WWE News Roundup: Two Days That Saw Jinder Mahal And Elias Samson Turn WWE On Its Head

It is probably fair to say that the WWE network is going full-steam ahead with its “superstar shakeup,” after Jinder Mahal and Elias Samson grabbed titles in the last few days. Of course, keen wrestling fans know that Vince McMahon announced the “superstar shakeup,” the night after WrestleMania 33. In the weeks following WrestleMania, we saw numerous WWE superstars change roster as the WWE sought to freshen up its weekly TV offerings.

As discussed on the Inquisitr last week, Indo-Canadian wrestler Jinder Mahal returned to the WWE network last year. Mahal was never more than a low card attraction who barely won a match. Mahal’s stock had sunk so low that he was cut from the WWE roster in 2014. Mahal continued to compete on the independent wrestling circuit before being brought back to the WWE network in July of last year.

When Mahal returned, he was handed defeats by the like of Sami Zayn, Neville, and Mojo Rawley. It became clear that a major change was coming Mahal’s way when he won a fatal six-way contest on WWE SmackDown Live to establish himself as the Number 1 contender for Randy Orton’s WWE Championship title. There have been rumblings of discontent over Orton’s tenure as WWE Champion. Opp Trends recently questioned why Orton was so boring as a champion.

No one needs to worry about Orton being a boring champion any longer because he lost his title to Jinder Mahal at Sunday’s SmackDown exclusive PPV event, Backlash 2017. With Mahal at the center of a huge push, it won’t have surprised anyone to see him win the WWE Championship. The WWE network is expanding fast on the Indian sub-continent and throughout Asia. It makes a lot of sense for the network to give Asian fans wrestlers to get behind. Mahal’s championship win may not have been a surprise, but Elias Samson’s win over Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose on Monday Night Raw most certainly was.

Who Is Elias Samson? He Defeats Dean Ambrose On ‘Monday Night Raw’ Debut

Wrestling fans who missed last night’s Monday Night Raw will wake up to the news that Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose was defeated by Elias Samson. Many will be scratching their heads and asking, Elias who? Elias Samson is the ring name of Jeffrey Logan Sciullo, who has been a professional wrestler for almost a decade. Samson worked the independent wrestling circuit from 2008 until he signed for WWE NXT in 2014.

Samson has had several walk-on parts on recent editions of Monday Night Raw, but last night was his solo competitive debut on Raw. The WWE universe would have been slightly surprised to see Samson make his debut against the Intercontinental Champion, but they will have been even more surprised to see Samson crown his debut with a win.

To be fair, Samson won the match by default. As reported on the official WWE website, Samson had been on top throughout the match. Ambrose had recovered and looked to be on top when the Miz entered the ring to land a cheap shot on Samson. As a result, Ambrose was disqualified, and Samson had won his debut match.

Samson and Mahal are not the only WWE wrestlers to have had a big win in the last couple of days. At WWE Backlash, Shinsuke Nakamura made his competitive debut by defeating Dolph Ziggler. Nakamura’s arrival on the blue team has been much-hyped, and he did not disappoint his fans.

The past few days have shown that the WWE “superstar shakeup” is far from done. It seems that roster changes were just the beginning of a program, aimed at revitalizing both WWE rosters. The WWE network is putting a huge push behind stars like Nakamura and Jinder Mahal. Their elevation may be primarily focused on the Asian market, but it heralds a lot of change in the coming months. Many fans suspect that fresh WWE talent is taking over from the old guard, so it looks like we have exciting times ahead.

[Featured Image by WWE]