:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57177919/20171010_SD_RoodeZiggler__58ab3ed431ff8029c9562886c851d73f.0.jpg)
WWE SmackDown Live comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Oct. 17, 2017) from the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington, featuring all the latest build to the upcoming Survivor Series pay-per-view (PPV) scheduled for next month in Houston, Texas.
Advertised for tonight: Jinder Mahal makes a challenge for Survivor Series, Bobby Roode takes on Dolph Ziggler, and more!
Come right back here at 8 p.m. ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on USA. It will be below this line here. (REMINDER: NO GIFS OR PICS ARE ALLOWED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. OFFENDERS WILL BE BANNED.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR OCT. 17
Hand of fate is moving and the finger points to you; he knocks you to your feet and so what are you gonna do? Your tongue has frozen now, you've got something to say; the piper at the gates of dawn is calling you his way. You watch the world exploding every single night, dancing in the sun, a newborn in the light. Say goodbye to gravity and say goodbye to death; hello to eternity and live for every breath. Your time will come, but me, I'm just here to liveblog this pro wrestling show, folks.
The show begins with SmackDown’s intro video.
Live in the arena, Daniel Bryan makes his entrance. He soaks in the atmosphere for a minute before reminding the crowd that they've only got two hours and a show to put on before putting over tonight's show as a big deal. He sets up a trios match of Natalya, Tamina, and Lana against Naomi, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair, announces that Jinder Mahal has a special announcement, plus reminds us of our Hell in a Cell rematch between Bobby Roode and Dolph Ziggler.
But there's something he has to address, a man whose actions at Hell in a Cell disappointed him. He's talking about Sami Zayn, and when he first became GM, he said all the time that he wanted Sami right here--
Enter Sami Zayn. Bryan says after everything he did, he comes out here smiling and dancing? Is this really the Sami he's known for over thirteen years? Zayn asks what the difference is-- he's still a great guy, nothing's changed, all he did was take ownership of his career back. Does that really make him a bad guy? He thought Bryan of all people would understand.
Dan says he's been in his shoes but Sami cuts him off and says they're not the same. Yeah, there's some similarities, they're both gifted in the ring, well, not so much anymore for Bryan and management never believed in them, but the difference is, Dan had the crowd. They made the Yes Movement what it was and put him in the main event of WrestleMania, but they didn't uphold their part of the bargain with him.
He came out and worked hard with a smile and did everything right and they were supposed to cheer so hard he'd be undeniable to management, but they never did. But the amazing part is he doesn't care anymore! And between the two of them, it feels amazing, and if Bryan felt as amazing as he does right now, he'd be smiling the same way. Maybe if Bryan worked smarter instead of harder, he wouldn't have had to retire in this very building.
It breaks his heart, and he considers Bryan a once in a lifetime performer, THE performer of their generation, he really was. His whole career he spent trying to catch up to him, but every time he reached his level he was two steps ahead, but now, he's the last person he would ever want to be like. A man who broke his body for glory and adulation just to end up a housewife. Bryan fumes--
Enter Kevin Owens. He's so happy for Sami, that he's seen the light and listened to what he's said all along, but he has to clear up a few things. Bryan is a pathetic martyr, a housewife, Mr. Bella, but now he's become something much worse. He's become what he fought against for so long, he's a hypocrite. Dan says he knows Owens tries to infect everyone with this poison thinking, but he knows he doesn't care about anybody except himself.
And maybe he resents Bryan because he cares about doing what's best for the fans, and that's not what's best for him. KO takes issue with this, saying he cares about not what's best for fans, but about what's best for business. Daniel Bryan is now the Authority. Sami's mind is blown by this revelation, but agrees, and says there's only one word for a person like Dan, and that's "sellout".
Zayn thanks Owens for helping him open his eyes and not become like Bryan, and they hug. Dan shakes his head and goes to leave, but Kev calls him back, saying he forgot that walking out of the arena's the best thing he has these days. Bryan wonders aloud where he's going, before saying he's gonna go find a couple of dudes to punch them in the face.
