WWE SmackDown live results: Jinder Mahal makes an announcement

Date: October 17, 2017
Location: KeyArena in Seattle, WA

The Big Takeaway —

Jinder Mahal did, in fact, challenge Brock Lesnar to a match at Survivor Series. Lesnar will be on Raw to respond. Mahal’s segment was interrupted by AJ Styles who challenged Mahal to a title match. Mahal declined and Styles attacked him. Styles will face Sunil Singh next week.

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn beat Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura in a tag match. Zayn picked up the pinfall over Orton after a low-blow and Helluva Kick. Their celebration was halted momentarily by Daniel Bryan who informed them that Shane McMahon would return next week. Zayn played a great heel and received good heat from the crowd for being a prick to Bryan in his hometown.

Show Recap — 

Michael Cole was on commentary with Corey Graves and Byron Saxton. Cole said Tom Phillips is out for a couple of weeks “on assignment.”

Daniel Bryan came out to huge Yes chants here in Seattle. The crowd loudly chanted for Bryan and, as usual, he seemed amused. He said it was great to be back and the crowd chanted “welcome home.”

Bryan announced a 6-woman tag match between Natalya, Tamina and Lana against Naomi, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. The crowd loudly booed the heels and cheered the faces. Bryan said Jinder Mahal would have an announcement and Dolph Ziggler would face Bobby Roode.

Bryan called out Sami Zayn, who disappointed him at Hell in a Cell. Bryan said he wanted Zayn on SmackDown from the beginning, but before he could continue his story, Zayn interrupted and gleefully waltzed to the ring.

Bryan asked how Zayn could smile and dance and wondered if this was the same guy he’s known for 13 years. Zayn said he was still the same guy and still a great guy. He took ownership back of his career and asked if that made him a bad guy, so the crowd chanted “Yes.”

Zayn said they were both gifted performers, then corrected himself to say that he “still” was. He acknowledged that the company didn’t really believe in either of them, but Bryan had the fans’ support. The fans put Bryan in the main event of WrestleMania, but they didn’t uphold their end of the agreement for Zayn.

No matter how hard Zayn worked, they didn’t cheer for him like they did for Bryan. Zayn said he doesn’t care anymore and informed the crowd he didn’t care what they think. Zayn told Bryan if he worked smarter instead of working harder, he could still be wrestling. The crowd chanted “Sami sucks.”

Zayn called Bryan a once-in-a-lifetime performer, the best of their generation, and he spent his whole career trying to catch up. Now, Bryan was the last person he wanted to be like because after all that, Bryan ended up a housewife.

Bryan was pissed and balled up his fist (which was subtle) but Kevin Owens interrupted. Owens agreed with Zayn that Bryan was a pathetic martyr and a housewife, calling him Mr. Bella, and also a hypocrite.

Bryan said Owens only cares about himself, and never cared about Zayn. Bryan always did what was best for the fans, which wasn’t always best for Owens. Owens said Bryan is doing what’s “best for business” and called him “the authority.”

Zayn realized Owens was right and called Bryan a sellout. Zayn thanked Owens and they hugged. Bryan shook his head and left the ring. Owens mocked him again, so Bryan told them he was finding two guys to punch them in the face. This was good. Zayn was awesome.

6-Woman Tag Match: Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch & Naomi defeated Women’s champion Natalya, Tamina & Lana (8:42)

Naomi made a hot tag to Charlotte who hit “chops,” a knee drop and big boot to Lana. She went for the Figure Eight but Natalya tossed her into the turnbuckle. Lynch gave Natalya an Exploder, Tamina superkicked Lynch, and Naomi hit Tamina with a crossbody. With the ring clear, Charlotte put Lana in the Figure Eight for the submission victory.

After the match, Natalya yanked Charlotte out of the ring and was about to attack her with a steel chair, but Charlotte booted her down and chased her with the chair until Natalya ran away through the crowd.

Backstage, Bryan told Owens and Zayn that literally everyone in the locker room wants to punch them in the face, but their opponents would be Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura. Bryan did one of Nakamura’s poses and Owens was not amused.

Pulp Fashion featuring Fandango, Tyler Breeze and The Ascension

The Ascension were sitting at a table, presumably being interrogated, but Viktor noted how awkward it was given that Fandango hasn’t said anything in a couple of hours. Fandango told them to be cool like the Fonz. Konnor mentioned that they jumped the shark, which made himself and Viktor cackle.  

Breeze came in and took a bite of a cheeseburger, or as they call it in Paris, a Royale-Rumble with cheese. The Ascension wondered how they couldn’t have figured the 2B case out by now and were about to say it’s obviously the Bludgeon Brothers, but before they could quite get it out, Breeze collapsed to the floor.

Fandango said Breeze was allergic to pickles, so the Ascension gave Fandango a giant syringe to pump adrenaline into Breeze like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. Fandango was about to do it but Breeze popped up and said he wasn’t allergic to anything, the bun was terrible. Viktor told him it was gluten-free. Breeze realized their briefcase was stolen. The Ascension were happy because this meant this could continue but Breezango just walked away.

