SmackDown held a Live Event the night after their first brand Exclusive PPV Backlash at Fairfax. As per the reports from Top Rope Press, the event was short on attendance despite Fairfax being just half hour away from Washinton DC. The reason behind the short attendance was said to be NFL’s Redskins having a home game at the same time.
The most interesting thing coming out of the event was that Randy Orton, who missed the Backlash PPV due to an alleged injury, returned to action and teamed up with none other than John Cena. However, it was said that the former world Champion took no bumps during his bout.
It looks like WWE was well aware of the possibilities of having less audience which was the reason why they decided to use Orton despite his injury but also saved him from any damage by keeping him away from bumps.
Below are the complete results from the Live Event involving three rematches from the PPV a night before:
- Dolph Ziggler defeated Intercontinental Champion The Miz in a match where the IC title was not on the line.
- Nikki Bella who recently made her WWE return after a 10 months long absence defeated Carmella.
- 'The Lone Wolf' Baron Corbin defeated Apollo Crews.
- 'The Big Red Monster' Kane who defeated Bray Wyatt at Backlash defeated Fandango.
- Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder) & Jason Jordan defeated The Vaudevillians (Aiden English and Simon Gotch) & Konnor
- The Team of John Cena who hasn't been seen on WWE TV since SummerSlam & Randy Orton who is said to be suffering from a concussion went over the team of Bray Wyatt and the former Wyatt Family Member Erick Rowan.
- New SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch teamed up with Naomi to defeat the team of Alexa Bliss & Natalya.
- Newly crowned SmackDown Tag Team Champions Heath Slater & Rhyno defeated The Usos ( Jimmy and Jay Uso)
- New WWE World heavyweight Champion AJ Styles defeated former champion Dean Ambrose.
Below are some of the photos from the live event posted by fans in attendance:
As we noted before, WWE pulled Randy Orton from his scheduled match against Bray Wyatt at Backlash due to a concussion and he was replaced by Kane in the match. While WWE did not recognize the injury officially, they played a backstage beatdown angle at BackLash to justify the absence of the former WWE Champion. At this point, we don’t have any knowledge about when Randy Orton could return to action full-time.
