Friday Night SmackDown was promoted around a contract signing throughout the show leading to the return of Kevin Owens, who will challenge Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble.
Throughout the show, it was leading in the direction of Adam Pearce signing the contract for a Last Man Standing Match against Reigns for the Universal Title at the Royal Rumble. After signing it, he revealed that the contract included the language “card subject to change” and cited an injury to name a replacement before revealing Owens, who signed the contract.
Owens will challenge Reigns at the Royal Rumble on Sunday, January 31st, and will be their third championship match following matches at TLC in December and a Steel Cage Match on the Christmas Day edition of SmackDown.
In a backstage segment, Sasha Banks agreed to defend her SmackDown women’s championship against Carmella provided she receives a match with Reginald first.
Cesaro and Jey Uso added their names to the men’s Royal Rumble match on January 31st.
For RAW on Monday, they are advertising Randy Orton appearing on the show to respond to Alexa Bliss’ fireball attack last week. They also announced that Asuka will face Bliss on Monday’s show.
Next week’s episode of SmackDown will feature Big E. defending the Intercontinental title against Apollo Crews, and an Obstacle Course Challenge between Bayley and Bianca Belair.
On 205 Live, there were two matches for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with Legado Del Fantasma (Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde) defeating The Bollywood Boyz to advance. They will face the winners of the Lucha House Party vs. Imperium match in the second round.
In the other 205 Live match, Killian Dane & Drake Maverick defeated Curt Stallion & August Grey and will advance to face MSK in the next round.
