WWE turned Survivor Series into a brand warfare concept following the return of the brand split in 2016. In 2017, Brock Lesnar and Jinder Mahal were originally set to face off at Survivor Series, with The Beast Incarnate holding the Universal Championship and The Modern Day Maharaja as the WWE Champion.
However, just weeks before the event, Mahal lost his title to AJ Styles, who went on to face Lesnar instead. Rumors later surfaced claiming that Mahal dropped the title because Lesnar didn’t want to wrestle him.
Speaking to Inside The Ropes, Mahal dismissed those claims and explained that WWE simply wanted to book a face vs. heel match instead of having two heels face each other.
“AJ had a really, really good match with Brock. I loved it. It was an amazing match. It was way better of a match than me and Brock would have had, given the circumstances that we’re both heels, they had an incredible match, the story of the size difference and everything. It was a fantastic, fantastic match, way better than anything I could have done.
Fast forward a couple years, that’s when it came out on Twitter… I think it was Dave Meltzer, he said it, ‘Brock refused to work with Jinder.’
Nobody told me, ‘Brock doesn’t want to work you,’ etc. In fact, Brock showed me nothing but respect, even to the very end of the time that I was in WWE.
If Brock sees me in the locker room, he shows me the utmost respect always. Handshake, hug and I don’t see him treat… I don’t see him that way with everybody. Me and Brock have a certain respect for each other.
What I think happened, and I agree with it. It wasn’t like a refusal to work. It was like, ‘hey, this will be a better match. Me and AJ.’ I’m a heel, he’s a babyface, which I completely agree – it was the right call. It was a way better match.
But somehow it got spun into Brock refused to work Jinder, which, in my opinion, is not the case.
Go back and look at any wrestling news, if at that time when I dropped the title, somebody find me something at that time that came out, ‘this is Brock refused to wrestle Jinder.’
It came out like years later… and then that’s been the common commentary amongst the IWC. Brock refused to work Jinder.”
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