WWE SmackDown live results: Randy Orton returns in London

Date: May 9, 2017
Location: The O2 Arena in London, England

The Big Takeaway —

Jinder Mahal pinned Randy Orton in a 6-man tag match.

Dolph Ziggler challenged Shinsuke Nakamura to a match at Backlash. Ziggler jumped him during the segment but Nakamura fought him off and stood tall once again.

Naomi, Becky Lynch & Charlotte have agreed to team up against Natalya, Carmella and Tamina at Backlash.

Show Recap — 

After a long video recap for Randy Orton/Jinder Mahal, Tom Phillips welcomed us to the show and a very visible #FilthyFourDaily sign could be seen in the crowd.

Randy Orton kicks things off. Orton said he lost at Payback because of Jinder Mahal, not because of Bray Wyatt or the refrigerator. He was quickly interrupted by Mahal and the Singh Brothers. Mahal, who sounds like he has a cold, said he would win the title and showed the promotional pictures he took posing with the belt. Mahal said he would take the title back to his people, wear it at the Taj Mahal, and India would erect a statue of him.

Mahal was about to speak in Punjabi but he was interrupted by Kevin Owens, who got a good reaction. Owens said nobody cared about the House of Horrors, Mahal or India. The crowd cheered, so Owens told them nobody cared about England, either. He talked about what he did to Chris Jericho and the crowd booed.

Owens said Jericho couldn’t even last two hours on SmackDown and he would end AJ Styles’ career at Backlash. Owens warned Mahal and Orton that he was coming after the WWE Title because he wanted to be the face of WWE. The crowd was chanting for Styles, so Owens repeated that line. He then said it again in French.

AJ Styles interrupted. The director cut to a shot of two fans who were somehow surprised that Styles came out. After the fans chanted for him, he said Jericho was no AJ Styles (which the crowd didn’t really like) and that Owens would never be the face of SmackDown.

Baron Corbin came out next but he was almost immediately attacked from behind by Sami Zayn. The faces sent the heels packing as the crowd chanted “Ole.” Typical opening segment. Not surprisingly, Owens and Styles both got much bigger reactions than Orton. After a break, a 6-man tag match was announced for the main event.

Natalya (w/Tamina, Carmella & James Ellsworth) defeated Becky Lynch (w/Naomi & Charlotte) 

Tamina, Carmella and James Ellsworth were in the ring. Ellsworth and Carmella berated the crowd, making fun of their teeth of course, and Carmella introduced Natalya as the best there is, was and ever will be. Naomi came out, asked the crowd to “make some bloody noise” and introduced Lynch. Just before the match started, Charlotte came out to join the party and declared she didn’t need an introduction.

The match started after a break with some “Let’s go Becky” chants. Natalya tripped her off the apron and hit a vertical suplex outside the ring. Lynch fought out of an abdominal stretch, hit clotheslines, a dropkick, forearm, spinning kick, and Exploder. Natalya managed to avoid a cover and came back with forearms.

Lynch went to the top and Tamina tried to distract her, so Naomi knocked her down. Charlotte pulled Naomi away and all of this distracted Lynch anyway. Natalya yanked Lynch off the top and pinned her for the win in just 3 minutes. Very weak finish. The faces were annoyed with each other afterwards.

Another episode of the Fashion Files is up next. A Lana video aired.

Backstage, Charlotte blamed Naomi for Lynch’s loss and said there’s no excuse for losing, which doesn’t make sense. Lynch jumped in to break it up. Naomi threatened to snatch Charlotte bald. Lynch told them they would they would face Natalya, Tamina and Carmella in a 6-woman match at Backlash. They all agreed to bond. Lynch was good here.

Fashion Files: Special London Unit

Fandango greeted Tyler Breeze saying “Cheerio” but Breeze turned him down, saying he already ate breakfast. They stumbled upon a crime scene which was paint splattered on the floor. Breeze mentioned the Usos haven’t worn face paint in months but Fandango figured they could be trying to fool them. They followed the trail to a locked room. Turns out, it was the Ascension screaming at each other behind the door. An uncomfortable Breeze closed the door and Fandango said the Ascension case has been reopened.

Erick Rowan defeated Luke Harper

No entrance for Harper. JBL said Harper looks like “a walking dead.” I don’t know, he kind of looks like a normal man with a large beard. The crowd chanted “Fire Bradshaw,” and Phillips let us know they’ve been fired up the last two nights. JBL didn’t acknowledge any of it.

Rowan won in 4 minutes with a crap spinning slam. The referee was distracted momentarily after Rowan grabbed his sheep mask allowing him to poke Harper in the eye and hit his move. Bad match.

