WWE Friday Night Smackdown preview and schedule: January 20, 2023

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bengaluru, January 20: Barely a week away from the first 2023 pay-per-view event, the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion will be back on Smackdown to make his next championship defense, official.

Apart from the contract signing segment, a brand new tournament will kick off to determine the new number-one contenders for the blue brand tag team titles on the January 20th episode that emanates from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

Check out the confirmed segments for the latest upcoming Smackdown on FOX:

Roman Reigns-Kevin Owens contract signing segment

WWE has already announced that Roman Reigns will defend his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Kevin Owens at the Royal Rumble premium live event during the first SmackDown episode of 2023.

However, the job to put the pen to paper is due and that will be done via a contract signing segment when the champion and challenger will appear in the same ring to sign on the dotted lines.

After months of sneak attacks and brawls, the bad blood between Reigns and Owens already reached a boiling point but things again escalated after the latter was ambushed by the Bloodline during his singles contest against Sami Zayn, last week.

WWE Officials had to prohibit The Prizefighter from getting into yet another fight with the heel faction members on Raw. Now that the group leader will be there in the ring, Adam Pearce will have a tough time keeping things smooth between the two.

New tournament begins to determine tag team championship challengers

The era of the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship is seemingly over with WWE intending to declare two separate challengers for the Raw and Smackdown Tag Team Titles.

Judgment Day won a tag team turmoil match to secure a shot at the RAW Tag Team Championships, a couple of weeks ago. Now they will be facing The Usos for the titles at the WWE Raw 30th anniversary, next Monday night.

Then on last week's Smackdown, a separate number-one contenders tournament was set up to determine the next challengers to The Usos for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships, not the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships.

Participants in the tourney are yet to be announced but it was confirmed that the Banger Bros. (Sheamus and Drew McIntyre) will face the Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) in the first round of the tournament, this week.

Two weeks ago, Sheamus and McIntyre unsuccessfully challenged The Usos for the undisputed tag titles and after the match, The Vikings suddenly attacked them from behind after Smackdown went off the air to kick off the feud.

Now, the two hot-headed UK natives are coming for revenge as well as to secure yet another shot at the tag titles. Will they be successful in their mission? We'll find out on the latest episode of Smackdown.