WWE Rumors: Examining Latest Buzz Around the New Day, Jinder Mahal and More

In the wake of a Backlash pay-per-view that saw Jinder Mahal win the WWE Championship, the rumor mill was churning out news and notes about some of the most talented and engaging stars in the company, including The Maharaja.

Exactly when did Mahal find out he was winning the WWE Championship in front of a rabid Chicago crowd? As it turns out, it wasn't long before he actually pinned Randy Orton to complete the most unlikely rise in recent memory.

Speaking of unlikely rises, it was not all that long ago that New Day was a struggling act booed out of Levis Stadium in San Francisco's WrestleMania 31. Fast-forward two years and Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods have created a faction that is among the most popular acts in WWE.

After a lengthy absence from television, what will the trio have in store for fans when they return to SmackDown Live?

Summer Rae is a longtime Superstar, an export of NXT and a talented on-screen performer with a knack for talking. She has been missing from television for quite some time, though.

Why has she been gone and when will she return?

Find out the answers to those questions with this recap of some of the week's top WWE rumors.

A New Day for SmackDown's Tag Team Division?

According to Cageside Seats, The New Day will enter the SmackDown Tag Team Championship scene upon their return and battle The Usos over the titles.

There are two ways to take that news.

The first is that New Day is an established act, a high-profile trio that is highly merchandisable and marketable, which will help lend star power to a division severely lacking it.

The other is that New Day's return and injection into the tag title scene will almost certainly come at the expense of a Breezango team that is riding a tidal wave of momentum following a hilarious, inspired performance at Backlash.

Tyler Breeze and Fandango have been a revelation, master comedians providing fans with a taste of attitude straight from the late 1990s, when characters got over in pre-taped vignettes before taking to the squared circle to do battle.

Programming New Day into a title feud with The Usos essentially eliminates Breezango from contention at a time when WWE Creative should be taking a chance on the whacky contenders. Creative should be seeing if it can strike gold with them in the same way it did with New Day back in 2015.

New Day's arrival also puts a massively talented American Alpha at a disadvantage as that tandem tries to crawl its way out of the pit of despair, which it has called home since dropping the tag titles to Jimmy and Jey Uso in March.

Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods will help to bolster the SmackDown Live roster. They are strong enough not to need championships, though. Leave those for teams that could use the boost that comes along with winning a first title. The three should continue to wow audiences by working with main event talent—an opportunity that was not always afforded the immensely popular trio on Raw.

Imagine New Day vs. Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers at the top of the card.

Jinder Mahal: Last-Minute Champion?

According to Sportskeeda, the decision to put the WWE Championship on Jinder Mahal was made late Sunday, just two hours before Backlash went on the air.

The same site featured an interview with Mahal, conducted by Pratyay Ghosh, in which The Maharaja essentially supported that report. Asked when he found out that he was getting the title, Mahal replied, "I found out the day of."

The report suggests even the top WWE officials were not completely sold on the Mahal championship victory. What that says about his upcoming reign is not necessarily good news.

If management was not sold on Mahal as champion up to two hours before the Backlash event, the possibility exists that officials will lose interest or faith more quickly, resulting in a messy championship reign that does the performer no favors.

The most recent similar case would be Jack Swagger, who was tapped for big things and won the title but proceeded to be beaten down and delegitimized with every passing week. The result was a Superstar damaged beyond repair whose credibility among fans never quite recovered.

Only time will tell how Mahal's reign turns out.

Such an unproven commodity, he can go the way of Swagger and fall back into obscurity following a lackluster reign, or he can prove management's late-day decision correct and rise to the occasion as John Bradshaw Layfield did in 2004.

The Return of Summer Rae

According to Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Cageside Seats), Summer Rae is ready to return to the squared circle.

Rae last competed on August 14, 2016, teaming with Natalya in a loss to Becky Lynch and Naomi at a WWE live event.

The longtime valet suffered a neck injury, as she revealed in a post to her official Instagram account last November.

Long one of the better character performers on the female roster, Rae's last major angle came in the summer of 2015, where she became the new love interest of Rusev and feuded with Lana and Dolph Ziggler ahead of SummerSlam.

The conclusion of that program left her directionless with no apparent feud or story to tell.

The Women's Revolution did not help matters. Though Rae spent time in NXT working with Lynch, Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair and Bayley, she was never at the performance level they were. Her in-ring work has always lacked, making her less than ideal for the show-stealing matches and moments management was attempting to create with its revamped women's division.

Which begs the question: Why would Creative book her to join the Raw brand upon her return rather than SmackDown, which is a show whose women's division has thrived on characters and wrestlers instead of one or the other?

It is difficult to pick and choose a spot that best suits Rae at this point. Even if she returns to SmackDown Live, she does so at a time when Lana is preparing to fill the role that would fit her best. Maybe a managerial role for a Superstar in need of a mouthpiece is in order.

Or, perhaps, she should reunite with Fandango and join the ballroom dancer and tag team partner Tyler Breeze to complete their comedic act.