WWE Smackdown 1/22/2021

WWE Smackdown 1/22/2021

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/wwe-friday-night-smackdown-1152021.html

There is an intergender match tonight which I will be skipping. I will almost never review any direct male vs female match.

We get a rundown of some of the Pearce and Roman stuff from last week.

Roman and Heyman head to the ring to talk. Reigns said he heard Owens would be delivering a message tonight, but he said that would not be happening. Reigns said he didn't agree with "Card Subject to Change". Reigns said he makes appearances and doesn't want to hear excuses about that. Roman went down his list of injuries and said his back hurts because he has been carrying the company on it for years. Roman then said what if I don't make the Rumble because his back hurts?

Pearce came out and said this is getting out of control. Reigns said Pearce putting Owens in the title picture is out of control. He said Pearce is Kevin Owens' b*tch. Reigns asked how Pearce could be hurting since he hadn't wrestled for years and said its no wonder he never made it to WWE. Heyman laughed and Pearce said he wouldn't take the abuse from Heyman. Reigns told Paul to straighten him up and said you disrespect him, you disrespect me. Paul said he's from New York and "I'll whoop yo @ss".

Paul challenged Pearce to a 1v1 and Pearce accepted, saying it was official. Reigns said Pearce was going to get his @ss kicked.

 

They ran down the matches for tonight and Zayn came out and handcuffed himself to the barricade. He said it was bogus that his pin wasn't counted while Crews did a similar thing and it was counted. Asuka then came out.

Charlotte and Asuka vs The Riott Squad with Billie Kay

They talked about Billie Kay screwing up the match last week and Graves made the good point of saying even great teams need time to gel. Tamina and Natalya were watching this in the back.

Flair chokes Riot in the corner with her boot and Riot goes into the buckles and they made an odd sound. Riot gets thrown out and Flair grabs Kay's hair, then Liv dropkicks Charlotte. Liv hits a crossbody from the top.

We go to break and Liv hits a slow running hurricanrana. Ruby then slowly runs Charlotte's head into the buckle with her knees. Charlotte hits some 2v1 shots on the Squad and throws Liv. Asuka does a sliding knee into Liv's head and Charlotte face kicks Riot. Liv does an enzugiri but Asuka catches it into an ankle lock. Kay goes up on the apron but its when Riot is trying to pin Asuka. Liv takes a sacrifice hip attack from Asuka then a codebreaker and natrual selection for the Asuka/Flair win.

This wasn't good. It felt like it was in slow motion and they messed up a lot of stuff.

They show Bianca Belair doing jump rope with her hair as the rope.

Billie was in the back apologizing for blowing the match. Ruby wasn't taking it well. Liv said she should add that to her resume. Billie said all the teams have obstacles and they can work this out. Billie then say she talked to Sonya and got The Squad in the Rumble. She started doing impersonations of various WWE women. Ruby said Billie isn't part of the Squad and it's better without her.

Daniel Bryan came out. DB talked about the excitement of the Royal Rumble. He said it makes him feel alive and said he never won the Rumble. Then Cesaro interrupted. Cesaro said he could explain the rules better and in 5 different languages. He said something to Sami and pulled the mic away. Cesaro said DB isn't winning the Rumble, he is.

DB challenged him to fight now and Cesaro said, "How about noooooooooo?". Cesaro said he beat him already and issued an open challenge to anyone who has declared for The Rumble. Dolph Ziggler then came out.

Dolph said he's in the 2nd most Royal Rumble's ever and said he can go all night long. Dolph said only Cesaro can hang with him and DB can't because it isn't 2014 anymore. Dolph accepted the challenge.

Dolph Ziggler vs Cesaro

"You're a big green energy guy. Have you put any thought into using Cesaro to power the city?" - Corey Graves to Daniel Bryan

DB is on commentary. We join this in progress. Cesaro goes for Karelin's Lift but DZ blocks him and rolls him. DZ's tights are falling down. He takes a euro uppercut in the corner then Cesaro giant swing's him. They both try to pin each other but can't. Dolph ducks a shot and hits a zig zag for 2. Cesaro hits a POP-UP NEUTRALIZER and wins it in a real cool finish. This only went a few minutes but was good.