Commentary hypes up Jinder Mahal's announcement as well as Roode/Ziggler and the women's trios match Bryan booked before recapping the women's championship match from Hell in a Cell and the brawl that set up tonight's match.
Charlotte Flair makes her entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get the rest of our entrances and see that Caremlla and James Ellsworth have joined the commentary booth.
Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, & Naomi vs. Lana, Natalya, & Tamina
Natalya and Naomi to start, collar and elbow, the champ backs her into the corner and takes a boot but lands a slingshot atomic drop. Off the ropes, Naomi cuts her off, only two, sliding slap and Nattie heads out for a breather. Slingshot pescado wipes the heels out, but back in the ring Neidhart takes charge again, snapmare into a reverse chinlock to try and keep her locked down.
Naomi slings Nattie away, front chancery and a tag to Lynch. Arm wrench, whip reversed, up and over, rolling solebutt, arm wringer into a leg drop but the cover's only good for two. Looking for Dis-Arm-Her, Natalya books it to the outside and we go to break.
Back from commercial and Tamina is working Naomi over in the corner. Tag to Lana, snap suplex, half nelson neck crank and a mat slam when Naomi is in danger of escaping. The Ravishing Russian clears the apron and Charlotte inadvertently keeps referee Dan Engler occupied while they beat Naomi down. Naomi breaks away and makes the tag, Flair clearing house and throwing chops.
Whip into a big chop, off the ropes with the knee drop, exploder suplex, Lana gets a boot up but runs right into a big boot in return. Charlotte thinking figure four, Nattie comes in and chucks her into the turnbuckle, Becky with the exploder, Tamina with the superkick, Naomi diving crossbody, the match settles back in, O'Connor roll from Lana but it's only a nearfall! Figure four applied, bridging back...
Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, & Naomi win by submission with the Figure Eight Leglock from Flair on Lana.
Natalya attacks Flair after, ramming her into the table and getting a chair, but Charlotte is able to wipe her out with a big boot and run her off, chair in hand.
Daniel Bryan is walking along backstage when he runs into Zayn and Owens and greets them. Kev asks him if he can find anybody with the guts to face them, and Bryan says not one person... but literally every person in the locker room has said they want to punch them in the face! But he's gonna give them an opportunity... against thirteen time WWE Champion Randy Orton.
And his partner, Shinsuke Nakamura! Bryan tries to do his trademark handshake gimmick and the Canadians walk off telling him he's not funny.
Commentary promises us Pulp Fashion after the break.
Back from commercial, we jump right into the opening credits for Pulp Fashion.
The Ascension are in an interrogation room and Fandango comes in. They complain about being left waiting and he tells them to be cool, like the Fonz, so they make a jump the shark joke. Dango says he means like his partner, and Tyler Breeze is dressed up again. They riff on the dance scene, the cheeseburger scene, and the "English, do you speak it" scenes from Pulp Fiction and Tyler takes note of their cheeseburger and takes a bite, but it turns out he's allergic to pickles, so now we're riffing on the overdose scene.
Breeze wakes up before Fandango can jam a giant needle between his, uh, ample tracts of land, and he says he's not actually allergic, just the bun was disgusting. They bicker until Tyler realizes somebody took the briefcase, and the Ascension try to do a big huddle gimmick but Breezango walk off rather than play along.
Baron Corbin makes his entrance, he'll be in action after the break.
Back from commercial in time for the bell, but Corbin gets on the mic.
He polls the crowd if they'd like to see Sin Cara get a title shot, before saying that's too bad, and the only opportunities he cares about are his own. The United States Open Challenge is closed for good.
Baron Corbin vs. Sin Cara
Collar and elbow, clean break but Sin Cara comes back hot. Dropkick sends Corbin outside, Sin lands a followup kick and levels him with a suicide dive! Hanging Baron over the top rope as he tries to get back in, Cara gets atop the ringpost and hits a diving splash...
Sin Cara wins by count-out.
