SmackDown Results: Heyman Declares Roman Reigns for Royal Rumble

January 10, 2025 John Kleinchester NEWS, Show Reports

January 10, 2025
Moda Center – Portland, OR

By: John Kleinchester

WWE Smackdown Results

  • Women’s United States Championship: Chelsea Green over Michin via Roll-Up in 8:44
  • Los Garza over Pretty Deadly via MTY in 8:57
  • United States Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura over LA Knight via DQ in 14:06
  • Motor City Machine Guns over A-Town Down Under via Skull and Bones in 12:07
  • #1 Contender’s Fatal 4-Way: Bayley over Naomi, Nia Jax, & Bianca Belair via Rose Plant in 17:18
  • Jacob Fatu & Tama Tonga over Cody Rhodes & Jimmy Uso via Moonsault in 13:19 

 

Heyman & Rhodes

Smackdown kicked off with a lengthy recap of the events of the Raw debut on Netflix this past Monday. After that, Paul Heyman was live in the ring to announce Roman Reigns as the Undisputed Tribal Chief and that he was authorized to reveal what was next for Reigns. With that, Paul Heyman called out WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. Cody came out and Paul Heyman told him that he had earned the respect of Roman Reigns but that now that he has won back his ulafala, Reigns wants his title back. With that, Heyman announced that Roman Reigns would enter the Royal Rumble. 

Before Cody could respond, Kevin Owens appeared in the crowd and complained about Cody shaking hands with The Rock on Raw and then shaking hands with Paul Heyman tonight. Rhodes then charged into the crowd and began brawling with Owens. Suddenly, Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga appeared in the ring and cornered Paul Heyman. This brought out Jimmy Uso who temporarily took down the heels before Fatu no-sold a chair shot. Then the two-on-one beatdown on Jimmy began with Fatu even superkicking WWE officials in the process. Finally, Cody returned to the ring and evened the odds, chasing off Fatu and Tonga. 

After the commercial break, WWE officials attempted to remove Fatu and Tonga from the arena when LA Knight appeared and pushed them out the door stating that he had a title to win tonight.

Chelsea Green’s First Title Defense

The first match of the evening was Chelsea Green defending her Women’s United States Championship in a rematch against Michin. Piper Niven (dressed as a sparkly Secret Service agent) got involved early on behind the referee’s back as Green dominated the early portion of the match. After the picture-in-picture break, Niven attempted to interfere again but Michin took her out with a PK followed by a senton off the apron. Michin went for a cross-body off the top but Green reversed it into a roll-up with a handful of tights for the win. After the match, Niven hit a senton on Michin to add injury to insult. 

 

Tag Team Turmoil

A video from backstage earlier in the day was shown with all of the tag teams arguing about the events of last week and A-Town Down Under threatening to go to Raw. Aldis then made two matches: Pretty Deadly vs. Los Garza and MCMG vs. A-Town Down Under. This led directly to Los Garza vs. Pretty Deadly which started quickly as Elton Prince and Kit Wilson jumped Los Garza to kick things off. 

The crowd didn’t seem to know what to make of this match with two heel teams but seemed to start getting behind the high-flying moves of Los Garza. At one point, Kit Wilson started screaming for DIY’s help but got no such thing. Pretty Deadly attempted to cheat but then Elektra Lopez distracted the referee allowing Santos Escobar to knock Elton Prince off the top rope. Los Garza then hit their MTY finisher for the win.

 

United States Championship Match #2

LA Knight was out next for his title shot at US Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. Early in the match, one of the turnbuckle pads was removed so it was obvious that was going to come back into play later. The advantage shifted back and forth between the two until LA Knight jumped cleanly onto the top rope to hit a superplex on Nakamura. This led to Knight applying a reverse Boston Crab until Nakamura was able to reach the rope.

Knight and Nakamura seemed to get their wires crossed as each went for their finisher, losing a bit of momentum. Nakamura was then able to hit the Kinshasa only to have Knight get his foot on the ropes before the three count. Nakamura then put Knight’s face on the exposed turnbuckle but Knight moved at the last second nailing Nakamura’s knee and allowing Knight to hit the BFT. Unfortunately for Knight, he could not immediately apply the cover, and with that out came Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga through the crowd, ending the match in a DQ. Finally, after a long beatdown, Cody Rhodes and Jimmy Uso ran down to help. Cody then demanded a tag match later tonight and Nick Aldis obliged. Not sure what he had planned for the main event before this happened.

