A new report has indicated that Brock Lesnar was instrumental in the decision to take the WWE Title off Jinder Mahal ahead of the two men potentially meeting at Survivor Series 2017.
Jinder Mahal stunned the wrestling world when he captured the WWE Championship from Randy Orton at Backlash in May 2017. Mahal held the title throughout the summer, retaining it in a famous Punjabi Prison match that saw the brief return of WWE Hall Of Famer The Great Khali.
As autumn rolled around, WWE’s annual November spectacular Survivor Series was scheduled once again to be a battle for brand supremacy as the best of Raw took on the best of SmackDown.
As part of the event, Jinder Mahal was scheduled to be part of a champion vs. champion match against Raw’s Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar. But that bout never got a chance to take place.
On the November 7th edition of SmackDown – just 12 days before Survivor Series – Mahal lost his WWE Championship to AJ Styles in Manchester, England. This meant that Styles would be the one to face The Beast Incarnate at Survivor Series.
Now Dave Meltzer on his Wrestling Observer Radio has shed some light on why the Mahal/Lesnar showdown never took place and says Lesnar was the reason the company took the title off Mahal:
“You know why they did that? Because Brock did not want to work with him [Jinder Mahal].”
Brock Lesnar defeated AJ Styles at Survivor Series 2017, beginning a run of three straight victories for Lesnar at the event. In 2018, he defeated Daniel Bryan in another champion vs. champion bout and in 2019 successfully defended his WWE Title against Rey Mysterio.