Jinder Mahal and RAW Kaiju: Storytelling in WWE

The biggest victims of bad foundational storytelling in WWE Photo Credit: WWE.com

As of this writing, Jinder Mahal is still WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Six months ago, he was Rusev-adjacent, rudderless otherwise, and looking to keep collecting a paycheck while crafting a physique that would look to bring the Mr. Olympia crown to the Indian Subcontinent. Regardless of where he was then, now he's entering month four of his reign, but it's been an abysmal reign to be quite blunt. It's not that Mahal himself hasn't acquitted himself well; I wouldn't exactly call him a landmark Champ either, but he's done alright. However, the story around him has been an utter failure, relying on two of the laziest, and in one case most repugnant, tropes WWE has in its arsenal: racism and inept management.

The racism portion is clear, and has been ever since Randy Orton decided he didn't like Mahal because his skin wasn't one of the two approved colors for Wrestling White Supremacy (white or a lovely shade of orange from too much tanning). Even heading into a match with a decidedly non-White Shinsuke Nakamura, the story called for Mahal to keep beating into the American crowd that he was not American and was therefore better than they were. Okay, I get it, Smackdown! Live is a haven for flag-wavin', Cloyd Rivers-followin', cheap beer-drinkin' sons-a-guns, which was one of the few directions that could give me a thirst for the return to ALL SHOOTS ALL THE TIME.

But the inept management thing is another longstanding WWE trope, and it has everything to do with how Mahal's underlings, the Singh Brothers, are utilized. I understand having a second to run interference is, and always will be, a thing in wrestling. It's a trick older than most common spots used today, and it's effective. However, for however many times a Bobby Heenan or even now, a Zelina Vega get involved in a match, it has an element of subtlety to it. They wait until the referee's back is turned or they distract in completely legal ways. How many title matches has Mahal had where the Singhs didn't physically get involved?

Last night did not buck the trend and again figured into the finish of the match. Time Nakamura spent kneeing each Singh Brother's face halfway to Kinshasa allowed Mahal to recover and wrangle his challenger for the Khallas for the win. It was an utterly deflating decision not just because the crowd desperately wanted to see Nakamura win the title, but because it was fifth verse, same as the first. At what point do Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon just either ban the Singhs from ringside or fire them for continually dragging the reputation of their top title through bog-level mud? The thing is, everyone should have seen it coming, and they probably did. Maybe Nakamura still would've gotten a roof-exploding pop had he won, but judging from reactions through the match, but continuing to tell lazy stories that shortchange the audience has a decided effect on the pops uncorked. Furthermore, whether direct or not, the onus gets put on non-player characters to do something, and it makes everyone involved feel cheapened. "But simple storytelling doesn't lend itself to big reactions," you say as if RAW's main event didn't wring it out to exhilarating results in the next fuckin' match.

Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, and especially Braun Strowman could have literally torn down Barclay's Center had they had five more minutes and a freer reign of the arena. The crowd went bonkers for everyone involved, sustained their heat levels, got it up further every time Strowman stared down Lesnar, and sustained itself for an incredibly enthusiastic finish. The story was nothing more than four absolute kaiju duking it out for the top prize in the Universe. Nothing in wrestling is simpler than that conceit, and yet they milked it for hoarse voices and ear-shattering cheers. They didn't have to do a racism against Pacific Islanders to get heat on either Joe or Reigns. Paul Heyman didn't have to knife anyone in order to keep the belt on his dude. It was basically the equivalent of putting Thanos, Galactus, Darkseid, and the Anti-Monitor against each other in a fight to the death, and the fans got fuckin crazy for it accordingly.

I've long since stopped waiting for WWE to book something suited to my tastes, because I realize I'm out of touch with what it presents. The wrestling and a la carte personalities do enough for me that I'm satisfied with my habits. While the company is not booking for me, I wonder for whom it's presenting a product sometimes. Is it for the so called "casual₁" fans? I can't imagine continuing baiting them so that they buy WWE: Wrestling Match to finally see Nakamura win the title is a solid strategy. Critics talk about delaying the payoff, and I can't think of any instance where a promoter/booker did that and saw gratification. I mean, look at Bill Goldberg in 2003, or Tyler Black in Ring of Honor from the point where he first got hot in 2007 until the time the company put the strap on him. It can't be for Indian fans either, because their representative is a cheating snake who gets racism'd by every single other wrestler those fans have theoretically come to like in the absence of a wrestler like them. Fans theoretically like Randy Orton. Mahal comes up and wins the title like a totally dishonorable cad, and then Orton starts doing everything but calling him slurs. What does that do other than turn people off to both wrestlers? Whatever gains WWE is making in India can't be near the ceiling, which is where they could be if Mahal was presented as a classic babyface.

Sometimes, I look at what WWE does in all three major strata₂ and wonder how so many multitudes can exist in the same company. It's easy to separate NXT, because apparently an entirely different team works on it than the main roster. However, both RAW and Smackdown are signed, sealed, and delivered by Vince McMahon himself. So how could RAW work relatively smoothly whereas Smackdown is such a dreg show? How could, in the past, Smackdown shine and RAW drown? It's amazing how far apart the shows can be, or sometimes how far apart the various stories can be. It has no unified vision, which for a product underneath the supervision of one person, is incredibly telling. Either way, if Paul Levesque can't wrangle writers into creating great stories, simple or complex, then you can wait for McMahon to drop dead all you want, and WWE's sterile, corporatized vision of wrestling will continue to churn out inconsistent content, tremendous for one main story and utterly dire for another.

1 - I hate that term, by the by. They're not all drop-in occasionally fans who only know the big stars. The palette is diverse, much like not every "smark" likes the same damn shit. To me, casual fans drop in at the Rumble, WrestleMania, and SummerSlam. Not everyone who has The Network is a smark, y'know.

2 - I hate that I can't get too much into the fourth layer, 205 Live, but man, one only has so much time in the week when you have kids.