WWE SmackDown live results: Kevin Owens vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Date: June 6, 2017
Location: Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, NY

The Big Takeaway —

Lana made her SmackDown Live debut and wanted in the Money in the Bank ladder match. Shane turned her down and Naomi mocked her for asking, so Lana cost Naomi her match. Shane granted Lana a title match at MITB at Naomi’s request.

Shinsuke Nakamura pinned Kevin Owens for the third straight week in an average match (non-title). Baron Corbin laid out Nakamura after the match, and laid out Sami Zayn earlier in the show.

AJ Styles got his win back against Dolph Ziggler, and Jinder Mahal got his win back against Mojo Rawley. Luke Harper was not on the show in his hometown of Rochester. 

John Cena returns on July 4th.

Show Recap — 

They started with a recap of last week’s angle to set up the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. After they tried to destroy each other last week, all five women were patiently waiting in the ring for Shane McMahon to make his entrance. Not sure why the commissioner got an entrance but the women didn’t. There’s also a round table in the ring. And James Ellsworth.

Shane introduced all five women. He screwed up Tamina’s intro. I think he meant to call her a second generation superstar but called her a two-time superstar instead. Natalya got good heat and Charlotte got the biggest reaction. Shane revealed a new briefcase for the MITB match, which is white with gold lining.

Shane explained the rules of the MITB stipulation but he was interrupted by Ellsworth, who told Shane that he didn’t need to mansplain to us the rules because we already know them, “duh!” That was awesome.

Carmella and Charlotte argued their cases for winning when Natalya interrupted to ask Charlotte when she would stop ripping off her father. She then quoted Bret Hart calling herself the best there ever will be. Lynch told her to stop ripping off Uncle Bret. Tamina went last claiming she would win. Naomi came out next and said she almost wishes she could be in the match even though she loves being the champion.

Lana came out next. Lana wore a blue evening gown and fans chanted her name. Shane said this was the land of opportunity, but this wasn’t working for him. Lana, still using her accent, said she can make it work and asked to be in the ladder match. All the women chuckled at this, particularly Naomi who asked Lana who she ever beat. Naomi mocked her until Lana said, “I can beat you.” They got face-to-face but Shane sent Lana away. She was about to yell at him in Russian but left as the crowd chanted “We want Lana.” 

6-woman tag match: Natalya, Tamina & Carmella (w/James Ellsworth) defeated Women’s champion Naomi, Becky Lynch & Charlotte

The crowd likes Lynch, who got taken out by Natalya with a clothesline outside the ring leading to commercial. Naomi got the hot tag who ran wild on Carmella and Tamina. Carmella broke up a cover so Charlotte booted her out of the ring. Charlotte was taken out by the heels as Lana made her way back down. With the referee distracted, Lana swept Naomi’s legs out on the apron and that allowed Tamina to nail a superkick for the pinfall win.

Mojo Rawley met with Shane backstage. Rawley said he’s been sitting on the bench on SmackDown for about two months since winning the Andre the Giant battle royal. He didn’t want a favour from Shane, just an opportunity, and noted that he’s the only one with a win over current WWE Champion Jinder Mahal since he came to SmackDown.

Shane said a lot of guys deserve opportunities, like Tye Dillinger and Luke Harper (who got a big pop in his hometown). Shane gave Rawley a match against Mahal, and if he wins, he gets added to the MITB ladder match. Rawley was thrilled and shook his hand.

AJ Styles defeated Dolph Ziggler

They showed a replay of Ziggler beating Styles last week and didn’t try to pretend that Styles was too close to the ropes or anything. Byron Saxton said Styles wanted to prove he can beat Ziggler after losing in his hometown.

Styles won in just under 7 minutes. Ziggler twice tried winning using the ropes for leverage, but Styles kicked out each time. Styles also avoided getting crotched again. Ziggler kicked out of a jackknife pin, but Styles just picked him up and planted him with the Styles Clash for the win. I liked the finish. The crowd loved Styles.

Fashion Files: Dumb on Arrival

Among the fashion felonies posted on the wall were Billy Kidman and Enzo Amore (with a note stating he was out of the jurisdiction). Fandango said he took the cologne bottle to the boys in the lab but turns out, “There’s no boys and there’s no lab.” Fandango figured it wasn’t the Colons’ cologne. Breeze didn’t get what he was trying to say and they repeated the word cologne/Colon over and over.

New Day showed up and asked if Breezango would take a case for them. New Day offered them new outfits, but Fandango tossed his on the ground. Kingston picked it up and handed it back, but Fandango just tossed it down again. He doesn’t take bribes and turned them down. However, Breeze already put the outfit on and loved it. Fandango liked it too so they took the case. Kingston wanted info on The Usos so Breezango gave them three boxes worth of evidence. Breezango’s voiceover said they would take the case, but New Day couldn’t hear anything, so they left awkwardly. Breeze said “new case rocks” and the crowd chanted along. This was fun. Again, I can’t really do it justice, so go watch this if you’re a fan of these.

