SmackDown Results: Orton Beats Sikoa & RKOs Reigns, Pete Dunne Returns

January 19, 2024 John Kleinchester NEWS, Show Reports
Photo Courtesy: WWE

January 19, 2024
State Farm Arena – Atlanta, GA

By: John Kleinchester

 

3/4 of a Contract Signing

Smackdown kicked off with Roman Reigns arriving at the arena, saying he was there to make everything right again. As Roman walked off, Solo Sikoa said “I’ll fix it. I’ll fix everything.”

We then went to the ring as Nick Aldis introduced each combatant in the Fatal Four-Way for the WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble. Each participant signed as they entered the ring except when Roman Reigns was introduced, Paul Heyman came out by himself and said he and Reigns had just arrived at the arena and hadn’t had a chance to have the contract to an attorney and therefore Reigns won’t sign. Aldis said that was fine and he would make it a triple-threat match for the vacant championship. 

Heyman said that Aldis should be defending the title at the Royal Rumble in a one-on-one match. Knight complained about AJ Styles and Randy Orton jumping the line when it should be his rematch. Styles said The Bloodline tried to end his career and Knight stepped over him to get the title match that he lost. This led to Styles and Knight brawling whilst Randy Orton just observed.

Orton told Heyman that he saw what he was trying to do but it wasn’t going to work because he was going to drop Solo Sikoa later tonight. 

Backstage afterward, AJ Styles approached Nick Aldis and demanded a match with LA Knight and Aldis agreed. 

 

LWO vs. Legado del Fantasma

The first match of the evening saw the LWO’s Cruz del Toro, Joaquin Wilde & Carlito taking on Legado del Fantasma’s Santos Escobar, Humberto & Angel. Carlito had the match won when Escobar made a blind tag and rolled Carlito up for the victory. 

Lashley & the Profits Lay Down a Challenge

A backstage promo video was aired with Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits telling The Final Testament to just name the time and place.

Butch is Dead, Long Live Pete Dunne 

Pretty Deadly was interviewed ahead of their match with Tyler Bate & Butch and they said they were more prepared than ever before, especially since there were going to be no surprises this time. That said, instead of Butch showing up for the match, instead it was the Bruiserweight Pete Dunne whom Corey Graves hyped up on commentary. Dunne & Bate won when Dunne hit The Bitter End for the 3-count. 

Afterward backstage, Pretty Deadly said they weren’t ready for “a brand new person” they’d never seen in Pete Dunne.

The KO Show with Logan Paul

Next was Kevin Owens welcoming his Royal Rumble opponent Logan Paul. Paul came out and said that Owens is the reason he’s in the WWE. Paul threw to a clip of WrestleMania 2021 where Owens gave him the Stunner in front of 70,000 people as the crowd responded with chants of “one more time”.

Owens gave Logan Paul credit for not being just a celebrity guest and admitted he put in the work but he’s not “one of us”. Paul pointed out the cast on Owens’ arm and called it a weapon but said it would only take him one second to knock him out. Owens then removed his cast and promised not to have it at the Rumble. Paul then sucker-punched Owens but Owens quickly got back to his feet and the two started brawling. Logan Paul then slammed Kevin Owens’ exposed hand into the steel steps and Paul left triumphant. 

The Bloodline Beguine 

Roman Reigns was complaining in the back about them not fixing it when Solo Sikoa got in Roman’s face and said last week was on him and tonight he was going to fix it. 

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship

Next up, WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Katana Chance and Kayden Carter were defending their titles against “Unholy Union” – Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn. Fyre & Dawn had several vignettes air this past Summer only to never materialize until randomly popping up a few weeks ago to earn this title match. At ringside was the entirety of Damage CTRL with Bayley joining in on commentary talking about The Kabuki Warriors going after the titles. The champions retrained in under three minutes and Asuka and Kairi got into the ring with the Women’s Tag Titles as Carter & Chance ripped them away and it seemed a match between them was imminent. 

WWE Celebrates Pat Patterson

A quick video was shown celebrating Pat Patterson’s birthday and it was noted that he was the one that invented the concept of the Royal Rumble. 

 

The OC 

Anderson, Gallows & Michin were shown backstage arguing saying “he’s not going to go for it” as AJ Styles walked up to them. They said with everything going on, they still had his back and Styles just stormed off. 

 

The Final Testament Responds

Karrion Kross said next week they’d see Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits face-to-face in the ring.

Carmelo Hayes & Austin Theory

A recap of the injury with Hayes & Theory last week was shown and then Cathy Kelley interviewed Hayes who said he didn’t win but he didn’t lose. Theory then interrupted complaining that Hayes tried to end his career last week. Hayes challenged Theory to a match next Friday in Miami but Theory said he was busy then Grayson Waller interrupted and said he wasn’t and accepted for him. Theory argued with Waller as Hayes went to talk to Nick Aldis.

AJ Styles vs. LA Knight

Styles and Knight squared off in the penultimate night of the match but that didn’t last long as Solo Sikoa appeared and attacked both Styles and Knight with the Samoan Spike, ending the match in DQ in under five minutes. Sikoa got on the mic and said, “two down and one to go” and called out Randy Orton. 

Randy Orton vs. Solo Sikoa

The main event of the night was Solo Sikoa taking on Randy Orton. Nick Aldis was now at ringside with a contract that only had three out of the four required signatures on it. Orton was ready to hit the RKO when Jimmy Uso stormed down to the ring only to be attacked by LA Knight and AJ Styles.

Orton was distracted by this and almost hit with the Samoan Spike but instead countered into the RKO for the win over Sikoa. Reigns’ three opponents stared each other down in the ring until Knight punched Styles and Orton hit RKOs on both Knight and Styles. Roman Reigns then came from outta nowhere and hit a Superman Punch on Orton and then finally signed the contract to make the four-way official next Saturday at the Rumble.

Reigns then went to hit Orton with the Spear but Orton caught him with an RKO.

Announced for SmackDown Next Week in Miami:

  • WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: Katana Chance & Kayden Carter vs. Kabuki Warriors
  • Carmelo Hayes vs. Austin Theory
  • Carlito vs. Santos Escobar
  • Face-to-Face: Bobby Lashley & Street Profits / The Final Testament

Friday Night SmackDown Results:

  • Legado del Fantasma over LWO (Cruz del Toro, Joaquin Wilde & Carlito) in 8:25
  • Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate over Pretty Deadly in 7:22
  • WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: Katana Chance & Kayden Carter over Unholy Union in 2:56
  • AJ Styles over LA Knight via DQ in 4:47
  • Randy Orton over Solo Sikoa in 5:13
About John Kleinchester 197 Articles
New Jersey born and raised. Wrestling fan since Lex slammed Yokozuna on the deck of the USS Intrepid. Favorite Wrestler of all time is Owen "The Rocket" Hart.
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