The New #1 Contender is......Jinder Mahal???

That’s quite the surprise. With Randy Orton set to defend his Smackdown World Title against Bray Wyatt at “Payback 2017” in the yet to be defined House of Horrors match, a new #1 contender will be needed in the near future. That problem was solved this week on “Smackdown Live” in a rather surprising choice.

This week, Jinder Mahal defeated Sami Zayn, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Mojo Rawley and Dolph Ziggler in a Six Pack Challenge to become the new #1 contender. Zayn almost had the match won when two men (the Bollywood Boyz) came out from underneath the ring and grabbed Zayn’s feet, allowing Mahal to grab a cobra clutch slam for the pin and the title shot. The match will take place at “Backlash 2017” on May 21.

Opinion: I know the first response is something resembling “OH COME ON” but here’s the thing: how often do we complain about WWE never trying anything new? Mahal isn’t the most interesting character in the world but he’s a new guy who could be turned into something. He’s not going to get anywhere if he’s never given the chance so let’s see what he can do.