Tag Team Turmoil Continues

In the second of two related tag team matches of the evening, Motor City Machine Guns took on A-Town Down Under. Both teams went back and forth for a long while with the crowd firmly behind MCMG. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley eventually picked up the win with the Skull and Bones.

The commentary team noted that MCMG was clearly in line for a rematch against DIY for the tag titles. Backstage, the aforementioned DIY was annoyed by the Machine Guns’ win as Pretty Deadly approached asking why they didn’t help them in their match. DIY said Pretty Deadly would definitely get their title match and they were friends. Apollo Crews then approached telling Pretty Deadly that they were dumb for believing they would get their title shot.

Champion Tiffy Time

Next up, Byron Saxton interviewed the new WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton in the ring and said that she befriended Nia Jax and got her to trust her. Stratton said that when Jax let her guard down, she took her most prized possession.

This brought out Jax who said Stratton would be nothing without her. Jax demanded that Stratton hand over the title or she would take it from her. This brought out Bayley who admitted she thought Stratton was stupid but was sure that Jax was stupid. Bayley reminded Stratton that it was her who helped Jax defeat Bayley for the title back at Bad Blood.

This then brought out Naomi and Bianca Belair with Naomi also staking her claim. Jax then slammed Naomi and Belair’s heads together starting a huge brawl with Stratton hitting the Prettiest Moonsault Ever on all four women. Nick Aldis then appeared announcing a #1 Contender’s Fatal 4-Way that would start right now.

#1 Contender’s Fatal 4-Way

The story of this match was the three faces ganging up on Nia Jax and then falling apart as pinfall attempts were broken up over and over again.

Candice LeRae then appeared to help Nia Jax as Naomi and Belair finally squared off before both diving out of the ring onto Bayley and Jax. LeRae then grabbed Belair’s hair and inadvertently whipped Naomi with it. Nia Jax and Bianca Belair then spilled over the announce table as Bayley hit the Rose Plant on Naomi to pick up the victory.

Backstage Byron Saxton informed Bayley that her title shot against Tiffany Stratton would take place next week from San Diego. 

 

Cody, Jimmy, and Melo

Backstage, Cody Rhodes and Jimmy Uso were preparing for their main event against Tama Tonga and Jacob Fatu. Cody said that he knew that Roman coming for his title was inevitable and they were “good”. Cody walked off and Carmelo Hayes approached, attempting to intimidate Jimmy Uso but Uso brushed it off.

 

The Main Event

The main event of Smackdown was Cody Rhodes and Jimmy Uso taking on Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga. Jimmy Uso took the brunt of the offense from the heel team throughout the early goings of the match until finally Cody Rhodes got the hot tag and brought the crowd to life. 

Rhodes & Uso then hit the Power & Glory followed by a top rope Cody Cutter and Suicide Dive on Jacob Fatu. Kevin Owens then appeared and Cody Rhodes brawled with him to the back, leaving Jimmy Uso to fend for himself.

Jimmy hit the Uso Splash on Tonga but Jacob Fatu pulled him out of the ring before the three. Fatu then hit the moonsault on Uso for the victory. Owens and Rhodes then reemerged in the arena and fought up onto some production crates. Cody then ran and pushed Owens off and down through two tables to end the show.

 

Announced for Next Week from San Diego, CA:

WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton vs. Bayley
Motor City Machine Guns vs. Los Garza
Solo Sikoa Returns

 

Final Thoughts

Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett (and no Corey Graves) were an interesting combination to take over SmackDown in its three-hour era. Tessitore is a lot more natural in his commentary voice than Michael Cole but at times he speaks so low and monotone that it does seem to take a bit away from the show, especially going into commercial breaks (usually Cole would be near screaming). Although that is likely to improve as the weeks (and hours and hours) go on. 

These three-hour SmackDowns feel extremely slow compared to the two-hour editions thus far. At the halfway point, it felt like almost nothing of consequence had occurred despite several matches happening. Looking back at the match times, they were all too long but therein lies the problem of having to fill three hours. Lastly, aside from the continued storyline incompetence of Nick Aldis not booking matches (and specifically main events) until the last minute, Kevin Owens continues to be right in everything he says about Cody. It doesn’t seem like they want this to be the case, but it is and it’s concerning for Cody Rhodes’ continued babyface run. 

About John Kleinchester 207 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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