A former WWE Champion has clarified the rumours regarding their reported issues with Brock Lesnar.
From 2017 to 2021, the company expanded on the Raw vs. SmackDown storyline for Survivor Series by adding champion vs. champion matches at the show and saw the respective champions from each brand face off throughout the night.
While Lesnar reigned as Universal Champion on Raw in the lead-up to the 2017 show, the top champion on SmackDown was Jinder Mahal. Just as it seemed that Lesnar vs. Mahal would take place at Survivor Series, AJ Styles defeated Mahal on an episode of SmackDown the week before in Manchester to become the new champion and be the replacement opponent for The Beast Incarnate in the process.
Following the result and in the years since, it has been rumoured and reported that the reason behind the sudden switch was that Lesnar used his creative control and refused to work with Mahal. According to The Modern Day Maharaja, the title switch was for a much more straightforward reason.
“I Don’t Think Brock Lesnar Refused”: Jinder Mahal
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Mahal addressed the rumour and believes that the match was changed because a heel vs. heel match would not have been as exciting and added that Styles was the better opponent:
“This is just my opinion, and obviously there’s a lot of misinformation on the internet. The headline came out, ‘Brock Lesnar refused to work with Jinder.’ I don’t think he refused. I just think it was he probably pitched for a match with AJ because stylistically, it is a much better match. Me and Brock are both heels. Who’s gonna put heat on who? It was gonna be a flat match. It would have just been him suplexing me a bunch of times, maybe Singh Bros get involved. But the match he had with AJ was phenomenal, no pun intended.
So yeah, I don’t think it was that he refused to work with me. I just think Brock has some pull and him and Paul Heyman probably said, Hey, we should talk to Vince and said book the match with AJ Styles. Which is okay, I have to lose a championship at some point anyway, I had it for six months and I didn’t know that I was losing the championship until the day of.
We were in Manchester and we had the title match. We get to the building. Michael Hayes tells me and AJ go talk to Vince, and send us to Vince’s office. Vince tells us you’re dropping the championship, now you’re going to chase it. AJ, you’re winning it tonight, you’ll work with Brock at Survivor Series, then me and AJ at Night of Champions, one more championship match. And that was it. Yeah, I found out on the same day I’m winning it, lost it the same way found out the same day.”
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