WWE Smackdown Live results and observations (5/2/17): The title reign of Jericho is already over

Smackdown Live made it three nights in a row that WWE presented some quality television, as the blue brand followed up Payback and Raw with what I believe was a very good edition of the show.

Before I further gush about this show, here are the full match results from the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif.:

- Jinder Mahal def. Sami Zayn

- Tye Dillinger def. Aiden English

- Carmella & Natalya def. Naomi & Charlotte Flair

- Dolph Ziggler def. Sin Cara

- WWE United States championship – Kevin Owens def. Chris Jericho

Owens destroys the title reign of Jericho

Two nights after losing the United States championship, Owens defeated Jericho to win the title right back after a very good main event Tuesday.

Not only did Owens end Jericho's brief stint as United States champion, it looked like he also temporarily ended Jericho's tenure with WWE after handing him a brutal beating after the match.

It has been no secret that Jericho was going to be leaving WWE at some point so that he could begin his summer tour with his band, Fozzy. That point has finally arrived, as Fozzy is scheduled to begin its tour Friday in Virginia Beach, Va.

To explain why Jericho would not be receiving an immediate rematch for the United States title, WWE had Owens do the logical thing of beating the daylights out of him with multiple pop-up power bombs and tossing him into the ring post with a steel chair around his neck.

Jericho, who took a DDT on the floor during the match, was helped out of the arena by officials, and when Smackdown Live went off the air Tuesday night, thus ended what was arguably the best run of Jericho's career from a creative standpoint.

He might have had better days in the ring, he might have performed in front more people in the arenas and on television, but Jericho has probably never had a better run creatively than his most recent one, which began at the beginning of 2016.

And because his most recent run was so memorable, it will make his eventual return to WWE television even more anticipated.

As far as Owens is concerned, his future is already laid out for him, as he has a date with AJ Styles at Backlash later this month. Before Owens even won the United States title for the second time, he had an impromptu brawl with Styles during the show's opening segment.

With Jericho out of the way, WWE can now focus on building toward what should be a stellar match between Owens and Styles.

Welcoming Committee running roughshod

If you are not familiar with whom the Welcoming Committee is do not be alarmed. It is not an official title yet, but it is what WWE has repeatedly used as the collective name for Natalya, Carmella and Tamina — oh yeah, and James Ellsworth.

Regardless of what they're going to be called moving forward, they stood tall over the rest of the Smackdown Women's division for the second week in a row, including Becky Lynch.

The Welcoming Committee offered Lynch a chance to join them early on in the show, but she was noncommittal. The Committee eventually bumped into Charlotte while she was conducting an interview and quickly laid waste to her.

Charlotte was scheduled to team up with Naomi to face Natalya and Carmella later in the show, but because of the beating she received, Naomi was forced to start the match alone.

However, the battered Charlotte arrived during the match like a triumphant babyface and helped Naomi even the odds. That didn't matter, though, as Carmella rolled up Naomi, grabbed her tights and picked up the victory.

Naomi, who showed a little more of an edge Tuesday night, took exception to the loss and attacked Carmella after the match, which prompted the rest of the Welcoming Committee to jump in and hold court.

That brought out Lynch, who teased joining them, but eventually revealed she was attempting to lure them into a false sense of security and joined the good guys.

Unfortunately for Lynch, even she wasn't enough to contend with Natalya, Carmella and Tamina, especially after Charlotte and Naomi had already taken so much damage.

I liked how all of this played out. The last thing I wanted to see was for Lynch to turn heel, as I feel she is one of the best pure babyfaces in all of WWE. Those are hard to come by.

With that said, I did like the fact that she teased the heel turn. It just added a sprinkle of intrigue to the angle.

As I mentioned earlier, Naomi showed more aggression during and after the match and I liked that. I like when a babyfaces gets upset at one or a group of heels that has become a thorn in his or her side.

It wouldn't make sense for Naomi to just keep smiling through the whole thing. She is not happy with the Welcoming Committee and she is showcasing that with more aggression.

I also found it interesting that WWE put Charlotte in such a heroic position. It is not something we often see from Charlotte.

It was actually kind of reminiscent to what her father Ric Flair did at Halloween Havoc back in 1995, when he was scheduled to team with Sting against Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman.

Flair was supposedly beaten up before the match, but still showed up, which sent the crowd into a euphoric state. However, Flair quickly turned on Sting for about the 145th time.

I know some fans are expecting something similar from Charlotte this time around, but I would not bet on that.

The Fashion Files

Arguably the highlight of the show was Breezango's Fashion Files skit. I mean this was high-level comedy right here.

Tyler Breeze and Fandango essentially spoofed Law and Order by sitting in a police station and going through all of the latest crimes against fashion in WWE.

After solving the Ascension case, Breezango had a new case on his desk: The Usos. Breezango went through all of the crimes The Usos have committed, including jay walking to which Fandango quipped, "And Jimmy walking."

I laughed out the first time I saw this, but it gets even better upon further review, as there are a number of Easter eggs placed throughout the set used for the skit.

Among them was photos of WWE's most famous policeman Big Boss Man and the fashion plate himself "Classy" Freddie Blassie.

On the wall behind Breezango were posters of wrestlers. Among the wrestlers was John Cena with the words "Whereabouts unknown" on it the poster and Shinsuke Nakamura with the words "No style" underneath him.

There was also a photo of the Colons with the words "Real estate fraud" underneath them. This was hysterical to say the least.

This is the type of stuff I love to see from WWE. It's the type of stuff you see from WWE's creative team when it actually gets creative. It was different, it was entertaining and it didn't require a ton of time in the ring.

I hope to see more of these moving forward.

Zayn is still losing

The common perception amongst fans on social media was that Zayn was floundering on Raw and that he would not if her were moved to Smackdown Live.

Well, he is on Smackdown Live and things have not changed much for the former NXT champion.

On Tuesday, Zayn lost to Mahal in an effort to give Mahal some steam heading into his WWE championship match against Randy Orton, who was left off the show completely, at Backlash.

If that sounds familiar that is because Zayn has been in that position on a number of occasions during his career on the main roster. At least on Raw, Zayn got to beat Mahal.

Despite his many setbacks, Zayn remains over with the fans. That is a testament to his talent and ability to stay over despite all of the losses. That is a skill and Zayn has it in spades.

The only problem for fans hoping to see Zayn string together some victories is that WWE recognizes Zayn's ability to get over in a loss, too.

English has gone off the deep end

English has been mostly floating in the ether since WWE released his former tag team partner Simong Gotch last month, but it finally looked like he was given something to do Tuesday night, as he essentially went off the deep end after losing to Dillinger.

English was seen crying in the ring after the loss and even cried backstage before being put on the List of Jericho for shedding tears.

I am not sure where this goes for English, but I do believe it is good for him to get away from anything that resembles his time with the Vaudevillains or the singing gimmick he did in NXT before he linked up with Gotch.

Neither one of those characters were going to get him anywhere on Smackdown Live and maybe a change in tone could help actually get somewhere moving forward.

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