Last night at the WWE pay-per-view, this guy won the WWE championship:
from here.
His name is Jinder Mahal. His real name is Yuvraj Singh “Raj” Dhesi, and he’s Indian via Canada. He is meant to be a heel, the “evil” wrestler who beat up the hero.
But the guy he beat, Randy Orton, is sort of a walking pile of garbage.
Jinder winning the title was one of three reasons why Backlash was one of WWE’s best moments, diversity-wise, in ages. Forget for a minute that the New Day are on rest (they should return as soon as this week’s show, so tomorrow). Look at what happened on this show:
- An Indian (yes, a Canadian, but in storyline a proud Indian) won the WWE title.
- The Canadian born Syrian, Rami Sebei, Sami Zayn in character, won a match against the guy that is probably going to be pushed as the next big thing, Baron Corbin.
- Perhaps the most clearly queer (not gay– literally “queer”) performer since Golddust in the 90s– but also a Japanese national– debuted to riotous cheers in Chicago. Welcome to the big time, Shinsuke Nakamura:
Also on the show the Fashion Police, AKA Breezdango, AKA Tyler Breeze and Fandango, AKA Matt Clement and Curtis Jonathan Hussey (Johnny Curtis FTW) almost won the tag team titles from the Usos (a pair of Samoan twins). Their gimmick is risqué for WWE, but it’s also hilarious. Watch this video:
What’s happening is clear. Wrestling is going through a third renaissance. The first was WWF’s famed “Attitude Era” where reality started to creep into the product and characters were amped to 12 on a 10 point scale while on the other network, WCW debuted the nWo and Hulk Hogan, the most vanilla of ice creams, went evil. The second, I would argue, didn’t dawn until CM Punk dropped his “pipe bomb” promo and made it clear that indy wrestlers could make it big in the WWE (leading to a string of champions including Punk himself, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, and Kevin Owens).
This next move– the “new’ era as WWE is calling it– is about empowering women’s wrestling and showing actual diversity. A guy with Arabic writing on his tights (and an Operation Ivy lyric) won last night. A guy who identifies as Indian won last night. A black woman with glow-in-the-dark pants and hair tips, well… she didn’t win, but she’s the women’s champion. That was a bad match.
Many people have claimed that Mahal winning was a play to get viewers in India. To which I say “GOOD!” Let’s get more viewers from everywhere. Non-white wrestlers can win, too. They can have stories, too.
I wonder what will happen tonight, on the heels of an NXT pay-per-view that had the best storyline of two friends breaking up since Shawn threw Marty through the Barber Shop window and after a Backlash that dumped Orton for Jinder. What can Raw possibly do to keep pace?