Worst in the World: Jinder Mahal vs Randy Orton-Battleground 2017

(NOTE: Before I start this post, I wanted to give my condolences to the family and friends of Brodie Lee. He was an incredible wrestler and, from everything I've seen and heard, an incredible man, friend, and father. He will be missed.)

How did this happen? On April 18, 2017, Jinder Mahal became the #1 contender for the WWE Championship. On May 21st, Mahal beat Randy Orton to win the WWE Championship. This came after Mahal had been little more than a jobber for three years before being released from the company and returning in 2016...where he continued to job until this match. And that is quite literally what happened. The week before Mahal earned his title shot, he lost in under three minutes to Mojo Rawley. He went from jobber to main eventer in the span of seven days. Now, telling the tale of a lower-level wrestler's sudden rise to the top isn't impossible. ECW did it with Mikey Whipwreck pretty successfully. There is a story you can tell here. However, that's not what WWE did. Instead, they just decided to ignore Mahal's standing in the company for his entire career and just acted like he's always been this top guy. That's not how it works. The guy who's last three matches before this couldn't even crack three minutes was suddenly capable of beating guys like AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. To put it in more current terms, it would be like when Leon Ruff won the North American Championship in NXT, instead of booking him as a massive underdog, they suddenly presented a guy who had been wrestling as enhancement talent for months was the legit best wrestler in the company. Even the most extreme example of a random sudden rise in the rankings, JBL, was nowhere near the bottom of the totem pole like Mahal was in 2017. What caused this? The Indian market, that's what.

India has one of the largest potential markets in the world and WWE has a dedicated fanbase amongst the over 1.3 billion people in the country. Mahal's rapid rise to success coincides with multiple moves WWE made to tap into that market. At WrestleMania 33, Mahal was the surprise runner-up in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal the same day that WWEShop.com launched in India. Mahal's #1 contendership came two days after WWE announced the hiring of the vice president and general manager of WWE India. And low and behold, in the middle of Mahal's title reign, WWE announced two shows in India where the first Indian WWE Champion received top billing over the likes of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose and would share the ring with Triple H. It was clear why Mahal won the WWE Championship, but the results were not as successful as the company would've hoped, as WWE Network subscriptions & WWEShop revenue increased, but not by much. If you want any indication of how much of a botched experiment Mahal was, by 2019 he was back to being a jobber, frequently dicking around in 24/7 Championship skits

So, all we're left with is one of the worst WWE Champions in the history of the company and the terrible matches he had along the way. Because make no mistake about it, Jinder Mahal is not that good. This title reign probably could've gotten a bit of leeway had Mahal been someone on the level of Chad Gable in the ring, but that wasn't the case. Mahal routinely had stinkers in the ring as champion. And none of Mahal's matches during his WWE Championship reign were quite as bad as the one he had against Randy Orton at Battleground 2017. After two straight victories over Orton with the title on the line, one final match championship match was scheduled for Battleground with an added stipulation. This time, Mahal & Orton would face off in...a Punjabi Prison match; a match that was supposed to be the Great Khali's signature match but flopped hard. It's a cool looking structure, but the complicated and clunky ruleset really drags the match down. I myself have been involved in the same amount of good matches as the Punjabi Prison has, and I've never wrestled a match in my life. And low and behold, a terrible gimmick combined with a bad wrestler leads to a bad match. Let's get into this.

So the rules of the Punjabi Prison are similar to a regular Steel Cage match, the winner is the person to escape the structure. However, it's more complicated than that. Instead of one cage, it's two. The first cage surrounds the ring while the second surrounds both the ring and the ringside area. The first cage also has individual slots on each side of the cage, where a wrestler can call for them to be opened. However, once they are opened, they're only open for 60 seconds. After 60 seconds, the door is closed and locked. If all four doors are locked, then the wrestler has to climb over the top. The second cage has no doors, and you have to climb over the top to escape and win the match. Or, if you're the Undertaker at the Great American Bash 2006, you can just slam into the wall of "steel-reinforced bamboo" really hard and open it. It's a complicated set of rules.

Mahal comes out first, giving us the only good thing about his WWE Championship run; his killer entrance. Perfect. It's a shame a great entrance like that is attached to one of the worst world champions the company has ever had. Mahal comes out alone, with no sign of the Singh Brothers. Orton comes out next, where we see that he still has his sperm snake from WrestleMania 33.

Thankfully, he doesn't ride it down to the ring this time. Orton takes the fight right to Mahal to start the match, but Mahal gains the upper hand with a back elbow. Mahal quickly calls for one of the doors to be opened, but Orton recovers quickly and beats down Mahal in the corner. Orton tries to escape through the door, but Mahal stops him. Both struggle to try to escape & prevent the other from leaving, but neither can get out before the time expires and the door is locked.