Backstage, the Usos are interviewed. Jimmy says they walked in Hell in a Cell and walked out as champions, and they're the hottest thing on SmackDown, and Jey says he feels like a little kid on Christmas morning, like it's his birthday, like they've got the tag division on lock, like it's the Uso Penitentiary--
Enter Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin, asking if this is when they do the rap stuff. They feel like they're gonna rap 'em up, tap 'em up, and become the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions... real, real soon. But until then, respect, and they offer handshakes. The Usos are all smiles but their challengers yank their hands away.
Commentary hypes up the tag match Daniel Bryan made and we see Jinder Mahal and the Singh Brothers walking backstage to send us to break.
Back from commercial we get a Bludgeon Brothers vignette, this time them camouflaged in a forest, Erick Rowan's respirator reverberating. He pulls the mask off and they begin, talking about how destruction prevails over the light and annihilation follows them. They proceed to hammer the camera like it's Office Space.
Commentary shows us a highlight package for Jinder Mahal's recent press tour of India, and then the Singh Brothers give the Modern-Day Maharaja his usual big introduction. Jinder gets in the ring and says there are some things you only experience when you're the first ever Indian WWE Champion, and this past week he took the title to his homeland and was given a true hero's welcome.
Five-star hotels, the finest restaurants, and on his last day there a young boy came up to him to ask what's next. He asked the boy what he meant, and he said he's beaten Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura, anybody worth beating on SmackDown, yet in America he doesn't get the same level of respect as he does in India. He says the boy was wise beyond his years and counters a "You can't wrestle!" chant by pointing out that he is, in fact, the champion.
Anyway, he has to beat a man that we think is unbeatable, the most dominant force in WWE, and so at Survivor Series, he's challenging the Beast, Brock Lesnar. And when he beats Brock, we'll recognize his greatness...
Enter AJ Styles. He doesn't know if it's the acoustics, did he hear right? Jinder says he did, and the crowd gets behind AJ in a big way. He doesn't mean the Lesnar challenge, he doesn't care about that, it's the idea that he's beaten every worthy contender on SmackDown live, because he hasn't beaten AJ Styles. Mahal says if you were paying attention, he was quoting the boy, but he's right, he meant there was no worthy competition on SmackDown.
He calls Styles a loser and claims that he's a winner, because he's WWE Champion. AJ says if he's a loser, he shouldn't have a problem putting the WWE Championship on the line against him, to which Jinder says in his country they don't think Styles is worthy of standing in the same ring with him. AJ says we're not in his country, and Mahal tries to put him to the back of the line, which gets "USA!" chants out of the crowd.
Jinder calls AJ delusional and says that the fact that he's even challenging is an absolute joke. Doesn't he know who he is? STYLES RUSH! The Singh Brothers get into it but AJ runs 'em off and hits the Pele kick on Jinder! Mahal and the Singh Brothers are in full retreat.
Commentary informs us that Ziggler/Roode will be after the break.
Back from commercial, Bryan is on the phone when Jinder Mahal rolls up demanding action be taken against AJ Styles. Dan turns the question on him and asks what he's gonna do about it, and Mahal says he'll make him pay, by putting Sunil Singh against AJ next week. Bryan calls that a phenomenal idea and books it.
Bobby Roode vs. Dolph Ziggler
Ziggler in with a kick and punches in the corner but Roode fires a lariat off in return and picks the leg to try to keep Dolph in the ring. To the outside anyway, Ziggler jams Bobby into the apron and throws a dropkick to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Ziggler has a reverse chinlock in but Roode fights to his feet and breaks with a punch to the face. Off the ropes, Dolph gets the sleeper, counter back suplex but he lands on his feet, dropkick caught and countered into a catapult that puts the Show-off hard into the post! Bobby blocking punches and throwing 'em back, whip reversed, flying forearm, a pair of lariats and a whip but Ziggler hits the kick to the face.
Big Rock Bottom from Roode, charging forearm, he throws Dolph away and taunts, jumps but nobody's home, schoolboy and a handful of tights but it ain't over. Nearly getting their finishes on each other, Dolph puts Bobby into the turnbuckles...
