SDL is DON'T HINDER JINDER 4/18/2017

[Niners Fan in CT]

I liked the match.  

 

[steve]

"This is where the power lies!"

[John from Cincinnati]

Smart of them to court the Indian market by pushing the brother-in-law of the great Great Khali. 

[Raziel]

Well, it has been a while since Orton destroyed a group of people single handedly.

[Charlie M.]

Really can't tell if Jinder is just going to hilariously eat an RKO and lose in like 10 seconds or if they're actually serious about this push. I mean, it's Vince and Jinder looks like that so it could be a real thing. It could go either way at this point.

We used to get guys like Jinder pushed all the time. I guess it just shows how much things have changed that this one seems to have really shocked people.

[HumanChessgame]

Who is supposed to be the heel in the Jinder/Orton program?  Jinder's promo was clearly on the heel end of the spectrum, but nobody wants to cheer for Randy.

So The Colons are just referring to themselves by their family name and don't appear to have any gimmick (other than some vague heel tactics) but are still wearing their Shining Stars gear. 

[piranesi]

Wow. Jinder Mahal seems to have that, what do you call it, "It factor" that really impresses Vince, huh!

Too bad it can't be bottled and sold or everyone could get it.

I just wonder what it is and how he figured it out, you know.

[John from Cincinnati]

1 minute ago, Charlie M. said:

Really can't tell if Jinder is just going to hilariously eat an RKO and lose in like 10 seconds or if they're actually serious about this push. 

Somewhere in between. I reckon Jinder doesn't eat it in 10 seconds, but he's clearly a filler feud. KO-Styles keeps those two occupied. They seem intent on building up Corbin and holding off on Nak. Sami doesn't get to be a thing yet because... they're not done with Randy as a good guy, I guess. And they clearly see nothing of value in Harper (boo) or Ziggler (yay). 

Doesn't leave them with much. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

JBL was pushed in somewhat similar fashion.  He came out of nowhere as a singles performer. He had the new look, new gimmick.  He eventually had a stable. Obviously he was a great brawler and great on the microphone.  Jinder Mahal, I'll say this..  he's been good on the mic the last couple weeks. 

This is also a perfect time to push him. It's going to generate easy heat from the audience.   the Bollywood Boyz can bounce around for him.  I'll give it a chance. 

[Eivion]

Jinder winning the title shot while being the least impressive of the guys in the six-pack challenge is something. I don't even dislike him, but its weird they aregiving him a title shot on ppv. If this was just on SDL I could understand. makes me think AJ/Owens or Charlotte/Naomi will be the actual main event of Backlash. At least the match was good.

3 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

JBL was pushed in somewhat similar fashion.  He came out of nowhere as a singles performer. He had the new look, new gimmick.  He eventually had a stable. Obviously he was a great brawler and great on the microphone.  Jinder Mahal, I'll say this..  he's been good on the mic the last couple weeks. 

This is also a perfect time to push him. It's going to generate easy heat from the audience.   the Bollywood Boyz can bounce around for him.  I'll give it a chance. 

JBL's push was exactly what I was thinking when they did this. The thing is outside of the Eddie feud that was kind of a horrible time for Smackdown.

Charlotte//Naomi was a little off but kind of understandable with it being their first meeting. I still liked the match and can see something really good coming next week if they can get all together. The heels teaming up to seemingly bully Charlotte just felt weird. Where was Becky.

AJ/Corbin was nice.

[John from Cincinnati]

2 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

JBL was pushed in somewhat similar fashion. 

This sprung to mind for me as well, but I'm trying not to dwell on it. There aren't a whole lot of similar examples to point to.

Or maybe I'm misremembering. 

[Charlie M.]

3 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

Somewhere in between. I reckon Jinder doesn't eat it in 10 seconds, but he's clearly a filler feud. KO-Styles keeps those two occupied. They seem intent on building up Corbin and holding off on Nak. Sami doesn't get to be a thing yet because... they're not done with Randy as a good guy, I guess. And they clearly see nothing of value in Harper (boo) or Ziggler (yay). 

Doesn't leave them with much. 

Ziggler's busy jobbing to Nakamura and Harper's a babyface so that doesn't really work.

Looking at the rosters, it probably would have been Rusev if he were healthy.

Ideally they probably should have just kept Miz on Smackdown and used him as a one-off challenger.

[steve]

It'd be pretty interesting if he won, actually. I doubt he will, but still.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I got home in time to catch the last 20 minutes of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, then I get an hour of Seinfeld. I'm off tomorrow, so it's a pretty good night for me.

[Charlie M.]

3 minutes ago, Eivion said:

Charlotte//Naomi was a little off but kind of understandable with it being their first meeting. I still liked the match and can see something really good coming next week if they can get all together. The heels teaming up to seemingly bully Charlotte just felt weird. Where was Becky.

Becky is gonna stick up for her and we're gonna get the Sting/Luger storyline with them?

Match was okay. Felt like they were holding a lot back for next week, though.

[John from Cincinnati]

12 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

Harper's a babyface

Couple things there:

a) I'm far from convinced they're married to any direction for Luke

b) A lowkey rivalry based on mutual respect from their hard-fought match at the Chamber PPV could have played as a decent filler feud and sent the message that people should take Harper seriously as a top guy

Nothing against Jinder, but him jumping the line says a little about what they think of Harper, IMO. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

19 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

This sprung to mind for me as well, but I'm trying not to dwell on it. There aren't a whole lot of similar examples to point to.

