Orton And Mahal Inside The Punjabi Prison

Last time, I talked about how Smackdown could have progressed certain feuds in fresh directions through how they booked certain matches this week. They failed to do it. They booked things in a manner that makes things feel the same as they were coming off the recent PPV last week. Whether the WWE continues in the same direction or not remains to be seen, but there are other feuds that are also not over yet for the blue brand.

Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal will go at it for a third PPV. Was this truly necessary? I don't think so. This is not really that great of a feud that warranted another PPV.

Who else could face Mahal? Not Nakamura. It is too soon for him to win the title and it is too soon for him to lose to Jinder Mahal. AJ Styles is still tied up with Kevin Owens. How about the returning John Cena? The WWE is obviously not going in that direction, but he is returning next week. He could have started a feud with Jinder Mahal. John Cena is one title win away from breaking Ric Flair's record. Why not have him enter a WWE Championship feud right away. Play with the chase. He obviously won't win the title at a throwaway PPV like Battleground, but it could have been the start of a fresh feud. They even could have had Jinder Mahal talk trash about Cena these few weeks between Money In The Bank and Cena's return to help hype his return and build that feud. Instead, more of Randy Orton.

The story does not end there. This will be a Punjabi Prison match. This has not been a popular match type, but it fits Mahal's gimmick. On the one hand, if you are going to continue the feud, it might as well end in a gimmick match. On the other hand, is this feud worthy of this match? I didn't think this feud was worthy of a third PPV, so I obviously do not think this feud is worthy of this match type. It is like how Hell in a Cell has been overused in the last decade. It is no longer as special. But the WWE is obviously relying on tricks like this to get a ratings boost and get more subscribers. If they improved the quality of their product, they would have a better time drawing people in and would not have to rely on hype and cheap tricks for momentary boosts.