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Yes, Jinder Mahal is still in the main event scene
40 days after he captured his title, AJ Styles defends the WWE Championship in a rematch vs. Jinder Mahal.
The Story So Far
With apologies to Randy Orton’s finishing move, Jinder Mahal and his 170 day run with the WWE championship came out of nowhere. Mahal won the title from Orton back in May at Backlash then ran with the belt for six months.
During Mahal’s Maharaja reign, AJ Styles rarely crossed paths with the WWE Champion. Throughout the summer, Styles chased the US title held by Kevin Owens, capturing the belt twice before losing it to Baron Corbin at Hell in a Cell.
The build to Clash of Champions
After making a pit stop on the Raw brand, to save the day and take the loss versus Finn Balor at TLC and team up with Raw Tag Team Champions Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins to defeat The Miz, Cesaro and Sheamus the next night, AJ Styles returned to SmackDown. Styles was originally scheduled to face Rusev on the November 7 episode of SmackDown Live in Manchester, England for the last spot on Team SmackDown at Survivor Series but a funny little thing happened on the way to Rusev Day.
Styles second ever WWE Championship title reign will officially kickoff with his first defense at Clash of Champions when he grants Jinder Mahal his rematch.
The go-home show
On the road to Clash of Champions Jinder Mahal’s relationship with the The Singh Brothers has gotten as much play as his feud with AJ Styles. On last Tuesday’s go-home show The Singh Brothers tried to convince they had dumped Mahal for greener pastures but instead got beat-up by Styles for their efforts.
Backstage Mahal would have the last, awkward, laugh when he jumped Styles from behind during an interview with Renee Young.
Will Jinder Mahal become a two-time WWE Champion and head into 2018 as the face of SmackDown? Or will AJ Styles walk away from Clash of Champions, title intact and possibly send Mahal tumbling back down to the midcard?