Jinder Mahal Defeats Tye Dillinger on SmackDown

Finallly making his return to WWE television for the second week in a row, Tye Dilinger found himself facing off against the WWE champion Jinder Mahal on tonight’s SmackDown Live.

In the second match of the night from San Antonio, the reigning WWE champ Jinder Mahal made his entrance ushered and announced by The Singh Brothers. But the Modern Day Maharaja spent considerably less time berating the crowd and country at the outset than in last week’s Independence Day episode of SmackDown.

Still a relative newcomer to the WWE, longtime NXT star Tye Dillinger actually looked really good in both his entrance and at the start of the match. After a noticeable absence from WWE television, the up and coming “Perfect Ten” is possibly more over with fans than ever before.

Once again, Dillinger showcased his offensive prowess, hitting Jinder with an array of presses and kicks early on. The two even looked fairly evenly matched for a while. But as the match wore on, Mahal employed his considerable strength to lock in submission holds, countering the Perfect 10 with a powerful knee to the jaw and landing the Khallas for the win.

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Mahal then took to the mic for his usual spiel. He admonished Randy Orton for threatening his family and mocked the audience for chanting “USA”. The WWE Champion then promised to show Orton hell and bring the Punjabi Prison to the next episode of SmackDown Live.

On last week’s episode of SmackDown, Dillinger found himself in the final three contestants of the Independence Day Battle Royal. While he did a nice job of wrecking shop, and putting some of his offensive arsenal on display, he would ultimately lose. Nevertheless, he made more of an impression than 90% of people involved in that match, eliminating much of the competition himself.

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Jinder Mahal remains the unpopular but reigning WWE Champion. Though Randy Orton was missing from tonight’s SmackDown Live, and reportedly will be for a brief period, the two will face off in a Punjabi Prison Match in two weeks at WWE Battleground. The July 24th pay-per-view will mark the first use of the exotic and perilous match format in over ten years, and only the third time ever.