Dolph Ziggler wins by pinfall with a schoolboy pin and a handful of tights.
Commentary shills for the WWE Network before hyping up our main event tag once again to send us to break.
Back from commercial, we get some hype for 205 Live, promising a tag match between the teams of Ariya Daivari & Enzo Amore and Kalisto & Mustafa Ali.
Commentary informs us that Brock Lesnar will reply to Jinder Mahal's challenge next week on Raw.
Aiden English is walking backstage and singing about being Johnny Appleseed, only to be totally ignored by some staff members. He asks if they'd be on their phone opening night at Don Giovanni and wonders if he's not up to their musical standards, who is?
Enter New Day, throwing cereal around and enjoying some trombone time, getting the staffers dancing. They give English some nicknames and Rusev rolls up, saying no more New Day, the only thing that matters now is Rusev Day. Kofi Kingston says if it's Rusev Day again, that means it's time to celebrate, and Xavier Woods plays Rusev's theme as they dance away. Rusev insists that Rusev Day isn't a joke, and Aiden starts singing, but the Bulgarian Brute tells him now's not the time.
We get entrances for the main event, but the match will have to wait until after the break.
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura
Zayn and Nakamura to start, Sami grabs a wristlock and Shinsuke rolls through for a reversal. Whip reversed, up and over into an arm drag and Zayn locks an armbar on. Nakamura forces the break in his own inimitable style before asking for more. Sami charges right into a knee lift but ducks a stomp, he catches one foot and gets kicked by the other and Shinsuke's feeling those Good Vibrations.
Tag to Orton, Zayn backs off and tags Owens in. Randy catches a punch and throws one right back, whip across, boot up, the Viper ducks a lariat and nearly ends it with the RKO! The match breaks down into a brawl on the floor with Sami's assistance and KO puts the Viper into the ringpost before fallaway slamming him into the barricade to send us to break!
Back from commercial and Nakamura is in control on Owens, setting him up in the corner for the charging knee lift, but Zayn makes the save! KO with the chop block, kicking away at the knee and he tags Sami in to continue the punishment. Rolling knee snap, tag back to Kev, knee to the knee and the running senton but it's only good for two. From there into a reverse chinlock, the King of Strong Style fights to his feet with body blows but KO cuts him back down with stomps to the knees.
Whip to the corner, Shunsuke sidesteps and gets him up top, rolling back and landing the knee lift, but at what cost? Clutching his knee, reaching, desperate... tags all around! Lariats from Orton, he ducks one in return but Sami has the powerslam scouted, so Randy mixes it up with the exploder suplex. Outside, back suplex on the barricade for Owens and Zayn hits a dropkick on him.
Off the ropes for a dive but the Viper clobbers him with a forearm, looking for the rope-hung DDT to the floor but Sami slips out... BACK SUPLEX THROUGH THE ANNOUNCE TABLE! Back in the ring for a cover, KO breaks it up and Nakamura sends him out of the ring. Orton staggered in the corner, Zayn charges in but Randy gets up for the snap scoop powerslam!
Pulling Sami in for the DDT as Owens takes care of Nakamura, he has referee Charles Robinson distracted and Zayn hits the low blow! Charging across...
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn win by pinfall with the Helluva Kick from Zayn on Randy Orton.
Zayn and Owens hug their way up the ramp while Nakamura and Orton recoup their losses.
Backstage, Kev and Sami run into Daniel Bryan, KO asking how that worked out for him. Zayn says they beat the top two guys on SmackDown, so what's next, a Daniel Bryan on a Pole Match? Bryan says next week isn't up to him, it's up to Shane McMahon.
Zayn and Owens stand speechless.
Back to ringside with Shinsuke and Randy, where KO and SZ come back out, Owens cheerleading and talking about how they're the best and they just beat Nakamura and Orton. He says they are SmackDown, and there's nothing anybody can do about it. He says Sami is his best friend and asks him to hug him tight.
He does.
That's the show, folks.