The two trade blows before Mahal hits a double knee armbreaker on Orton. Mahal targets the left arm of Orton with repeated knee drops and bending it around a cage bar. Mahal locks in an armbar before calling for another cage door. However, Orton recovers and prevents him from leaving the cage before hitting a fallaway slam. Orton tries to crawl out of the cage, but Mahal catches up to him and slams him down. Mahal makes a last-ditch effort to escape, but Orton stops him and the door is locked. Orton throws Mahal into the cage wall, but you don't get the sound of someone smacking into it like you do a normal cage. And speaking of the cage, here's a massive downside to it, specifically with the first part of the match.

It's terrible to try to watch a match through this. Normal cages do obscure the viewer's vision, but this one does that a lot more. It's hard on the eyes. Thankfully, the camera crew is inside the second cage so you don't have to try to watch the entire match through a cage that takes up so much of the screen.

Orton tries to throw Mahal into the cage again, but Mahal just springs up and tries to climb out of the cage. That's a good spot, I like that. Orton is able to stop him, however, and yanks him down, crotching him on the top rope in the process. Orton slams Mahal into the cage a few times and goes for the draping DDT, but Mahal quickly counters and throws Orton into the cage wall. Mahal splashes Orton against the cage wall twice, but Orton catches him on a third attempt and suplexes him into the cage wall. Orton hits it again and drags Mahal down across the top rope and man, the crowd could not care any less. Like, they are borderline silent for the majority of this match. The only time anyone gets invested is when a door opens, but that might be because wrestling fans just really like to countdown from 10. This is a WWE Championship match and the crowd couldn't care less.

Orton calls for the third door and almost escapes, but Mahal stops him. We get another minute-long struggle as both men try to stop the other from escaping before the door is locked for good. After a minute-long staredown for some reason, Orton dodges a charging Mahal and hits a powerslam before hitting the draping DDT and calls for the final door. Orton calls for the RKO, which the crowd boos because this match is awful, but Mahal counters it and hits a running knee. Mahal goes for the Khallas, but Orton counters it with an RKO, leaving both men down with 20 seconds left for the door. However, the Singh Brothers crawl out from under the ring and drag Mahal out the door, with Orton unable to escape before the door is locked.

The Singh Brothers try to help Mahal climb out of the second cage while Orton climbs the first cage. Orton is able to escape the first cage very quickly and just reaches over and grabs the other cage wall.

Here's another problem with this match; the cages are too close together for any kind of drama. Literally, as long as you aren't really short, you can just grab the other cage. Even then, you can jump across, which is significantly cooler than just reaching over. The match goes from Mahal having, as JBL calls it on commentary, an insurmountable lead to Orton ahead of him in about 10 seconds, all because Orton is tall enough to reach over from the first cage to the second.

The two fight on the side of the cage until Orton slams Mahal's head into the cage wall and knocks him down. However, the Singh Brothers quickly grab Orton and drag him down to the ground. The Singhs beat down Orton as Mahal gets to his feet and hits a superkick. Mahal climbs the cage again as the Singhs hold Orton in place, but Orton fights back and suplexes Samir Singh before dragging Mahal back down to the ground. Orton throws Mahal into the cage wall before suplexing Sunil Singh and throwing Samir into the cage wall again. Mahal gains the upper hand, however, by beating Orton with kendo sticks before going for the Khallas. Orton avoids the move by slamming Mahal into the cage before giving Mahal some kendo stick shots of his own, even giving Sunil Singh a shot for good measure when he tries to interfere.

Orton tries to climb the cage, only for Samir to slip through a hole in the cage and climb up from the other side.

Another good spot, it's just a shame it's in a match as bad as this one. Samir holds Orton in place with a guillotine, but Orton escapes and knocks Samir off the cage and through the announce table. However, the distraction was enough for Mahal to recover and drag Orton back down to the ground. Mahal beats down Orton around the cage until Orton dodges a big boot, causing Mahal to get his leg caught in one of the holes in the cage. Orton quickly hits a draping DDT before grabbing a chair from under the ring. Orton batters Sunil with the chair before turning his attention to Mahal, beating him down and leaving him as the only man standing.

Orton climbs the cage, easily dispatching Sunil when he tries to interfere until Mahal's music plays. But Mahal & the Singhs are already here, so who could it be...the worst possible option, that's who.

