Jinder Mahal Might Not Be Helping WWE Network In India As Much As They Thought

Let’s talk about Jinder Mahal because nobody is talking about him at all, right? WWE pushed him to the top of their roster seemingly out of nowhere and made him an overnight top heel. A lot of people wondered why WWE would make this kind of decision and the general consensus was it came down to India’s money and social media influence.

Dave Meltzer noted WWE is partly doing all of this Jinder Mahal pushing for more WWE Network subscriptions from India. But Brian Alvarez pointed out on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Live that India gets the big four PPVs for free on their Channel 10 anyway. That means that the fine folks in India get to watch WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, and Summerslam for free.

So you would think the people in India would buy a WWE Network subscription just to watch the rest of the WWE PPVs like Backlash where Jinder Mahal walked away with the WWE Championship. But the fact is that India is 9.5 hours ahead of America’s eastern time zone. Therefore the usual WWE PPVs air live at 5 or 6:00 o’clock in the morning in India.

But the people in India also get every WWE PPV that isn’t one of the big four for free as well. They just get them at a twelve-hour delay. So, they could either watch a PPV live at five in the morning or at five the next afternoon. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that might not be a fair trade for some people.

Of course, there is always the convenience of the WWE Network and all the original shows they have. There is also an outstanding library of classic shows like Smoky Moutain Wrestling too. So that’s always a selling point. But the fact is if WWE is banking on a ton of new WWE Network subscriptions from Jinder Mahal’s push logic would dictate that it isn’t likely.

It is also notable that WWE’s India tour isn’t until September. If WWE really wanted to boost that tour they would have waited to put the title on Jinder Mahal until Summerslam. Alvarez said his gut feeling is Mahal’s going to hold the WWE Championship until WrestleMania at this point.

Some also believe The Modern Day Maharaja will hold the WWE Championship until whenever John Cena can come back and take it from him. If and when that happens people would be happier about the fact Cena toppled Jinder than the fact Cena is breaking Ric Flair’s championship record.