WWE News: Jinder Mahal surpasses AJ Styles' reign as WWE Champion
What’s the story?
On October 08, 2017, Jinder Mahal successfully defended his WWE Title against Shinsuke Nakamura at the Hell in a Cell PPV.
Following his second win against “The Artist” on Sunday, Jinder managed to break another record as he surpassed AJ Styles’ 140-day WWE Championship reign.
In case you didn’t know…
Winning the WWE Championship at last year’s Backlash pay-per-view, AJ Styles went on to hold the WWE Title for a total of 140 days. Styles’ final title defence came against John Cena at this year’s Royal Rumble show when he dropped the belt to the Massachusetts native, who became a 16-time World Champion.
On the other hand, Jinder Mahal won the WWE Championship earlier this year when he defeated Randy Orton at Backlash back in May. Since then, Mahal has gone on to defend and retain his title against the likes of Orton, Baron Corbin, and Nakamura over these past five months.
The heart of the matter
Jinder Mahal has now held the WWE championship for a total of 141 days, having successfully beaten Shinsuke Nakamura, once again, at this year’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.
Mahal’s reign has already lasted longer than Roman Reigns’ three title reigns as well as Ric Flair’s two WWE championship reigns combined.
After his win at the Little Caesars Arena on Sunday night, “The Maharaja” broke another record as he surpassed AJ Styles’ 140-day title reign as the WWE champion.
What’s next?
Dave Meltzer that Mahal’s next opponent could be none other than AJ Styles, who lost the US Title to Baron Corbin in a triple threat match which also featured Tye Dillinger at the Hell in a Cell PPV.
After the show was over, Styles stated on Talking Smack that he was willing to go after the US Title as well as the WWE Title and added that he would challenge Jinder Mahal for the championship.
WWE will go to India on a live tour in December and it seems like Jinder will defend the title in front of the Indian crowd as well. It will be interesting to see who his opponent turns out to be.
Author’s take
I personally haven’t been a fan of Jinder as WWE champion and want him to drop the title as soon as possible. Fortunately, AJ Styles is a very talented performer, and it will be a lot of fun to watch him chase SmackDown Live's biggest prize as a babyface.
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