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WWE Smackdown Live results and observations (5/16/17): Backlash can't come soon enough

It may not have felt like it, but this week's episode of Smackdown Live was the final one before Backlash this coming Sunday night.

The reason it may not have felt that way was because of the lack of urgency that surrounded this week's installment.

That did not necessarily make for a bad show, but it was not a show that made me salivate for the blue brand's next exclusive pay-per-view.

But before I dig into my full thoughts on the show, here are the full match results from SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H.:

- Jinder Mahal def. AJ Styles

- Breezango def. The Colons

- Carmella def. Naomi

- Randy Orton def. Baron Corbin

Mahal has reached his peak(?)

I saw something Tuesday night I thought I would never see, and that was Mahal pinning Styles — a former WWE, IWGP and Impact Heavyweight champion — to win a match.

Granted, Mahal accomplished this with the help of the Singh Brothers and United States champion Kevin Owens, but at the end of the day, the record book will reflect that Mahal defeated Styles on May 16, 2017.

It is a day that I am sure will live in infamy.

Okay, maybe it isn't quite that important, but it is still pretty significant considering that Styles is one of the most decorated wrestlers in the world today and Mahal was just another guy on WWE's roster as recently as a month ago.

I know why WWE had Mahal defeat Styles and that was to give him some extra steam heading into his WWE title match against Orton at Backlash. It is the same reason why Mahal stood tall over Orton at the end of the Tuesday's show.

But if you have watched enough WWE over the years, you know very well how this is going to end.

Spoiler: Mahal is not going to defeat Orton for the WWE championship at Backlash.

At least I don't think that is going to happen. I say that knowing WWE is fully capable of swerving people just for the sake of it and decide to put its most prestigious title on Mahal.

But the odds are that Mahal's run of momentum that was done only to give him credibility — which I don't think he gained any of because he has won every match with outside interference — for his title match, only for him to lose said match.

It has been done plenty of times before, but it is just something about this that feels very strange.

Since Mahal has been thrusted into this position, Smackdown Live as a whole has felt strange. It's not really Mahal's fault.

Fashion Files: Fashionable Intent

The saving grace for Smackdown Live lately has been the Fashion Files with Tyler Breeze and Fandango.

The rest of the show feeling so average has actually worked to Breezango's benefit, as it has made more people notice just how good these skits have been.

This week's premise was Breeze going undercover as a janitor in a horrible disguise, but it was apparently good enough to fool Fandango into thinking that he was a real custodian at the beginning of the vignette.

Once Fandango realized the janitor was actually his tag team partner, they began going through their latest round of evidence, which included a Corbin shirt. They then mocked Corbin's shirts for always having wolves on them.

The funniest part to me was the posters on the board behind Breezango as they performed the skit. This week, the board featured James Ellsworth with the words "Friend Zone" underneath.

There was a New Day poster that said, "Who dresses like this? Who? Who? Who?" Last but not least, I spotted an Owens poster that had the words "Disgrace of America."

The posters alone were enough to earn another thumbs up from me.

Where was Rusev?

After saying last week that he was going to appear on this week's episode of Smackdown Live, Rusev was nowhere to be found.

Instead, he was apparently at the Nashville Predators game as they took on the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of the NHL Western Conference Finals. Fortunately for Rusev, who lives in Nashville, the Predators won the game, 2-1, and took a 2-1 lead in the series.

However, that left us wrestling fans wondering where he was, as we were all expecting him to be on the show.

I guess it'll all be forgiven by next week when we finally get past Backlash and get on the road to Money in the Bank, where I fully expect Rusev to be granted what would be his first WWE title match.

Vaughn Johnson has a podcast with Nick Piccone called the Straight Shooters on WildfireRadio.com. Check it out here HERE.