WWE Friday Night Smackdown preview and schedule: January 21, 2022

Bengaluru, January 21: A highly explosive Friday Night Smackdown is expected to take place this week as the feud between two former Shield brethren is getting heated up.

The challenger, Seth Rollins will make another appearance on the blue brand as he intends to send a message to The Bloodline.

Plus, a main-event has been announced with the reigning women’s champion participating in a Championship Contender’s match when Smackdown emanates from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

Last week, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins appeared for a face-to-face conversation for the first time in a long time ahead of their Universal Title Match at Royal Rumble. During a highly personal exchange, The Usos attempted to attack Rollins from behind.

The Visionary used his brain to dodge the attack in and out of the ring. However, he couldn’t evade the onslaught on this past episode of Raw. Rollins was defeated by Lashley via DQ after the interference by The Hurt Business members.

As the All-Mighty was dealing with his former tag team partners, The Usos appeared from behind and caught Rollins off-guard with dual superkicks. It’s pretty clear that Reigns vs. Rollins will be an incredible showdown at Royal Rumble just like good ol’ times.

But in order to reach that stage totally, Rollins first needs to take The Usos out of the equation. The question is whether he would be able to do that on Smackdown since the numbers-game isn't in his favor.

The #VikingRaiders secured a future #SmackDown Tag Team Title Match, and The @WWEUsos are HYPED.@Erik_WWE @Ivar_WWE pic.twitter.com/zW1PvOAGdF

— WWE (@WWE) January 21, 2022

Speaking of The Usos, The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) defeated Cesaro & Mansoor, Los Lotharios (Angel and Humberto), and Jinder Mahal & Shanky in a Fatal-4-Way to become the new number-one contenders for the SD Tag Team Champions. Hence, these two babyfaces might just come in handy to help Rollins with taking down the twins.

In another title picture, Naomi battled SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair in a Championship Contender's Match on the January 7 edition.

Naomi almost scored a count-out victory over the titleholder if it wasn’t for Sonya Deville. The WWE Official clarified that the match could not be won by count-out. Then she again intervened by clarifying that the match couldn't be won by disqualification either, but only via pinfall or submission.

After all these distractions, The Queen ultimately pinned Naomi with Natural Selection. Last week, Naomi continued the beef with Deville by standing up to the latter’s unfair practices and also threatened to physically assault her.

THIS FRIDAY on #SmackDownhttps://t.co/izoVEb7UOu

— WWE (@WWE) January 17, 2022

WWE Official Adam Pearce wanted to bring a truce between the two and ruled that The Glowing Superstar does deserve another opportunity to prove herself against Flair.

Afterward, WWE officially announced SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair vs. Naomi for tonight’s SmackDown on FOX with the stipulation being if the champion loses, she’d have to grant a title match opportunity to her opponent.