we're all just too smarky?

Frankly, yes. In some ways, I've probably overreacted to this just as many other net fans will and currently are if it turns out to be true. My main issue is that the track record for both of these men to put on entertaining, 1 on 1 matches isn't good. Until recently, Lesnar would only have solid matches against Attitude Era opponents primarily due to the way modern stars were jobbed out to him. Lesnar is still better, far better, in a multi-man match as there are enough there to cover up for his shortcomings and weaknesses, but he's put on fun matches against Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman, both of whom have shown themselves to be more entertaining in the ring than Jinder.

I'm just utterly and completely underwhelmed by Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion, there's just nothing about the man that says he should be a main eventer apart from his physique, but I'll take ability over appearance any ol' day of the week. As a result, it's just frustrating for me to see Jinder in this spot because he just doesn't have the chops to be a main eventer.

Also, you have to factor in that various negatives associated with both the World Championship main event pictures due to the man holding the titles. Lesnar has been far better about being used as champion this time around as he's been putting on matches that are actually competitive ones where he doesn't make modern stars look like jabronis who should be carrying his bags instead of wrestling him. I'm not all that thrilled about Lesnar having such a part time schedule while he's champion but as long as his opponents look good facing him win or lose, I can get over that.

The main roster's booking in the main event scene has been all over the place this year, it's been downright chaotic with much of it just not being very good until the past few months with Lesnar. I just don't have enough faith in WWE's booking or in these two wrestlers to put on a capable match, though nothing'd make me happier than to be proven wrong.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

If they're set on having Jinder as champion then they need to make him. I can't recall a more lifeless champion, I want his reign to end as much as the next guy, but that doesn't appear to be happening. Lesnar basically being built up since he ended The Streak only to lose to Reigns, a guy who's already a star, just seems like a waste to me. I can think of better guys for him to fall to than Mahal, but nobody who hasn't been harmed, or who will continue to be harmed, by erratic booking.

I suppose you could suggest somebody like Owens for the role. While he's currently in a major feud right now would anybody really be surprised if he's making up the numbers in a US title match a few months down the line? Mahal just seems like their guy to me and I think they should now try to solidify him. Even if he is utter pants.

 

[BigDaddyKewl]

I'm ok with this Lesnar vs Mahal if it does end up happening. They need to have Lesnar on the card in some way with him being Universal Champion and adding star power to Survivor Series. They'll have to do a non title match and bill it as a battle of the the brands. I think it could be a fun match and feud, who doesn't want to see Lesnar beat up on Mahal and the Singh Brothers? Lesnar will likely win but hopefully its not completely one sided and Mahal doesn't get buried.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Well, before he gets to Lesnar, it looks like the next A+ player they're going to have job to the jobber champion is AJ Styles. So yeah, a clash between arguably the best in-ring worker in WWE and arguably the worst in which the worst goes over.

My guess is that within the next few weeks on SmackDown Live, they'll have a title match between Styles and Jinder with the usual shenanigans of Jinder's mediocre ability and reliance on the Singh Brothers to go over the better man on his way to Survivor Series.

 

[GOOZEKING]

I am also predicting that they feed styles to Jinder. Although I do see this feud being the main event feud for smackdown going into royal rumble so they probably will have it so AJ has a reason to want a rematch after survivor series

 

[Psykohurricane55]

I feel this would be the perfect match to set up a new contender for lesnar and advance the feud between mahal and aj.

The fact is that they probably are setting up the title match for their december ppv between aj and mahal so why not have some sort of finish where somebody, maybe a finn balor, braun strowman or samoa joe come out and attack lesnar and after the bell is rang and the match is over, hae aj styles attack mahal and hits the styles clash on mahal.

The fact is, right now they don't really cares about if mahal is working for the u, s crowd or not, which seem like depending on the crowd it's working in certain market and not working in others, they want to get a piece of the india market which from what I saw on smackdown last night, the gamble actually worked because he's the biggest star they have on the smackdown roster in the market. So I don't see them killing this experience with mahal this year and I wouldn't be surprise if they hae him drop the belt to cena at mania.

So that match if they don't put this match as the last match on the card, you could do a screwy finish like a dq or double dq finish where you set up future contenders for their respective titles.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

You know.. only the net has been overreacting to Lesnar. Fans love him and cheer him. They don't care he has 2 moves. Why would WWE change a recipe that isn't broken? Fans also hate Mahal, so in Vince's eyes, Lesnar vs Mahal can end up being pretty darn entertaining. I bet that the fans that will be attending Survivor Series will love this match as well.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

Jinder should go over. Clean.

