WWE wanted you to think that John Cena would advance to Summerslam and challenge Jinder Mahal for the WWE World title. Nope. Cena instead lost to Shinsuke Nakamura on Smackdown, setting up the King of Strong Style to challenge Mahal, while Cena is likely to draw Money in the Bank winner Baron Corbin, who could still cash in his briefcase on the Mahal-Nakamura winner.
I just don't see the latter happening any more than I see Mahal dropping the title in Brooklyn.
As champion, Mahal has been booked as a champion who never wins, over-reliant on the Singh Brothers, and, at Battleground, Great Khali in a 1-shot return, to save his title. This is the sort of thing I had warned about when I first wrote about Mahal's unlikely title run as a standard bearer for WWE Network's expansion into India. Someone noted on a competing message board that WWE will be touring India later this year, and it'd be in their best interest to have Mahal remain champion through that tour, then drop the title. Never mind the fact that Mahal and the Singhs are actually from Canada and have at least storyline backgrounds in India. You just can't let facts like that get in the way of telling a story.
What is likely to happen, then? Nakamura wins via DQ when the Singhs get caught or Mahal either uses a low blow or a belt shot out of desperation to save himself and the title. Another cheap way out, yes, but that's all WWE knows what to do with Mahal. Something tells me that his push is another ill-conceived Vince McMahon idea, and what credibility Mahal had when he returned last year is gone.
Of course, in India, Mahal will be played as the heroic babyface coming "home", which is even more transparent than you'd imagine, assuming people in India have access to, say, YouTube, and see how Mahal is actually being presented. He will, though, drop the title either in the US or Canada, if not England, before the end of the year. That much is certain.
