WWE Smackdown Live results and observations (9/5/17): Shinsuke Nakamura takes down 'The Viper'

Although Smackdown Live has more than a month before its next pay-per-view (Hell in a Cell on Oct. 8), things are moving along at a pretty nice clip for the Tuesday night brand.

It would be easy for WWE to be taking things as slowly as possible with the blue brand, but that has not been the case thus far.

It also helps that Smackdown Live is putting a lot into its show in Las Vegas next week, which will feature three championship bouts.

This week's episode of the show served mostly as the prelude to next week, but it still accomplished a lot in the meantime.

Before I delve into my full analysis, here are the match results from the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.:

- Natalya def. Carmella

- Aiden English def. Sami Zayn

- Baron Corbin def. Tye Dillinger

- Shinsuke Nakamura def. Randy Orton

Nakamura to face Jinder Mahal at Hell in a Cell

Nakamura began the month of August with a monumental victory over John Cena to earn a WWE championship match against Mahal at SummerSlam.

The former NXT champion opened the month of September with a win of nearly equal importance to earn yet another shot at the champion by defeating Orton.

In both instances, Nakamura went over clean. There was no interference or any room for either Cena or Orton to claim that they were wronged in any way.

Nakamura won fair and square and is firmly positioned at the top of the card on Smackdown Live. I'll have more on Nakamura's position on the blue brand in a little bit.

As far as Nakamura and Mahal, they won't face each other until Hell in a Cell, which is more than a month away.

WWE had it pretty good when it built to their encounter at SummerSlam, as it only had two weeks to work with. That will not be the case this time around, as there are four episodes of Smackdown Live before the event on Oct. 8.

It will be interesting to see what kind of approach WWE takes to build this match, especially since fans have already seen it.

I assume WWE will up the ante by putting Nakamura and Mahal inside Hell in a Cell, but it will be up to WWE to make this feud feel worthy of the structure.

But back to Nakamura's position on Smackdown Live, which some fans seem to have an issue with.

I had an entire debate on social media about it last week and received some feedback about it again this week.

This might sound strange to some, but apparently beating Cena and Orton clean in consecutive months isn't enough for some fans to feel satisfied with what WWE has done with Nakamura to this point.

I find that preposterous.

How many people on WWE's roster can say they own clean victories over Orton AND Cena? I'd imagine that list is very short. Nakamura is one of the very few.

To my knowledge, he has lost only once on television since he made his way to the main roster after WrestleMania (twice if you include Money in the Bank). Other than that, he has defeated literally everyone he has faced, including Cena AND Orton — clean.

Besides actually being the WWE champion, which could happen in a little more than a month, I don't see what more fans could want for Nakamura.

If Nakamura goes to Hell in a Cell and becomes WWE champion, no one should remotely have room to complain about how Nakamura is being booked or positioned. He would be the WWE champion!

If fans can't be satisfied with that then they will truly never be satisfied.

Shane McMahon stepped over the line

One person on Smackdown Live that will be indefinitely dissatisfied with his position within WWE is Shane McMahon.

That is because Vince McMahon indefinitely suspended his son and Smackdown Live commissioner after the younger McMahon assaulted Kevin Owens Tuesday night.

In Shane McMahon's mind, he had good reason to attack Owens, as the former Universal and United States champion insulted him and his family.

But in everyone else's mind, including Smackdown Live general manager Daniel Bryan's, that was not an excuse for Shane McMahon to put his hands on a WWE superstar.

Owens agreed and threatened to sue every member of the McMahon family. However, Vince McMahon wouldn't let it get that far, as he not only indefinitely suspended his son via Bryan, but he will also appear on Smackdown Live next week to address the situation.

I like how all of this is playing and it makes total sense for every person involved.

It would have been easy for this storyline to mirror the one between Shane McMahon and Styles earlier this year, where Styles became fed up with Shane McMahon and eventually attacked him.

This time around the opposite happened, as Owens provoked Shane McMahon by getting personal, prompting the commissioner to go on the attack.

It absolutely fit Owens' character to do such a thing knowing full well Shane McMahon was going to be admonished for committing such an act and it also fit Shane McMahon's character to stand up for his family, even if it wasn't necessarily the most professional thing to do.

I know some people might have a problem with the nearly 50-year-old Shane McMahon beating up a much younger wrestler, but under these circumstances, it made perfect sense, and now adding Vince McMahon to the mix has only added to my level of intrigue.

Carmella berated James Ellsworth, then kissed him

Also in the intriguing category is the story between Carmella and Ellsworth, which took a very unexpected turn Tuesday.

Ellsworth foolishly cost Carmella another match, which prompted the Money in the Bank contract holder to verbally eviscerate him and eventually call it quits.

Ellsworth caught up to Carmella backstage and apologized to her as if his life depended upon Carmella forgiving him.

Carmella eventually did forgive him, but said that from now on, they are going to operate on her terms. Carmella then planted a big kiss on Ellsworth (that lucky son of a …), but followed that up with a slap to Ellsworth's face that Stephanie McMahon would have been proud of.

I don't understand what in the world that was supposed to represent, but it is going to very weird seeing Carmella kissing Ellsworth every week if that turns out to be the case.

Dolph Ziggler 're-debuted'

I don't know what WWE is attempting to accomplish with Ziggler, but we saw a glimpse of it this week with his reintroduction to the WWE audience.

Ziggler first came out as himself and scolded the fans for never appreciating him or what he does in the ring. He then admonished the fans for only wanting gimmicks before giving them multiple gimmicks, including Randy Savage, John Cena and Naomi.

I don't know why Ziggler is making fun of Naomi of all people, but he did just that Tuesday night.

Nothing really came of this. Ziggler mocked the entrances and walked away. There really isn't much more to say about this.

Dillinger to challenge AJ Styles next week

As I alluded to earlier, there will be three title matches on Smackdown Live next week.

Since the show is emanating from Las Vegas, it looks like WWE is putting all of its chips on the table.

Get it? That was a gambling joke because the show is in Las Vegas and there are a lot of casinos.

Naomi will receive her rematch against Natalya for the Smackdown Women's championship, The Usos will defend the Smackdown Tag Team titles against The New Day in a street fight and Dillinger will receive a United States title match against Styles.

Dillinger did not do much to earn this title shot other than being a good person. He certainly didn't get the match because he has been winning lately. He even lost to Corbin Tuesday.

But Styles respected the fact that Dillinger didn't take cheap shots to win and offered Dillinger the opportunity at the title.

I'm sure that will not sit well with Corbin, who defeated Dillinger Tuesday and is probably still miffed about not getting to the ring in time to answer Styles' open challenge a couple of weeks ago.

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