WWE Friday Night Smackdown 1/8/2021

 WWE Friday Night Smackdown 1/8/2021

 I reviewed last week's show with pics and gifs here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/wwe-friday-night-smackdown-112021.html

They announced a gauntlet match tonight for #1 Contendership to the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble.

Reigns, Jey and Heyman came out. Took them 5 minutes just to get in the ring. Reigns said he admires Owens fighting spirt and didn't want anything bad to happen to him, and he had to do what he had to do. Reigns said Adam Pearce should be blamed for this and called him out.

Reigns showed a video package of the cage match with Owens from 2 weeks ago and clips from last week. Roman asked Pearce "what do you have to say for yourself?". Roman said he wants Pearce to take responsibility for throwing Owens back into the shark tank. 

Reigns said he wanted to pick his own opponent for the Royal Rumble and didn't like the gauntlet match idea. He accused Pearce of calling himself stupid. There's only one person here who feels stupid, and it's me for not fast forwarding through this.

Reigns accused Pearce of not respecting him or his family. He put his hands on Pearce and Pearce said he has total respect. Reigns then said maybe Pearce is safe right now and left the ring.

Intercontinental Title - Big E Langston vs Apollo Crews

E only got a half-entrance and Crews got no entrance. Crews hit him with a dropkick to start. He tried something off the top but took a big shoulder/elbow. Crews was on the apron and E splashed him which surely hurt. Crews came back with triple germans. E went outside and Crews moonsaulted him from the apron. they went up top and Crews hit a superplex. Crews hooked his leg around E's on the mat and seemingly pinned him, but the ref said both men had their shoulders down with Big E retaining via draw.

E wanted a fist bump saying that's how it goes, but Crews slapped him and said give me it right now. E then hit some belly to belly suplexes on him and a big splash. E charged into Crews on the apron and took a knee then Crews hit a frog splash for 2. Crews got a face kick, a spinebuster and standing moonsault in but it was only for 2. Crews missed an enzugiri but E sold it anyway and took a chokeslam/rock bottom at the buckles. E then won with the Big Ending in a fast paced match which was fine. E trashtalked Crews after.

Sonya Deville was with Adam Pearce backstage. Sonya said she wasn't bitter about Mandy Rose, but clearly is. Sonya said something about Pearce wrestling, but he said he hadn't wrestled in 6 years and couldn't beat the ref. 

Belair said she was declaring herself for the Women's Royal Rumble. Bayley jumped in and said Bianca didn't eliminate her last year and Bianca said she wasn't in the match. Bayley then said she will be entering and said if Bianca wins it, she will probably squander it and lose her title match. Bianca then accused Bayley of squandering her title run.

They went over the Street Profits and Ziggler/Roode's altercation last week.

Carmella was with Reginald. Sasha got the Top Wrestler of 2020 award from SI and she wasn't impressed. She said all the hard work doesn't make any difference since Carmella's talent is above hers.

WWE Smackdown Tag Titles - The Street Profits vs Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode

Dawkins gets a shoulder and a dropkick on Dolph early. The SP's double shoulder Dolph then Dawkins backdrops Ford who flips onto DZ. Roode stomps on Ford in the corner and rakes his eyes. Ford does a cool strike flurry on Roode and Roode ends that one with a kick to Ford's injured knee. Both Roode and Dolph go over the top and Ford hits a big flip dive onto them. Ford starts selling the knee due to the dive.

We went to break and as we came back, Dawkins hit a suplex on Roode, then he hit a big exploder on him. Dawkins did a face buster and spinning lariat on him in the corner. DZ gets in and dropkicks Dawkins then rakes his eyes. DZ puts him in a headlock and gator rolls him away from Ford. Roode in to continue the punishment on Dawkins. Roode throws Dolph into the corner to nail Dawkins, but Dawkins moves and Dolph crotches himself on the middle rope. Ford finally gets the hot tag and gets the edge on the other team. He spinning clotheslines DZ for a 2 count. Ford goes up top, knocks off RR, but takes a top rope face buster for another 2 count. DZ goes for a big superkick, but Ford hits one of his own instead.

Ford tries to mag the hot tag and both Roode and DZ work to take out Dawkins. Ford gets a surprise roll-up, but DZ hits the knee and RR hits a perfectplex for another close 2 count. Ford hits a big enzugiri and gets a spinebuster/zig zag combo for the Dolph and Roode win. Fun little match here with the heels working the leg of Ford well.

