Thursday, March 28, 2024
EditorialJinder Mahal Needs Hulk Hogan to Return

Jinder Mahal Needs Hulk Hogan to Return

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Earlier in the week, Andrew Thompson posted that there are reports saying Hulk Hogan is the one holding out on a return to WWE whereas the company is open to bringing him back.

This got me thinking about the current environment WWE’s product is in and how right now is the perfect time to reinstate Hulk Hogan for a variety of reasons—at least as far as WWE should be concerned.

Of course, there are going to be critics who think Hogan shouldn’t return as he’s in an unforgivable position. Welcoming him back with open arms might be tough for people to imagine, and those opinions aren’t unjustified, but let’s examine this from a perspective of letting bygones be bygones and moving past his issues.

With that in mind, why now? Why after all this time are they in a position where Hogan’s return could be beneficial and not a liability?

Because Jinder Mahal needs it.

His win to become the No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship was met with shock and awe. Nobody saw that coming and it got people buzzing about the possibility that a laughing stock like Jinder Mahal could ever become WWE champion.

Then, of course, WWE took that buzz and turned into the skid, figuring it would be more interesting to put the belt on him and shock everyone again than to go with the stable option of keeping it on Randy Orton.

You can argue whether or not those were mistakes or good ideas, but that’s not necessarily what this article is about. Instead, this is about what followed.

Since then, Jinder Mahal has had some good upgrades to his credibility, but he’s still struggling much more than he should be. This guy is as stereotypical of a character as you can get, just showcasing a baseline PG version of anti-American hatred and playing to xenophobic tropes.

It has always worked for some wrestling fans out there, whether it was Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaughter, Muhammad Hassan, or even The Hart Foundation in 1997.

Sadly, the heat for Mahal isn’t quite as strong as it could be, and this should be concerning.

Why is this the case? Is it because Mahal’s hands are tied and he can’t be too controversial as it’s a PG product? Does WWE want to keep him more of a heroic character in the Indian markets, so they don’t want to go full-blown super heel? Is it because Mahal just isn’t that good on the mic and doesn’t seem to have any charisma?

I’d argue that all of those aspects are problems, but there’s also another one lingering around, which is that Randy Orton isn’t the best person to feud with to get this type of angle over.

Villains are only as good as their heroes and vice versa. The Joker is the perfect antithesis to Batman because he’s bright, colorful, vibrant, energetic, chaotic and a relentless killer while Batman is dark, brooding, stoic, reserved and the immovable object when it comes to taking a life. Kevin Owens is a powerful jerk who has no allegiances and only cares about himself, which he shapes into championships, while Sami Zayn is the smaller, weaker nice guy who fails to achieve his goals because his sense of respect gets in the way.

Jinder Mahal being an anti-American character facing a guy like Randy Orton, who is best described as “perpetually unsettled loner who takes his anger issues out on everybody” doesn’t mesh quite the same.

Instead, Mahal is a better fit for John Cena, who does embody all the stereotypes of the classic G.I. Joe style American hero archetype. Those two will clash, undoubtedly, and it may even be for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam with us seeing the first glimpses of it on July 4th when Cena returns.

However, Cena returning on July 4th is still 20 days before Battleground is finished, so he can’t step into the title hunt quite yet. He has to busy himself with something else while Orton and Mahal continue their dance. Orton could win the title back at Battleground or he can come up short and it doesn’t matter as Mahal can keep his gimmick without having the championship around his waist (unlike Kevin Owens, who needs the United States Championship to do his “New Face of America” shtick).

In the meantime, Mahal needs someone to act as a counterpoint to his viewpoints and Hulk Hogan is the perfect vessel for this.

We’ve already seen Mahal and The Singh Brothers act disrespectfully to WWE legends at Money in the Bank, so it’s built-in that he has no reverence for the elders, which Hogan of course falls into the category of.

July 4th should be the perfect time frame to showcase just how villainous Mahal can be and how angry he is at the celebration going on with what is effectively “Yay America Day”—but does any of that matter if it’s watered down with Orton saying he’s simply pissed about how Mahal beat up his dad? That can be any feud.

Instead, it will be a missed opportunity if WWE doesn’t have Hulk Hogan come out as an already well known representative of American pride only to be eviscerated by Mahal and The Singh Brothers, as they feel the need to cut down an icon of not only the country they have issues with, but the legacy of WWE champions before him.

That would be an emphatic statement that would finally give Mahal that edge where the older fans would hate him for beating down their favorite, the younger fans would see Mahal actually act in an anti-American way (instead of just speaking in circles around the idea) and it would give Orton some sympathy as a guy who does respect those who came before him.

As far as Hogan goes, this also paints him in an incredible light in multiple ways. For the smarks who overanalyze everything like myself, he comes off as an old timer who isn’t stealing the spotlight, but rather, putting over the younger talent.

On a pop culture spectrum, this paints him as the victim who was beaten down so people are less likely to criticize how WWE brought him back after his controversial comments. Suddenly, instead of everybody talking about how Hogan returned to the company despite what he had said before, they’re talking about how Mahal humbled him, discussing political pro/anti-American ideologies and whenever someone brings up “racial slur WWE controversy”, it will be seen as more of a reference to LaMelo Ball’s screw up on Monday Night Raw rather than Hulk Hogan’s sex tape.

This is the absolute perfect time to kill two birds with one stone, as you get to reintroduce a legend in a way that avoids backlash while also helping out a star who needs the rub in order to get his character to progress to the next level.

Then, if you want to do Cena vs. Mahal at SummerSlam, we can see Hogan return at least one more time along that road in August as a supporter of Cena’s, which makes everybody speculate about the potential of an upcoming Cena vs. Hogan match at next year’s WrestleMania, as everybody does that every single time a feud can linger in the ethos—which, again, is another positive distraction from the stuff Hogan was involved with during his last run with the company.

If WWE doesn’t go ahead with bringing Hogan back, it isn’t as though this is the one and only time he can return, but it would feel like a missed opportunity to check off a bunch of boxes in the easiest, simplest, most secure fashion, rather than simply having him pop up on a random episode of Raw for the pure sake of saying “hey kids, The Hulkster is back!”

What do you think of this pitch? Should WWE bring back Hulk Hogan as a tool to give Jinder Mahal a boost, should he return in a different fashion or are you of the mindset that you don’t want to see him back in WWE ever again?

Keep the discussion going in the comments below!

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