Non-title match: Sin Cara defeated U.S. Champion Baron Corbin via count-out (1:20)

Sin Cara hit a big dive off the top of the ring post to Corbin outside the ring. Corbin couldn’t make it back in the ring so Sin Cara won by count-out. This was a really dumb follow-up to Corbin beating AJ Styles clean last week.

Backstage, The Uso told Renee Young that they feel like it’s their birthday, like it’s Christmas morning. Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin jumped in to inform the Usos’ they’d be tag champions real soon. They acted like they wanted to fight right now, but they were just toying with the Usos and offered a handshake.

Usos laughed it off and were about to shake their hands, but Gable and Benjamin pulled their hands back and left. The Usos had every reason to beat these two up right here, but they didn’t.

Luke Harper and Erick Rowan did another promo, this time from the woods. They said some stuff and smashed the ground with their toy Thor hammers. They made it clear the team name really is the Bludgeon Brothers.

Jinder Mahal’s announcement

They showed some clips of Mahal doing a promotional tour in Mumbai and New Delhi. Mahal said he was the first Indian world champion and was greeted like a hero when he returned home. Mahal told a story from India about a boy who said he didn’t receive the same admiration in America as he did in India, despite beating all worthy contenders multiple times.

The crowd chanted “you can’t wrestle,” so Mahal paused his promo, held up his title and reminded them who the champion was. Mahal said he must beat the man who the fans see as unbeatable and challenged Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. Cold asked, “Are you kidding me?” Indeed. Mahal said everyone will have to kiss his feet and called himself the greatest WWE Champion of all time.

AJ Styles interrupted. Styles appeared nonplussed and wondered if he heard Mahal correctly. The crowd loudly chanted for Styles. Mahal repeated that he was challenging Lesnar but Styles didn’t care about that. Styles told Mahal he hasn’t beaten everyone on SmackDown because he hasn’t beaten him. Mahal said he’s beaten every worthy contender and called Styles a loser.

Styles said Mahal must not have a problem defending his title against him. Mahal told Styles he belonged at the back of the line and called him delusional. Mahal undid a button on his shirt and got in Styles’ face, so Styles attacked him and chased away the Singhs. Mahal bailed.

After a break, Mahal and the Singhs approached Bryan in his office and demanded to know what he was going to do about Styles. Bryan asked Mahal what he was going to do about Styles. Mahal said Styles would have to face Sunil Singh next week. Sunil was briefly caught off guard but agreed to the match. Bryan thought this sounded phenomenal.

Dolph Ziggler defeated Bobby Roode (3:54)

Ziggler won with a schoolboy holding the tights.

During the match, Ziggler took a slingshot bump into the ring post and Cole recalled what happened to Cesaro “on Monday Night Raw a couple of months ago.” Except, it was less than a month ago, and it was at No Mercy.

Brock Lesnar was announced for Raw on Monday in Green Bay and he will respond to Mahal’s challenge.

Aiden English sang as he walked around backstage but stopped when he noticed two guys on their phone who paid him no attention. English asked if they would be on their phones for opening night of Don Giovanni. He asked what their music taste was when New Day busted in. Xavier Woods was playing the trombone and they all danced, minus English.

New Day called English the Gershwin of grumpy, the Mendelssohn of moody and the Cardi B of cantankerous. (I sure hope I got that right.) Rusev interrupted and said there was no more New Day, only Rusev Day. Kofi Kingston wondered why it was Rusev Day again, but they celebrated anyway by playing the trombone as they backed away. English was about to sing “Rusev Day” but Rusev stopped him. This was really great.

Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn defeated Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura (13:03)

Nakamura was about to hit a running knee to Owens but Zayn pulled him out of the way, allowing Owens to take control. Orton eventually made the hot tag and hit Zayn with clotheslines and an Exploder. Orton also gave Owens a backdrop on the barricade. Zayn went for a dive but Orton cut him off with a forearm and gave him a backdrop on the announce table, which broke. The table probably wasn’t supposed to break and Orton couldn’t help but smile.

Orton went for a cover in the ring but Owens broke it up and gave him a superkick. Nakamura took out Owens and Orton hit Zayn with a powerslam for a nearfall. Owens tossed Nakamura into the steps and jumped on the apron. This distracted the referee allowing Zayn to give Orton a low-blow. Zayn followed with a Helluva kick for the pinfall win over Orton.

Good match and the ending was perfect.

Afterwards, they cut backstage to Gorilla where Owens and Zayn rubbed their win in Bryan’s face. They asked Bryan what he had for them next. Bryan let them know that would be up to Shane McMahon who is returning next week. Owens and Zayn were concerned.

After some replays, they cut back to Nakamura and Orton who watched as Owens and Zayn ran back out on the stage and celebrated their win. Zayn did the Yes chants as Owens yelled, “Kevin and Sami are the best!” Owens ended the show by announcing that Sami was his best friend.