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‘WWE SmackDown Live’ Results: AJ Styles Vs. James Ellsworth Title Match Confirmed On ‘Talking Smack’

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 11:34 PST, Oct 11, 2016

[The WWE SmackDown Live results will be updated here in real-time as the show airs live. Any updates to the upcoming WWE Survivor Series card will be posted here as well.]

Just two days after AJ Styles managed to defeat both John Cena and Dean Ambrose at WWE No Mercy 2016 in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE World Championship, the Phenomenal One returned to WWE SmackDown Live still wearing the biggest prize in sports entertainment. With the blue brand’s next scheduled PPV set for the Survivor Series, still nearly six weeks away, who will step up to challenge for the title next? After being pinned by James Ellsworth — albeit with some major assistance from The Lunatic Fringe — anyone could be up next.

Absent from No Mercy — and this week’s SmackDown — was Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, who was medically unable to wrestle. Ready for a fight, No. 1 contender Alexa Bliss faced Naomi on Sunday instead. But the Harley Quinn-inspired Bliss was unable to get past the new “glow” of Naomi. On this week’s SmackDown Live, Naomi’s roll continued as she picked up a win over Carmella — after Nikki Bella made an appearance.

With so much drama unfolding at No Mercy, the two hours of SmackDown Live was sure to be full of non-stop action. Curt Hawkins was scheduled to make his in-ring debut as part of the SmackDown roster, but for some reason it never happened. New Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler faced-off against The Spirit Squad. And after Luke Harper helped Bray Wyatt get a victory over Randy Orton at the PPV, The Viper teamed up with Kane on SmackDown to face Wyatt and Harper in tag team action.

WWE SmackDown Live Results

The following includes the results of all the matches and segments from SmackDown Live on October 11. This episode of SmackDown aired live from San Jose, California. SmackDown Live hasn’t won the ratings war with Monday Night Raw since the week the blue brand hosted the WWE Draft. With this week’s episode of SmackDown providing the follow-up to Sunday night’s PPV — and the first rumbles of November’s Survivor Series, will this be the first time Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan’s show defeats WWE Raw?

SmackDown Pre-Show On The WWE Network

The regular team of four was reduced to three for the half-hour warm-up to SmackDown Live, which aired exclusively on the WWE Network. Scott Stanford was joined by two WWE Hall of Famers: Booker T and Jerry “The King” Lawler. Lita was live in San Jose, doing interviews backstage from SmackDown Live. The pre-show can be viewed on this page using the Twitter video link below.

A few minutes into the show, Lita interviewed Alexa Bliss, who complained that more people don’t appreciate what she has accomplished so far as part of the SmackDown Live roster. They also aired a video of The Miz and Maryse arriving at the arena that previously aired on WWE’s Facebook page. The Usos then joined the panel via Skype to talk about their loss at No Mercy and climbing back up the ranks of the SmackDown Tag Team Division.

Dolph Ziggler defeated The Spirit Squad

After overcoming the 2-on-1 handicap against his former stablemates, Dolph Ziggler was immediately attacked by The Miz, who had exchanged words with the new WWE Intercontinental Champion prior to the match. Before too much damage could be done, however, the SmackDown Tag Team Champions Heath Slater and Rhyno made the save.

Team SmackDown issued a Survivor Series challenge to Team Raw

In an attempt to make this the biggest Survivor Series event of all time, SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon and SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan issued a challenge to Stephanie McMahon, Mick Foley and the entire Raw roster. Keeping with the tradition of the WWE’s annual Thanksgiving event, they offered three Survivor Series Elimination Matches. One match featuring five singles wrestlers from each brand, one featuring five tag teams from each brand, and one featuring five female competitors from each brand.

Naomi defeated Carmella

After a fairly competitive match, Nikki Bella came to ringside and provided just enough of a distraction to give Naomi the advantage and the win. Earlier in the night, Carmella had attacked Nikki backstage after an interview with Renee Young. As Alexa Bliss watched the match on a television backstage, Daniel Bryan let her know that she would have a No Mercy rematch with Naomi next week on SmackDown Live.

