Jinder Mahal may not have earned the respect of the WWE Universe during his championship run just yet, but he has earned Triple H's.

It's probably fair to say at this point that the WWE Championship reign of Jinder Mahal has gone on far longer than most fans expected. The Modern Day Maharajah came out of nowhere to defeat Randy Orton for the pro wrestling industry's most coveted prize at Backlash and almost five months later Mahal is still WWE's Champion.

In the eyes of many fans, the Jinder experiment has not been a success, and many are likely wondering why it is still going on. The stock of SmackDown Live has fallen during his reign as has that of the WWE Championship, plus the United States Title is arguably more desirable than Mahal's crown right now. Clearly, something is clicking or WWE wouldn't be continuing to push forward with Mahal.

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Another sign that something is going right with Jinder's push is the backing he has from Triple H. The Game has recently been on a press tour of India and naturally, the topic of WWE's current champion has been pretty prevalent. The main reason Mahal is champion is to reel in Indian fans and judging by Triple H's comments about him it's working. "People can criticize him, but he has earned my respect," The Game revealed to IANS. He explained that during his first run with the company, things didn't work out but he has returned, put the work in and is reaping the rewards.

via wwe.com

Every time Mahal defended his WWE Championship so far, someone has aided him in keeping the belt around his waist. That was until Hell In A Cell last weekend when the Indian-Canadian Superstar managed to successfully defend his title against Shinsuke Nakamura without the help of anyone from ringside, sort of. That will likely lead to Mahal becoming cocky and either marking the start of him not relying on anybody, or more likely signal the beginning of the end of his time as champion.

The crowning of Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion likely wouldn't have been met with as many protests as it has if WWE had done it in the right way. Mahal went from a relative nobody losing all of his matches to number one contender in the space of a couple of weeks. Had the build been more methodical, then there's more chance that a larger chunk of the audience would have considered this experiment a success.

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