John Cena returns on July 4 in Phoenix.

Non-title match: WWE Champion Jinder Mahal (w/Singh Brothers) defeated Mojo Rawley

This was the top-of-the-hour main event. Rawley was all over Mahal for the first two minutes. Rawley knocked one of the Singh brothers off the apron and the distraction allowed Mahal to clumsily knock him down with a boot.

Rawley countered a headlock into a backdrop and followed with shoulder tackles. Mahal raked him in the eyes, tossed him into the ring post and finished him off with the camel clutch slam for the win. Match was only four minutes. Mahal looked bad and the match wasn’t laid out for him well either.

Afterwards, Mahal grabbed a mic and reminded everyone that he was the WWE champion. The crowd chanted “USA” as Mahal said he dismantled Rawley’s dreams, just like he will to Randy Orton in his hometown of St. Louis. Mahal said Orton was sick, the people were sick, he was their medicine and they will have to accept him as their modern day Maharaja. He then spoke in Punjabi, calling himself the Maharaja and WWE champion again (probably).

They aired a video package for Nakamura. They called him an artist and the video included clips of an artist painting a picture of Nakamura. The artist was not Nakamura.

Randy Orton told Renee Young that he heard from several legends after last week, including his father, Ric Flair, and Harley Race. They told him that actions speak louder than words. In St. Louis, he won’t say a word, but Mahal will hear him just fine.

Big E & Xavier Woods (w/Kofi Kingston) defeated The Colons

JBL called his colleagues “fake news hypocrites” for accusing the Colons of destroying the Fashion Police’s office. Big E and Woods did the abdominal stretch spot where they smack their opponents’ hips to “New Day rocks” chants. During the break, Primo sent Woods face-first into the bottom rope, similar to the way Enzo Amore was knocked out a while back. Woods was fine and nailed a missile dropkick and made the hot tag to Big E.

Big E hit belly-to-belly suplexes to Epico and a big splash. Woods nailed a flip dive to Primo and New Day used Midnight Hour on Epico for the win. Kingston did not get involved physically, which might mean nothing.

The Usos came out afterwards and called them old news. The Usos have the division on lock and welcomed them to the Uso Penitentiary. They said they weren’t always serious and claimed they have jokes and laughter too. They said Kingston had pigtails and a crop top and he’s just missing a tutu. They said the “E” in Big E’s name refers to his bra size and they insulted Woods’ shoes. There won’t be any laughter at MITB. “It’s not paranoia, it’s the U-sos.”

Dasha Fuentes asked Sami Zayn how he’s preparing for the ladder match. Zayn said he’s been watching footage of all his opponents, even though he’s being in the ring with all of them before, and has picked up on a lot of their little tendencies. Zayn said the one guy he couldn’t quite figure out was Nakamura, even though he is familiar with him (meaning they fought in NXT but they don’t want to directly reference it).

Zayn talked about Nakamura’s charisma and said he would be on commentary to watch his match tonight. Corbin showed up and asked Fuentes for the mic. He punched Zayn and destroyed him with a ladder that happened to be nearby. Corbin said a spot on commentary just opened up.

Elsewhere, Shane was on his phone concerned about Zayn. Naomi stormed in wanting a match with Lana at MITB. Shane wasn’t buying it and wanted to go deal with Zayn, so Naomi offered to put her title on the line. Shane made the match. Naomi said Lana will need one of those Russian fur hats because she’s going to get snatched bald.

AJ Styles, Lana and Mojo Rawley will be on Talking Smack tonight with Renee Young and Shane McMahon. TJP plugged his match with Neville on 205 Live.

JBL sent out well wishes to Harley Race.

Non-title match: Shinsuke Nakamura defeated U.S. Champion Kevin Owens

Loud chants for Nakamura to start. Corbin was allowed to do commentary despite what he did to Zayn. JBL thanked him for taking out Zayn. Nakamura kicked Owens out of the ring and they went to commercial a minute into the match.

Owens got the heat during the break by using a fallaway slam into the barricade. They traded strikes leading to Nakamura hitting a running kick, kicks to the chest, forearm and running knee in the corner.

Owens came back with headbutt and cannonball. Corbin called him a marshmallow. Nakamura hit a spinning heel kick, reverse Exploder and Kinshasa for the pinfall win. Decent match that only went about 10 minutes.

Corbin laid out Nakamura afterwards with End of Days.

Final Thoughts —

I thought this was a pretty good show again this week. The women’s segment was entertaining, Breezango were great again, New Day and the Usos is a good program, and Styles and Nakamura picked up convincing wins.

The only real negative was Mahal, who really wasn’t good tonight. He’s the champion but quite possibly the least talented person on the show. I feel like if Mahal never got this push and he came out to request entry into the men’s MITB match, all the guys would laugh at him like the women did to Lana tonight.