Jimmy Uso defeated Chad Gable

In his first singles match as part of the SmackDown roster, Chad Gable went up against Jimmy Uso, one half of the tag team that put him out of commission when they had earned a shot at the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. With a big assist from Jey Uso during the pin, Jimmy took home the victory.

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Special guest referee Dean Ambrose helped James Ellsworth defeat WWE World Champion AJ Styles

Before AJ Styles could announce the opponent he had chosen for a (non-title) match on this week’s WWE SmackDown Live, he was interrupted by Dean Ambrose, one of the two men (along with John Cena) that collectively made the champion tap out two nights ago at No Mercy. When Styles finally announced that his opponent would be James Ellsworth, Dean Ambrose insisted he would sit ringside. When Styles objected, GM Daniel Bryan announced that Ambrose would be the special guest referee. He also informed Styles that if he laid his hands on the referee, he would be fined and/or suspended. After refusing to award a fall to Styles when he clearly had the match won, Ambrose hit the Phenomenal One with a pair of Dirty Deeds that left him out long enough for Ellsworth to get the win.

Randy Orton lost to Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper after Kane disappeared

Hoping to gain some retribution after Luke Harper helped Bray Wyatt win at No Mercy just two days prior, Randy Orton came up short once again. In tag team action with Kane as his partner, the Devil’s Favorite Demon disappeared during a Wyatt black-out just as The Viper was in need of a hot tag. When the lights came back on, Harper was in the place where Kane had been standing and the Undertaker’s brother was nowhere to be seen. When Orton turned around, he walked into Bray Wyatt, who hit him with the Sister Abigail and got the pin.

Talking Smack On The WWE Network

The first WWE Superstar to join Renee Young and Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack was the general manager’s sister-in-law Nikki Bella. She was there to talk about her on-going feud with Carmella, the possibility being one of the five women to represent SmackDown Live at Survivor Series against the women from Monday Night Raw, and her new E! series Total Bellas.

On top of Alexa Bliss vs. Naomi being booked for next week’s SmackDown Live, Daniel Bryan also announced that a rubber match for Jack Swagger vs. Baron Corbin was also confirmed. The second guest on the show was James Ellsworth, who was there to talk about his upset victory over AJ Styles. But Daniel Bryan also announced that Ellsworth will receive a shot at the WWE World Championship on SmackDown Live next week. Before Talking Smack ended, Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper showed up to say that they were talking over SmackDown Live.

The above SmackDown Live results will be corroborated by WWE’s official SmackDown Live page.

Updated WWE Survivor Series 2016 Card

  • Raw vs. SmackDown — Men’s 5-on-5 Traditional Survivor Series Match
  • Raw vs. SmackDown — Women’s 5-on-5 Traditional Survivor Series Match
  • Raw vs. SmackDown — Tag Team 10-on-10 Traditional Survivor Series Match

Prior to this week’s WWE SmackDown Live, the only information confirmed about WWE Survivor Series 2016 was that it is will be the first co-branded PPV since SummerSlam, and that it will air live on Sunday, November 20 from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Traditionally, several of the matches from the event are contested under Survivor Series Match rules. As more information is confirmed, it will be updated at WWE’s official Survivor Series preview page.

Where To Watch

WWE SmackDown Live airs Tuesdays on the USA Network at 8/7c. Replays of WWE SmackDown aren’t made available on the WWE Network until several weeks after the original air date. However, a replay of SmackDown Live is available to stream on-demand Wednesdays with a Hulu subscription.

On October 9, No Mercy aired exclusively on the WWE Network. It is now available to stream on-demand. The next PPV featuring WWE Superstars from the SmackDown Live roster will be WWE Survivor Series 2016, scheduled to air live on the WWE Network at 8/7c on November 20. The Survivor Series Kick-Off Show will begin at 7/6c.

[Featured Image by WWE]

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