Dolph Ziggler confronts Shinsuke Nakamura

Ziggler received a tepid reaction. He immediately called the fans hypocrites. He said he’s been doing this for eight years but it feels like twelve. Ziggler talked about how hard he works and called himself a movie star. He said the crowd doesn’t appreciate him and the crowd chanted for Nakamura.

Ziggler mentioned that Nakamura hasn’t even had a match here and the crowd chanted “NXT.” Ziggler let them know those chants would be edited out, which they were not. That’s funny. He rambled on some more and the crowd again chanted for Nakamura. Ziggler called him out.

Nakamura came out and the crowd loudly sang his theme. The announcers put this over as a special thing and the crowd chanted his name. Ziggler was tired of the theatrics and said it was about time to put up or shut up. Before he could quite finish, Nakamura grabbed the mic and told him to shut up.

Nakamura asked if Ziggler wanted to see what he can do and the crowd chanted “Yes.” Nakamura said he would show Ziggler right now. He took off his jacket and a referee jumped in the ring. Ziggler teased he would fight but then turned him down. Ziggler said he would expose Nakamura as a fraud at Backlash.

Ziggler attacked him but Nakamura came back with a forearm and knees. He then kicked Ziggler right out of the ring and the crowd chanted for Nak again. Ziggler is so tiresome but this came off way better than their segment a couple weeks ago.

Backstage, Sami Zayn wanted to talk strategy with Orton and Styles. He was being annoying Sami Zayn. Zayn closed his eyes to visualize the win and asked the others to do the same. They zoomed in on Zayn so, of course, when he opened his eyes, Styles and Orton were gone.

There was a unique video package for the returning New Day. It was animated like an old arcade game.

Breezango defeated The Ascension

Phillips made a remark about how they aren’t allowed to “play dress-up” anymore because of JBL. The crowd sang and danced to Fandango’s theme. He picked up the pinfall win in under 3 minutes after a diving leg drop on Viktor.

The Usos came out afterwards. They congratulated Breezango for getting a couple of wins but said they were getting too excited. Jey and Jimmy let them know all of the things they can do in 12 days, including getting beat-down. I can’t really do this justice. This was reminiscent of that wild promo they did a few months ago.

Dolph Ziggler, Mojo Rawley and The Usos will be on Talking Smack with Renee Young and JBL. The Brian Kendrick plugged his match with Akira Tozawa on 205 Live.

Backstage, Mojo Rawley was giving four children a tour. He then sat them down and told them a story. Instead of telling them about the man who went undefeated for 15 years, he spoke about a kid who was bullied and treated differently because he was different. But that kid took it as motivation and went on to become a legend.

Rawley then showed them his big trophy. One of the girls asked if she could touch it. He said yes, but then spooked her before she could. She kicked him in the leg. They all had a good laugh and he continued the tour. Wouldn’t they rather be watching the show?

They aired the video Rusev posted on social media. He said he hasn’t heard from Shane McMahon or Daniel Bryan since making his demand. Rusev doesn’t like being ignored and said he would get an answer when he comes to SmackDown next week.

6-Man Tag Team Match: Jinder Mahal (w/The Singh Brothers), Baron Corbin & U.S. Champion Kevin Owens defeated WWE Champion Randy Orton, Sami Zayn & AJ Styles

Everyone got a shortened version of their entrance except for Corbin, whose entrance happened as they came back from commercial. Styles and Corbin started. Styles tagged in Zayn, so Corbin tagged out to Mahal. Styles eventually tagged in Orton but Mahal tagged in Owens. Orton sent him out of the ring and they went to commercial. (So basically, nothing’s happened since the previous break.)

The crowd chanted for Styles who hit a dropkick to Mahal and tagged in Zayn. Owens got the better of Zayn who is bleeding from the nose a bit. The referee put on gloves. I went back and checked and Zayn came up bleeding after taking some shot in the corner from Owens and Mahal. It looked like Owens was the one who caught him on the nose. The heels worked over Zayn heading into the next break.

Zayn made a hot tag to Styles who hit quick strikes on Corbin and knocked Owens off the apron with a forearm. He got a two count on Corbin, which got a “too sweet” from the crowd. Styles applied the Calf Crusher but Owens broke it up. A few guys spilled to the outside so Zayn caught the bad guys with a flip dive.

Owens tripped Styles off the top rope but Corbin only managed to get a two count on the cover. This allowed the heels to take over again. Styles nailed Owens with a facebuster and made the hot tag to Orton. Orton hit powerslams to both Mahal and Corbin, as well as a draping DDT to Owens.

The Singh brothers distracted Orton allowing Mahal to catch him with a forearm. Everyone traded moves until Orton caught Owens with an RKO. Mahal jumped back in (after receiving a Blue Thunder Bomb seconds ago) and nailed Orton with a full nelson slam for the pinfall win. Match went just over 22 minutes.