Previewing The Backlash 2017 Main Events

I never thought I would live to see the day that Jinder Mahal was getting a WWE Championship match. It is happening at Backlash this Sunday. He will face Randy Orton.

Is there any good reason for Jinder Mahal to win the title? People can talk about appealing to the Indian market and this being a response to TNA going to India, or whatever along those lines. If the WWE really cared that much, it would not have taken depth problems a decade ago for The Great Khali to get a title reign. The WWE has done some terrible things with title reigns recently, so it is not out of the question that Jinder Mahal gets a title win.

I will say Randy Orton retains the title. Randy Orton has not done anything since winning the title at Wrestlemania. He lost to Bray Wyatt in a non-title match. He now finds himself in this feud with Mahal. Yes, John Cena beat AJ Styles for the title a few months ago, then did nothing with it, except lose it to Bray Wyatt. But there is no good reason to do that here for the sake of Jinder Mahal. I would have given the title back to Bray Wyatt. I have mentioned it before. But if they have kept it on Orton this long, there is still more they can do with him. They can soon turn him heel and have him defend against face AJ Styles or Shinsuke Nakamura.

Speaking of Nakamura, he faces Dolph Ziggler. You would normally not consider this match worthy of being the main event of a PPV, but the WWE does whacky things in the WWE Network Era. A non-title match between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton headlined a PPV last year over a WWE Championship match. Women have main-evented a PPV last year, as well. The WWE might feel this match is more worthy to close the show than the match involving Jinder Mahal.

The WWE has hyped up Nakamura's debut and built up to this match. Aside from house shows and dark matches, he has not had an official match on Smackdown. This is it. I have seen some fans talk like the WWE is testing how much of a draw this guy is by having his debut happen at Backlash. I would not expect too much, but the WWE will likely treat this well and smarks that tend to dominate PPV audiences will likely be very loud for Nakamura.

Is there any reason at all for Dolph Ziggler to win this match? I would say Jinder Mahal has a better chance winning the WWE Championship. Everyone knows Dolph Ziggler is just a stepping stone in this feud. The WWE has done some dumb booking recently, usually to prolong feuds, but there is no reason to prolong this feud. Some fans were unhappy when AJ Styles took his first loss in a singles match just a few weeks after debuting. He still got some wins before that loss to Jericho. I can't say how long Nakamura will be undefeated on the main roster, but there is no reason to start him off with a loss.