Was Jinder Mahal A Bigger Draw Than Seth Rollins?

Stats have recently hit the internet to reveal the steady decline in WWE’s live event attendance. Gate numbers have dwindled to a meager 3334 average, which has dropped significantly over the past year. Unfortunately for the guys and girls headlining these shows, fingers are pointed their way as the cause of the sudden apathy towards WWE’s programming. At the moment, Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch share co-ownership of the WWE’s top seat, often headlining flagship live events across the States and overseas. Where Lynch has ushered in a renewed interest in the Women’s Division, Seth Rollins has failed to captivate a new audience while he held onto the barely-prestigious Universal Championship.

Seth’s championship reign wasn’t exactly groundbreaking. After defeating ‘The Beast Incarnate’ Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, Rollins went on to declare that his championship run was going to be a definitive one. ‘The Beastslayer’ was thrust into a feud with AJ Styles right off the bat, which to their credit, was probably the best championship feud of the year going off their fantastic match at Money in the Bank. Since then, Rollins moved on to feuding with Baron Corbin, which has seemingly lasted forever. With a conclusive victory over the team of Corbin and Lacey Evans at Extreme Rules, Seth retained the championship alongside his partner Becky Lynch, only to then be cashed-in on by Brock Lesnar. So ended his first Universal title reign.

Not exactly a definitive series of events for the Universal title. The Rollins/Corbin feud bombed massively, with most fans rejecting the idea of the former Constable being considered worthy of a shot at the big red belt and soon seeing that lackluster sentiment reflected back onto Seth Rollins.

With the gate numbers now confirming that fans have now given up on attending their local shows, is it fair to assume that this was down to Seth Rollins alone? The theory tends to imply that the World Champion at the time is the responsible one when it comes to drawing a crowd. With the likes of Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and John Cena being three of the biggest draws of all time, they would often be seated in the championship main event, because that’s exactly where the crowds wanted them to be. Legions of fans of all ages would pay to see these names while they either valiantly battled to reclaim their title, or compete in the everlasting struggle to achieve said championship.

Seth Rollins may be a phenomenal athlete, and undoubtedly one of the most talented on the main roster, but quite frankly, he hasn’t met the very high expectations Triple H had for him upon signing him on.

This isn’t necessarily his fault entirely. After all, the WWE superstars are subject to whatever creative deem appropriate for their characters. After Jon Moxley’s recent tell-all podcasts detailing the ongoing frustration that takes place between the on-screen talent and the backstage writers, it’s hard not to empathize with the superstars that are coming forward and voicing their disappointment with the system. Where Seth has yet to show such notions, you could probably assume he has a few after now being compared to former WWE Champion, Jinder Mahal.

‘The Modern Day Maharajah’ was one of the biggest talking points of 2017, a shocking tale which saw the former enhancement talent suddenly jump into the main event scene on SmackDown Live. Mahal defeated Randy Orton at WWE Backlash, claiming his first major championship in his career. Mahal went on to defeat the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles throughout his reign, a huge push for the star that not many people expected to see shine the way he did.

Arguably, Mahal was only given the title to help boost numbers internationally, which to his credit, did work. But domestically, Jinder was only taking 3497 at the gate. Granted, SmackDown Live was always considered the lesser of the two brands, so attendance figures from their end wasn’t paramount for WWE. Nevertheless, these were pretty pathetic considering SmackDown Live was one of the hotter products produced by the WWE. Fans were genuinely more interested in watching the blue brand over Raw, especially when they were giving screen-time to performers that fans wanted to see such as Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles and Kevin Owens.

In spite of this, Jinder’s title reign was considered one of the biggest snoozers of the modern era. Nobody wanted to see him hold onto that belt, which some might say was a great way of getting heat, but personally my interest took a dive.

With all this in mind, would it be fair to compare Seth Rollins to Jinder Mahal and suggest that he’s a worse draw for the company? Short answer, no. Rollins has been a far superior wrestler to Mahal for years, competing in blockbuster main event contests and holding down the fort. I think it’s more than fair to say that this recent run as Universal Champion has really damaged Rollins’ namesake, but there’s no way his status as a top WWE superstar will be affected. He’ll still be featured heavily on live events, and will eventually pull back some numbers when general interest in WWE increases.

What a lot of critics and fans tend to forget is that interest in WWE doesn’t rest solely on the shoulders of their champion. It’s based on the product as a whole. Most vocal fans are quick to blame the lack of creativity in today’s programming, a distinct disregard of sensible booking and an outright rejection of audience demand. The performers are merely cast members in this awkwardly staged soap opera.

Numbers alone shouldn’t determine the success of a superstar in WWE, but Seth Rollins has indeed had a poor run with the Universal Title, outside of the match with AJ Styles. There’s no doubt ‘The Beastslayer’ will one day reclaim a major championship, perhaps when the landscape of WWE is a little more in line with what fans expect from mainstream wrestling, then we’ll see a more suitable run. Jinder’s reign has been one of the most detestable in recent history, there’s no way Rollins’ could ever be on that level.