WWE SmackDown Grades: Fastlane Card Taking Shape
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3. Bobby Roode, Randy Orton, And Jinder Mahal Segment
For the second week in a row, three men firmly in the United States Championship picture had a segment to build towards a potential showdown for the gold. But while the segment the week before wasn’t too bad, this week’s flirted with being bad.
It began with Jinder Mahal cutting another poor excuse of comedy promo on Bobby Roode by putting up Roode’s “personal” SmackDown Top 10 List. Mahal’s attempt to create tension between Roode and Randy Orton was a bit overkill as well and seemingly obsessive.
At one point, Roode even told Mahal to stop worrying about Orton. But right on cue, The Viper made his presence felt. He approached Roode, but quickly hit Mahal with a right hand. And just as Orton went for a patented RKO outta nowhere, Roode countered and hit Orton with a Glorious DDT.
But much like the week before, Mahal would get the last laugh when he caught Roode by surprise and laid him out in the middle of the ring. It was announced that Roode will defend his U.S. Championship against Orton at Fastlane, but it seems likely Mahal will be added to the match as well sometime in the next couple weeks.
Overall, this segment was pretty weak and didn’t do much in the grand scheme of things besides confirming Mahal’s attempts at humor are destined to always fail.