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‘Friday Night SmackDown’ (1/22/21) Results And Review: IC Title Match, Adam Pearce And Paul Heyman Battle In The Main Event, And More

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Alan Draper
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Friday Night SmackDown

Friday Night SmackDown took place inside the WWE ThunderDome at Tropicana Field in St. Petersberg Florida with virtual fans in attendance. The show featured an Intercontinental Championship match as Big E defended the title against Apollo Crews. Also, Bianca Belair took on Bayley in an obstacle course challenge.

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The show kicked off with Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman making their way to the ring. Reigns said Owens will not be here tonight because he said so. Reigns said what Pearce did last week was clever but the card subject to change theory is beneath him. He said he shows up and puts in work. He insults Pearce for not wanting to fight because his knee hurts. Roman said his back hurts because he has been carrying the company for years. Pearce interrupted saying this is spiraling out of control. Reigns mentions that Pearce was putting Owens in the title picture which is out of control. Reigns mocks him for saying his body hurts. Reigns said he busts his ass for the WWE but Adam complained about his body. He tells Adam it is no wonder why it took him long to get to WWE. Adam says he won’t take it from Paul laughing in his face. Roman mentions to Paul that Adam disrespected him. Paul berates Adam for disrespecting him and challenges Adam to a match tonight. Paul extended his hand and Adam accepted. Roman tells Adam he will get his ass kicked and they leave.

Sami Zayn showed up on the stage with his camera crew and handcuffed himself to the barricade. He said he is entering the Royal Rumble match and talked about getting screwed last week because Apollo rolled him up while grabbing the tights. He continued to go on about it until Asuka and Charlotte Flair came out for their match.

Charlotte Flair and Asuka Defeated The Riot Squad

Billie Kay apologized to The Riot Squad for what happened in their match. Ruby yells at her for costing them the match. Liv said she should put that on her resume. Billie tells them they will be in the Royal Rumble match and tells them about all the stuff they can do but Ruby shuts her down and says it was better with just her and Liv as they leave her.

Daniel Bryan came out to the ring. He talks about the Royal Rumble match and the uncertainty of what happens in it. He says the uncertainty is worth it because the winner goes on to WrestleMania to face the champion. Bryan said he has never won a Rumble match and plans on doing it but Cesaro interrupted. He tells Daniel that he is not winning the Rumble because Cesaro is. He mentions beating Daniel last week. Daniel tells him that maybe they should have their rematch right now. Cesaro said no and is tired of proving himself week after week. he issues an open challenge for anybody who is in the Rumble match. Dolph Ziggler’s music hit and he came down to the ring. Ziggler bragged about the stamina he has to survive the Rumble match and there is no one except Cesaro that could go toe to toe with him. Ziggler said he accepts Cesaro’s challenge.

Cesaro Defeated Dolph Ziggler

A recap of last week was shown of Sasha Banks challenging Reginald, Carmella’s assistant was shown

Sasha Banks Defeated Reginald

Sasha threw Reginald out of the ring after the match.

Paul Heyman claimed that Roman was trying to get into Pearce’s head for Paul to challenge Adam. Roman said Paul did that on his own so now he has got to go out there and fight Pearce. He tells Paul to be a man and handle his business.

Apollo Crews Defeated Big E By DQ In Their Intercontinental Championship Match

Sami Zayn took out both of them with the Helluva Kick in the ring after he released himself from the handcuffs.

Kevin Owens appeared in a video saying Roman made sure he won’t be in the ThunderDome. He said at the Rumble they will settle it once and for all. Kevin said he can’t stop fighting and that motto takes him back to his grandfathers. He said his grandfathers refused to quit when they were sick so how could he stop fighting. He said he will keep fighting and at the Rumble he will be the Last Man Standing.

The Street Profits were carrying a basket of goodies backstage. They confront Sonya and give her the basket to congratulate her on her position. They also want a shot to get their tag titles back. Sonya says they deserve their rematch but Ford is still recovering from his ankle injury and they will get their shot when Ford is all healed up. They give her the basket saying they are cool with that.

Michael Cole presents the Obstacle Course and introduced Bianca Belair and Bayley for the segment. Bayley kicks Cole out and she tells Bianca that this is timed. She gives Bianca the run down of the course and points out Chad Gable who was there to help out with the course. She went first and completed the course in 1:12. Bayley has the crew fix up the course for Bianca. Bianca went and was doing good until she had to carry Otis instead of Gable. Bianca did it and beat Bayley’s time with 17 second left. Bianca was declared the winner. Bayley threw the basketball at Bianca and attacked her. Bayley sent Bianca into the basketball stand shoulder first.

Rey Mysterio gives Dominik advice on beating Corbin and Dominik tells him that he’s got this.

King Corbin Defeated Dominik Mysterio

Paul Heyman was seen making his way to the ring for the match with Adam Pearce.

Heyman tripped and hurt his knee coming up the steps to get to the ring. He yells at Adam that it is card subject to change. Roman’s music hits and he came down to the ring to face Pearce. Roman took Adam down with the Superman Punch. Roman beat down Pearce and threw him over the barricade. Roman put Pearce up onto the platform but then Kevin Owens came out and attacked Roman. Both men brawled around ringside. Kevin superkicked Roman and countered the Superman Punch to take Roman out with the Stunner. Kevin was beating him down until referees separated him. Roman nailed Roman with another Stunner and powerbombed Reigns through the announce table. The referees held Owens back as he tried to go for the steel stairs. The show ends.

Review: Another very solid edition of SmackDown. Not really much to complain about except the Intercontinental title match was shorter than I thought it would be and not much of Big E was shown on this show. I did like Sami just handcuffing himself to the barricade for most of this show. The signs he displayed while he was doing so was hysterical. Charlotte and Asuka’s match with The Riot Squad had pretty good in ring action but it’s kind of weird how Asuka and Charlotte’s storylines on Raw are forgotten when they’re competing here. Reginald was really impressive in the match with Sasha and it was kind of clever with how Reginald couldn’t really have offense on Sasha but his counters made up for it. The whole obstacle course was what it was to further the storyline with Bayley and Bianca. Cesaro had a somewhat decent match with Ziggler but I wouldn’t say it kept my interest all that much. I was really wondering what they were going to do with the Adam Pearce and Paul Heyman match. I knew there was no way they were actually going to fight but the beatdown on Roman from Kevin Owens I thought was a great way to end the show. It’s giving the suspension of disbelief that Owens could possibly beat Roman at the Rumble and gets payback from all the times Roman has beat him down for weeks on SmackDown. So it was pretty much a solid entertaining night.

Grade: 6.5/10

 

 

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Alan Draper

Alan is a vastly experienced sports and gambling writer who is the Chief Editor of The Sports Daily.
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Alan Draper

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Alan is a vastly experienced sports and gambling writer who is the Chief Editor of The Sports Daily.
View All Posts By Alan Draper
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