Cesaro then points to DB and says the Rumble is mine!

They covered what lead up to Sasha Banks vs Reginald tonight, which I will be skipping. Sasha won somehow which I think is beyond stupid. Carmella and Sasha argued after.

Heyman told Reigns that we got him(Pearce). Reigns didn't get it. He said he didn't tell Paul to challenge Pearce to a match. He said Heyman better win this as he didn't hire a punk to be his special counsel, he hired a man. He told Paul to be a man and handle his business.

Intercontinental Title - Big E. (c) vs Apollo Crews

"You brought this on. This is justice being served."

They covered Crews' match last week and Big E did lewd gestured to a handcuffed Zayn.

Crews starts off by running into a belly to belly suplex then E splashes him on the apron. Crews hits an enzugiri > step kick > standing moonsault. He gets two of the three triple german's and takes a corner rock bottom.

Crews rests on the table and gets yelled at then does an apron moonsault. They go up top and E takes headbutts up there. Zayn takes off his cuffs. Crews hits a missile dropkick and Zayn hits him with a helluva kick, then gives E one too.

This was what it was. It was short with a dirty finish and they got what they could in.

Owens did a promo his car. He said Roman pulled some strings and he couldn't get in the building. Owens said he won't stop fighting and said Roman's victories on him weren't earned.

Owens talked about his tattoos with his grandfather's initials on his hands. He said they were his biggest fans and he said his biggest regret is that he didn't make it in time for them to see him in WWE. He said they are always with him. He said they fought through bad illnesses and they kept fighting, so why can't he?

He said he will be the last man standing at the Rumble. This was a good promo but I don't get how Roman could lock him out of the building. Pearce should probably be fired for losing control of this show.

The Street Profits gave Sonya Deville a fruit basket for her new job. Ford said it's been 2 weeks since they lost the tag titles to "Entertainment Dysfunction", which is Roode and Ziggler. The SP's said they want their rematch. Sonya said they deserve a rematch but said they need to hang out backstage until Ford is healed, then they will go back into the title picture.

Sonya was then given the fruit basket.

Bayley's Obstacle Course Challenge

They have to:

1) Flip a tire

2) Jump hurdles

3) Scale a military wall

4) Carry Chad Gable a few feet

5) Make a basket.

Bayley went slow and ran around the military walls. She said Belair needed more a challenge though and added bigger hurdles, made her carry Otis instead of Gable and then played defense on the basketball portion. Bianca then dunked the ball. Bianca won with 17 seconds remaining.

"It's like Bill Lambeer out there" - Corey Graves

"That was a slam dunk for Bayley." - Michael Cole

Bianca threw the ball to Bayley who then hit her with it and beat her up, throwing her into the hoop.

Rey Mysterio was coaching Dominik likely on how to take on Baron Corbin. Dominik said he has got this. Rey said if this doesn't work, we do it his way next time.

King Corbin vs Dominik Mysterio

Dominik hits a dropkick and takes down Corbin to the outside. Corbin decks him with a clothesline outside. Corbin stands on Dominik then lands some shots on him. Dom's 619 gets caught. Corbin whips him up and knocks him down with a punch. Corbin then won it with an end of days in a quick one.

Paul Heyman was seen heading to the ring.

Adam Pearce vs Paul Heyman

"You know what they say? Card subject to change." - Paul Heyman to Adam Pearce

Heyman trips going up the stairs then falls down. He says "Card subject to change" and Reigns comes out. Pearce eatsa superman punch and goes outside. Pearce gets a shot in, then is low blowed and thrown over the barricade. Pearce gets thrown into the monitors.

Roman throws Pearce up in the stands then Kevin Owens comes in and hits Roman. Reigns gets the edge but Owens gets a stunner in. Reigns goes into the barricades and officials try to stop this. Owens stuns Reigns and pop-up powerbombs him through a table to end the show.

Overall thoughts: This was light on wrestling. I liked the Bayley segment, the Owens promo and the short Dolph/Cesaro match.