In the days following the win, I've become even more intrigued to see what will happen in the very near future as it pertains the build to WrestleMania 34.
Mahal has denied Tuesday's title switch was due to an injury or a wellness violation. These were two of a handful of reasons I was thinking of when the match was announced more than a week ago.
A shoulder issue would have made it difficult for Mahal to do a Brock Lesnar-style match and a wellness suspension, beginning the day after Mahal dropped the title, would have ended on December 8th - the first day of WWE's tour of India.
With WWE not announcing a suspension, it's apparent that Mahal was not lying when he stated on Wednesday that the switch wasn't due to a violation.
The plan for the Survivor Series was obviously changed sometime between Halloween Night and November 2nd because AJ Styles was meant to have wrestled Rusev on this week's Smackdown to earn a place on the Smackdown team for the Survivor Series.
John Cena was then meant to have worked as a referee for the Lesnar/Mahal match.
From there, you could guess that there would have been a situation between the referee and then-WWE Champion to set up something for the future.
It's safe to conclude that a tease for Cena/Mahal would have happened on November 19th because - now that the match is Lesnar/Styles - WWE has put Cena in Styles' spot on Team Smackdown instead of having him play middle man for the battle of the Raw and Smackdown champions.
You can see how WWE has changed the advertising for the show by comparing the poster above to what is currently being promoted on the WWE Network Website in the image below:
I believe we'll get a better idea what's going on with the WWE Championship once the tour of India is over.
If not, by Night of Champions on December 17th.
It was only a couple of weeks ago when I pointed out that John Cena has strengthened as my number one pick to win the 2018 WWE Royal Rumble Everything that has happened since then has slightly weakened this opinion.
Despite the evident storyline change, Cena remains my first pick to win the Rumble while my number two favourite - Roman Reigns - could win a number one contenders match inside the Elimination Chamber in February.
This would set Cena up as a challenger for the WWE Championship and Reigns for the Universal Title.
It sort of makes sense on paper, but - as we've seen over the past week or so - plans can change on a whim.
The only way Cena is winning Royal Rumble now if Mahal is planned to be 2 tome Champion heading into wrestlemania
ReplyDeleteI don't see them doing Cena - Styles or Cena - Lesnar
But if WWE are scared to do Mahal - Lesnar because rumors say Vince felt Mahal - Lesnar wasn't a big deal, then I am not sure if they will put him in another mega match with Cena and that too 17th Title match