In for a rupee, in for a pound I say. It won't hurt Brock's credibility anymore than losing in 45 seconds to a 50 year old retired father did. Jinder has already dominated Orton and Nakamura, so what's one more scalp before Cena comes back and wins his 17th title? It's football season, they know no one is really watching until the Rumble anyways

 

[Dolph Ziggler's Gimmick]

At this point I'm just conditioned to expect every high-profile Mahal match to end with:

1) Singh Brothers distraction.

2) One Khallas.

3) One. Two. Three. Crowd goes mild.

To the point where even this announcement hasn't changed things. They've finally done it with this Mahal reign, I think I'm low-key losing my sanity.

 

[TheBadGuy92]

I can't recall a more lifeless champion.

this is pretty much the perfect way to describe his character. Hes average in the ring. his goons help him retain. but him as a character is so lifeless, its impossible to invest anything into him as a fan

 

[JoeMallard]

this is pretty much the perfect way to describe his character. Hes average in the ring. his goons help him retain. but him as a character is so lifeless, its impossible to invest anything into him as a fan

If he had even half the ability Owens does, his reign might actually be entertaining. Does anyone besides Wrestlingmasters think he's actually worth a shit?

 

[King Patrick Star]

The Championship Unification match is my favorite match stipulation. With that said, I don’t mind seeing the WWE Universal Champion vs. the WWE World Champion in a non-Title main event. Champion vs. Champion matches, regardless of whom the Champions are at any given time, always made the match feel extra special to me. This would be my card, if I were to book Survivor Series with this main event.

Kickoff Show
Cruiserweight Champion, Kalisto vs. United Kingdom Champion, Pete Dunne

Traditional Survivor Series Elimination match
Team Raw – Mickie James, Asuka, Sasha Banks, Emma, and Alicia Fox
vs.
Team Smackdown – Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi, and Tamina

Raw Women’s Champion, Alexa Bliss
vs.
Smackdown Women’s Champion, Natalya

Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team match
Team Raw – The Bar, The Hardy Boyz, The Club, The Revival, and Rhyno and Heath Slater
vs.
Team Smackdown – The New Day, The Hype Bros, The Bludgeon Brothers, Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable, and Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn

Raw Tag Team Champions, The Shield (Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose)
vs.
Smackdown Tag Team Champions, The Usos (Jey and Jimmy)

WWE Intercontinental Champion, The Miz
vs.
WWE United States Champion, Baron Corbin

Traditional Survivor Series Elimination match
Team Raw – Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Kane, Finn Balor, and Bray Wyatt
vs.
Team Smackdown – Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, and AJ Styles

WWE Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar
vs.
WWE World Champion, Jinder Mahal

 

[King Patrick Star]

The Championship Unification match is my favorite match stipulation. With that said, I don’t mind seeing the WWE Universal Champion vs. the WWE World Champion in a non-Title main event. Champion vs. Champion matches, regardless of whom the Champions are at any given time, always made the match feel extra special to me. This would be my card, if I were to book Survivor Series with this main event.

Kickoff Show
Cruiserweight Champion, Kalisto vs. United Kingdom Champion, Pete Dunne

Traditional Survivor Series Elimination match
Team Raw – Mickie James, Asuka, Sasha Banks, Emma, and Alicia Fox
vs.
Team Smackdown – Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi, and Tamina

Raw Women’s Champion, Alexa Bliss
vs.
Smackdown Women’s Champion, Natalya

Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team match
Team Raw – The Bar, The Hardy Boyz, The Club, The Revival, and Rhyno and Heath Slater
vs.
Team Smackdown – The New Day, The Hype Bros, The Bludgeon Brothers, Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable, and Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn

Raw Tag Team Champions, The Shield (Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose)
vs.
Smackdown Tag Team Champions, The Usos (Jey and Jimmy)

WWE Intercontinental Champion, The Miz
vs.
WWE United States Champion, Baron Corbin

Traditional Survivor Series Elimination match
Team Raw – Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Kane, Finn Balor, and Bray Wyatt
vs.
Team Smackdown – Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, and AJ Styles

WWE Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar
vs.
WWE World Champion, Jinder Mahal

Eric Bischoff: Let's clear something up first. Do you work for the WWE??
King Patrick: No!!
Eric Bischoff: How about it??
Patrick Star: No. Forget about this past Chico, worry about the future!!