Before Survivor Series shifted focus to WarGames, the annual PLE had started pitting Superstars from RAW and SmackDown against each other.
That included champion vs. champion matches from the rival brands; in 2017, the plan was for WWE Champion Jinder Mahal to square off with Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. WWE started promoting the bout and even had the two heels clash physically, only to suddenly change direction.
A few weeks before the event took place, Mahal defended the title against AJ Styles in a SmackDown taped in Manchester, England, losing the belt to the Phenomenal One in front of stunned fans.
We've since heard that Lesnar declined to work with the Modern Day Maharaja, but Mahal set the record straight during a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet.
"This is just my opinion, and obviously there’s a lot of misinformation on the internet. The headline came out, ‘Brock Lesnar refused to work with Jinder.’ I don’t think he refused. I just think it was he probably pitched for a match with AJ because stylistically, it is a much better match. Me and Brock are both heels. Who’s gonna put heat on who? It was gonna be a flat match. It would have just been him suplexing me a bunch of times, maybe Singh Bros get involved. But the match he had with AJ was phenomenal, no pun intended [Laughs]."
"So yeah, I don’t think it was that he refused to work with me. I just think Brock has some pull and him and Paul Heyman probably said, 'Hey, we should talk to Vince and said book the match with AJ Styles.' Which is okay, I have to lose a championship at some point anyway, I had it for six months and I didn’t know that I was losing the championship until the day of [the show]."
"We were in Manchester and we had the title match. We get to the building, Michael Hayes tells me and AJ go talk to Vince, and sent us to Vince’s office. Vince tells me you’re dropping the championship, now you’re going to chase it. AJ, you’re winning it tonight, you’ll work with Brock at Survivor Series, then me and AJ at Night of Champions, one more championship match. And that was it. Yeah, I found out on the same day I’m winning it, lost it the same way, found out the same day."
WWE definitely pulled the rug out from under Mahal's feet with this decision, though it had become clear at that stage the experiment to push him as champion (which many believed was done to boost viewership in India) failed.
You can hear Mahal's comments in their entirety below.