Or maybe I'm misremembering. 

I think he has potential with this and the stable but it's probably more of a midcard thing. He drops a fall to Orton and then positions himself in a U.S. title contender role.  But hell, that's loads better than what he was doing on RAW. 

[John from Cincinnati]

10 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I think he has potential with this

I don't disagree at all. It's just he's a guy who's had zero buzz and who we've been told forever to see as a guy at a certain level. So it's a bit jarring. Exciting to be sure, because good lord does this company really need to let fresh blood suddenly rise to the top more often. But difficult to process. 

Randy's having just the strangest run right now:

• Consents to death by Lesnar, doesn't really generate enough buzz to be worth the trouble
• Spooky garbage feud with Wyatt suddenly turns into awesome Orton-as-henchman story
• Henchman randomly wins the Royal Rumble
• Awesome match against Harper at EC, lowkey probably my favourite WWE bout of the year thus far
• Awesome Orton-as-henchman story turns into spooky garbage feud with Wyatt
• Face turn by desecrating a grave and committing arson
• Flat, lifeless Mania match overshadowed by strange, ill-advised projector images of Spooky Wyattness
• Impending House of Horrors match and main event feud with Jinder Mahal

Remember when he was just the hottest thing going in the eyes of so many after he kicked Vince in the head? That feels like forever ago. 

Actually, it's been eight years. Holy fuck. 

[Overly Critical Man]

Does anyone else find it funny that Jinder was yelling at us about accepting diversity when the entire crowd was basically rooting for the Syrian-Muslim?

[piranesi]

When Jiinder said Americans need to be forced to accept diversity, for a hot second I thought this was going to be an amazing storyline where he beat Orton for the title and then imposed Sharia law on Smackdown and instituted sensitivity re-education training for everyone, declared a "safe zone" in a room backstage where people could take turns screaming at JBL, renamed the Gorilla position as "The Italian-American re-location zone," had all the title belts transformed into baby bjorns in which refugee children would be provided sanctuary from city to city.

After defeating Orton, Cena, AJ Styles, and a returning Kurt Angle, he would be revealed to be an android created by Joy Reid who would appear via satellite holding Hacksaw Jim Duggan hostage at a vegan coop.

This would lead to Daniel Bryan's ring return at Wrestlemania next year where he would promptly lay down for Robot-Jinder and have a reading/discussion session of BELOVED. Bryan will be interrupted by Braun Strowman who broke through the RAW/SMACKDOWN barrier and uses Bryan's carcass to beat JinderBot until there is nothing left but a pair of glasses.

The next night on Raw those glasses will spawn into Chris Hayes who will challenge Strowman to a freeform poetry slam based on the writings of Haruki Murakami.  Strowman accepts.

Tune in to Smackdown Live! tomorrow to find out what happens!

[Charlie M.]

Judging by Talking Smack, I think Jinder's been watching a lot of MMA promos. "I want to beat the best version of Randy Orton." I think he compared himself to both a crocodile and a shark. Then he started calling himself the new American Dream.

His Canadian accent is very thick when he's out of character.

It's all so bizarre.

[Brysynner]

1 hour ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

Somewhere in between. I reckon Jinder doesn't eat it in 10 seconds, but he's clearly a filler feud. KO-Styles keeps those two occupied. They seem intent on building up Corbin and holding off on Nak. Sami doesn't get to be a thing yet because... they're not done with Randy as a good guy, I guess. And they clearly see nothing of value in Harper (boo) or Ziggler (yay). 

Doesn't leave them with much. 

I don't think it's so much they don't see a thing with Sami or Harper but how overloaded the roster is at top level talent. Your babyface side has Cena, Orton, Styles, Nak, Sami, Harper and your heel side has KO, Corbin, Ziggler. Someone has to turn from the baby side of the roster for this to somewhat work out. So do you turn Sami or Nakamura? Then you can have your SummerSlam matches be Owens vs. Cena vs. Styles vs. Orton for the WWE Title, Nak vs. Sami for the US Title, and Corbin vs. Harper in an old fashion ECW-esque brawl.

11 minutes ago, Overly Critical Man said:

Does anyone else find it funny that Jinder was yelling at us about accepting diversity when the entire crowd was basically rooting for the Syrian-Muslim?

Has Sami's background/faith ever been talked about on TV though? I'd bet a good portion of the audience has no clue about Sami's background and just thing he's a weird Canadian.

[Overly Critical Man]

Well, the last name Zayn is Arabic in origin so people can draw their own conclusions. But then again, this is the WWE and everyone needs everything spelled out for them 20 times a show in video packages.

[Niners Fan in CT]

18 minutes ago, Overly Critical Man said:

Does anyone else find it funny that Jinder was yelling at us about accepting diversity when the entire crowd was basically rooting for the Syrian-Muslim?

Don't worry.. he'll have no issue generating heat with the WWE audience. 

[JonnyLaw]

Jinder beats Orton, and then drops the title to a returning Rusev, finally following up on their failed Raw partnership.  I'm in.