Yes, the Great Khali. Because if you're going to have one of the worst world champions in the history of the WWE in a match, you might as well have the worst world champion in WWE history show up as well. Now, there's obviously more history between Mahal and Khali than that and the fact that they're both Indian. Mahal's debut angle was that he was Khali's brother-in-law and the two aligned because of that and Mahal had called Khali his "personal hero" in the build to this match, along with the fact that the Punjabi Prison was supposed to be Khali's signature match type in WWE. But despite that, I have to ask, WHO THE FUCK WANTED A GREAT KHALI COME BACK IN 2017? Nobody.

Orton tries to climb out, but Khali shakes the cage and causes him to slide down. Khali climbs the cage and chokes out Orton with one hand. Mahal takes the opportunity to climb out of the cage and hits the floor, giving him the win and a successful title defense. Mahal & Khali celebrate, giving us the awful visual of Khali holding up the WWE Championship in triumph.

This return would ultimately lead to nothing, as Khali wouldn't appear again until 2018, where his alliance with Mahal was nonexistent.

The Verdict

My god, this match is so boring. So much of this match has just about nothing happening for the longest time. There are so few moves in this match it's crazy. When they leave the first cage, there are no moves, it's all just brawling with occasional weapons. There are a few good spots, but the majority of the match is an absolute chore to sit through. And of course, bringing back the Great Khali. It provided absolutely nothing and only made the match worse. Maybe it's not the worst of 2017, but it's still really bad, and definitely worse than Orton vs Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33.

Rankings (Best to Worst)

1. Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts-WrestleMania IV
2. Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
3. Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns-Greatest Royal Rumble
4. Shane McMahon vs Eric Bischoff-SummerSlam 2003
5. The Tag Team Gauntlet-Extreme Rules 2010
6. Randy Orton vs Bray Wyatt-WrestleMania 33
7. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
8. T&A vs Head Cheese-WrestleMania 2000
9. Triple H vs Sgt. Slaughter-D-Generation X: In Your House
10. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
11. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
12. Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV
13. Shelton Benjamin vs Viscera-New Year's Revolution 2006
14. Steve McMichael vs Reggie White-Slamboree 1997
15. The Tag Team Fatal 4-Way Match-WrestleMania 13
16. Tag Team Battle Royal-WrestleMania XIV
17. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
18. The Natural Disasters vs Money Inc.-WrestleMania VIII
19. Ivan Koloff vs Paul Jones-Clash of the Champions IV
20. ODB, Taylor Wilde, and Roxxi vs The Kongtourage-Genesis 2009
21. Ivory vs Tori-SummerSlam 1999
22. Giant Baba vs Bulldog Bob Brown-WrestleRock
23. The Reverse Battle Royal-Impact! (10/26/2006)
24. Jerry Blackwell vs Boris Zhukov-SuperClash II
25. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
26. Alex Wright vs Steve McMichael-Halloween Havoc 1997
27. The Great Khali vs Kane-WrestleMania 23
28. Savio Vega vs Crush vs Faarooq-Ground Zero: In Your House
29. The Shockmaster vs Awesome/King Kong-Starrcade 1993
30. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
31. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
32. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
33. Paul Ellering vs Teddy Long-Capital Combat
34. Dusty Rhodes vs Big Boss Man-Saturday Night's Main Event (10/31/1989)
35. Tyson Tomko vs Stevie Richards-Unforgiven 2004
36. Kane vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2009
37. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
38. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Souled Out 1997
39. Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs Awesome Kong & The Equalizer-Battlebowl
40. Finlay & Little Bastard vs The Boogeyman & Little Boogeyman-No Way Out 2007
41. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
42. Yokozuna vs King Mabel-In Your House 4
43. Dusty Rhodes vs The Honky Tonk Man-SummerSlam 1989
44. Sting & Hawk vs Meng & Kurasawa-Clash of the Champions XXXI
45. Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
46. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
47. Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
48. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
49. Stevie Ray vs Konnan-World War 3 1998
50. Vampiro vs The KISS Demon-Bash at the Beach 2000
51. Team WCW vs nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood-Fall Brawl 1998
52. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
53. Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania III
54. Jinder Mahal vs Randy Orton-Battleground 2017
55. Van Hammer vs Terrance Taylor-Clash of the Champions XVI
56. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
57. The Undertaker vs Goldberg-Super ShowDown 2019
58. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
59. Jim Duggan vs Big Boss Man-Royal Rumble 1990
60. Meng vs Jim Duggan-Uncensored 1995
61. Jim Steele vs The Equalizer-SuperBrawl IV
62. The Undertaker vs Giant González-WrestleMania IX
63. Sting vs Tony Palmore-Battle 7
64. D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel
65. Wendi Richter vs Leilani Kai-WrestleMania
66. Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar-WrestleMania XX
67. Edge vs Triple H vs Vladimir Kozlov-Survivor Series 2008
68. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
69. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
70. Scott Hall vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl IX
71. Boris Zhukov vs Paul Samson-Beach Brawl
72. Roddy Piper vs Hollywood Hogan-Halloween Havoc 1997
73. Kane vs The Great Khali-Breaking Point
74. Hollywood Hogan & Dennis Rodman vs Diamond Dallas Page & Karl Malone-Bash at the Beach 1998
75. PN News & Bobby Eaton vs Steve Austin & Terrance Taylor-Great American Bash 1991
76. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
77. Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl 1997
78. Batista vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2007
79.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
80. Super Invader vs Todd Champion-WrestleWar 1992
81. Brock Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez-Crown Jewel 2019
82. King Kong Bundy & Jim Neidhart vs Yokozuna & Jake Roberts-Heroes of Wrestling
83. Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
84. The 8-Divas Tag Match-Survivor Series 1999
85. The Fabulous Freebirds vs The Renegade Warriors-Halloween Havoc 1990
86. The Knockouts Gauntlet-One Night Only: Live! 2016
87. AJ Styles vs Frank Trigg-No Surrender 2008
88. Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono-Halloween Havoc 1992
89. Mike Awesome vs Vampiro-Halloween Havoc 2000
90. Bray Wyatt vs John Cena-Extreme Rules 2014
91. Brothers of Destruction vs KroniK-Unforgiven 2001
92. Mabel vs The Undertaker-King of the Ring 1995
93. Wendi Richter vs The Fabulous Moolah-The Brawl to End it All
94. David Flair vs Kimberly Page-Mayhem 1999
95. The Truth Commission vs The Disciples of Apocolypse-Survivor Series 1997
96. Daffney vs Miss Hancock-Bash at the Beach 2000
97. The Bushwhacker vs The Fabulous Rougeaus-WrestleMania V
98. The Beverly Brothers vs The Bushwhackers-Royal Rumble 1992
99. Teddy Long vs Eric Bischoff-Survivor Series 2005
100. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
101. Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
102. Major Gunns vs Miss Hancock-New Blood Rising
103. Bradshaw & Trish Stratus vs Christopher Nowinski & Jackie Gayda-RAW (7/8/2002)
104. Triple H vs Scott Steiner-Royal Rumble 2003
105. Santina Marella vs Vickie & Chavo Guerrero-Extreme Rules 2009
106. Kevin Nash vs Scott Steiner vs Goldberg-New Blood Rising
107. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
108. Mr. T vs Roddy Piper-WrestleMania 2
109. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
110. The House of Horrors Match-Payback 2017
111. The Blacktop Bully vs Dustin Rhodes-Uncensored 1995
112. Team Dos Caras vs Team El Canek-Leyendas Mexicanas 2017
113. Pat Patterson vs Gerald Brisco-King of the Ring 2000
114. The Four Doinks vs Team Bigelow-Survivor Series 1993
115. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
116. Oz vs Tim Parker-SuperBrawl
117. Brock Lesnar vs Braun Strowman-Crown Jewel 2018
118. Brock Lesnar vs Ricochet-Super ShowDown 2020
119. The Mighty Maccabee vs The Iron Sheik-Maccabiah Mania II: Shekel Slam
120. Van Hammer vs Doug Somers-Halloween Havoc 1991
121. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
122. Jeff Jarrett vs Sting-Halloween Havoc 2000
123. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996
124. Kane vs The Undertaker-Judgement Day 1998
125. Rebel vs Shelly Martinez-One Night Only: Knockouts Knockdown
126. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/2010)
127. Sabu vs The Sandman-November to Remember 1997
128. Seth Rollins vs "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt-Hell in a Cell 2019
129. Michael Cole vs Jerry Lawler-WrestleMania XXVII
130. The Bushwhackers vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff-Heroes of Wrestling
131. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
132. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
133. Hulk Hogan vs The Giant-Halloween Havoc 1995
134. Ultimate Warrior vs Goldust-In Your House 7
135. Los Villanos vs Los Psycho Circus-Triplemania XXIII
136. Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell-Victory Road 2009

Thanks for reading! Be sure to share if you enjoy and leave any suggestions for matches you'd like to see covered in the Worst in the World in the comments. Next week, I'm continuing my journey through what I think are the worst matches of 2017 with yet another gimmick match, only this time it's a Vince Russo-specialty. Until next time.