In the final edition of Smackdown before the Royal Rumble, the show started with Becky Lynch coming to the ring and saying she deserves to maim event WrestleMania. Asuka interrupts and Charlotte joins the two of them in the ring. After some verbal sparring between the three of them, Asuka attacked Becky from behind leading to a melee. Charlotte left with a big smile on her face, while Lynch gained the upper hand before being separated.
In the nights first match, Naomi took on Mandy Rose, trying to get some revenge for Rose’s recent attempts at seducing her husband. However that wasn’t to be as Mandy Rose got the pin fall with some outside interference from Sonya Deville.
We saw a short clip of Rey Mysterio hyping his chances in the Royal Rumble and saying his match with Andrade tonight is all about respect.
In the next match, The Miz took on Cesaro with both their tag partners at ringside. As expected there was lots of action on the outside, with Sheamus eventually giving Miz a cheap shot to set up Cesaro for the Neutralizer to score the win. After the match, there was more brawling and a tease of Shane dropping a flying elbow through the announce table but was cut off. It ended with Sheamus and Cesaro double powerbombing Shane on to Miz through the table.
Vince McMahon hosted a face to face confrontation between WWE Champion Daniel Bryan and Number One Contender, AJ Styles. Bryan got over his new heel character really well here and got a bigger reaction from the crowd again. Bryan refused to get in the ring so AJ took the fight to him. Bryan eventually got the upper hand and made his escape up the ramp with his title in hand.
Backstage Carmella and R-Truth are talking about their chances of winning their respective Rumble matches before Charlotte interrupts Carmella. The Princess of Staten Island told Flair that the Rumble isn’t just a match it’s a tornado, which Flair responded to by saying she is the tornado. Good work by all involved.
Back to in ring action and we finally got the see the match between Mustafa Ali and Samoa Joe. After some good action where we saw Ali impress, Joe got the win with the Coquina Clutch.
The New Day are backstage talking about their strategy for the Royal Rumble particularly if Kofi has anything special planned. Tony Chimel popped up for an appearance out of nowhere leading Big E to ask if he saw Edge there (referring to his calling of “Rated R Superstar”). The usual comedy skit from the New Day here.
The nights main event was a 2 out of 3 falls match between Andrade and Rey Mysterio. These two have been putting on classics recently and this was another. Andrade picked up the first fall with a sit out powerbomb off the top rope. Rey quickly levelled it up after hitting his Canadian Destroyer. After a lot more edge of the seat action, the match was decided when Samoa Joe got involved and powerbombed Rey on the apron, causing the DQ. Joe then attacked Andrade as well before putting the Coquina Clutch on Rey. After taking both out, Joe cuts a promo saying it’s all about taking out potential threats for the Royal Rumble. While Joe was talking Randy Orton stormed the ring to hit the RKO out of nowhere!
Overall opinion:
A much more solid show than last nights Raw and did more to promote their stories going in to the Rumble. I expect there to be a continuation of the Samoa Joe v Mustafa Ali angle during the match and definitely a strong showing from Andrade. The women’s situation will need resolving to lead to the Ronda/Becky/Charlotte angle, so I can see Charlotte costing Becky the title and allowing Asuka to retain. The Miz and Shane look like huge underdogs going in to their tag title match, so expect them to get the win now.
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