DZ and RR win the tag titles then when The Profits try to get it together in ring, they throw them out.

Pearce and Deville argue where to go next matchwise. 

Heyman comes in. He says he likes Pearce and says he's the reasonable one. He said he was concerned for Pearce and says he respects Pearce. He brought up their history together and said he knows Pearce wanted to be champ, not GM. Paul said he put Pearce in the gauntlet match tonight. How? Am I missing something here?

Billie Kay was with The Riott Squad. She said she was happy about the win and wanted to join The Riott Squad. Billie then cried. They said "it's not like we don't want you" and Billie said, "I knew you'd come around". She then said she could dress up like a punk and gave them a resume with "mosh-pitting on it" much to Riott's dismay.

#1 Contender to Universal Championship - Gauntlet Match

Rey Mysterio starts off with Sami Zayn. Zayn has a mic. Zayn said he asked to be in and said it was quite the coincidence that he had to be in the first-matchup of this. He called it a conspiracy. He had his own cameraman with him to document the conspiracy. 

Zayn said he would beat everyone tonight. Rey hit a dropkick, a 619 and a frogsplash and put Zayn away in seconds.

Nakamura vs Rey now. Nak sunset flips on Rey but Rey rolls through and kicks him. Rey did a running hurricanrana. He tried a baseball slide outside but got caught with a knee, then ducked another knee attack. Then he did a dive under the bottom rope into a sunset flip on Nakamura on the floor, but Nak knee'd him and regained control. 

They went up top and Rey did a top rope la silla, then a running la silla. Rey did a wheelbarrow into a 2 count pin. Rey tried for something over the top and they botched it, then he hurricanrana'd Nak into a 619. Rey went for a frogsplash but Nak got his knees up and armbarred Rey for the submission win.

Corbin gets pinned after this

Nakamura vs King Corbin begins as Corbin runs in. He jumps Nakamura and chokeslams Rey. Back form the break and Corbin regains control. Corbin hits some gut punches in the corner. Corbin charges in but hits the post and takes a spinning heel kick. Nak tries to jump on him on the outside but gets run into the post. Inside and Corbin backdrops him. Nak gets up and tees off on him with kicks. He then hits a flying kick from the top for 2. Nak goes charging in and takes a Deep Six. Nak grabs a triangle from out of nowhere and gets powerbombed down. Corbin runs around the post into a kick and Nakamura pins him.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Daniel Bryan is up next. DB poses and the match begins as the commercial begins. DB hits a big baishaku knee kick and various strikes. DB topes Nak on the outside and Nak goes into the table. DB goes for something up top and gets kicked then reverse slammed. Nak charges in but DB rolls into a single leg crab.

DB hits a nice german for 2. DB lights up Nak with kicks and Nak turns a lariat attempt into a rolling armbar. DB comes back with his own armbar and rolls it into the crossface but Nak hits the ropes. DB works Nak's arm and Nak holds on when DB tries to top rope hurricanrana him. Nak then hits a flying knee for 2 from the top. DB reverses an armbar attempt into a pin.

They get up and trade kicks and DB hits some nice punches then more kicks. DB does some flying dropkicks to Nak in the corner but takes a flying knee for the Nakamura win. DB and Nakamura shake hands.

Reigns and crew come out. Adam Pearce comes out. So many questions about how this can be. Reigns and crew stalk Pearce as he heads to the ring. Jey gets in the ring and nails Nak then Reigns joins in on the beat down. Jey hits a superkick and Reigns hits the superman punch. Jey then splashes Nak from the top. Roman tells Pearce this is his show and throws Pearce in with Nak out cold. Jey superkicks Pearce and Reigns tells them to ring the bell. Jey drags Pearce onto Nak and the ref counts the 1-2-3 for the Adam Pearce win.

So many questions about this. Why are WWE wrestlers able to make matches as they please? How did Roman get Pearce in the match? Why did the bell-ringer go along with this and why did the ref go along with this? Why did they superkick Pearce? Why did the ref count the pin with Roman and Jey in the ring?

Overall thoughts: The show wasn't bad but the ending was really confusing and odd, ruining a lot of it.