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WWE Friday Night Smackdown preview and schedule: January 22, 2021

Less than two weeks away from the 34th annual Royal Rumble event, things are getting heated on WWE Friday Night SmackDown, where the new contender for the Universal Title will address the WWE Universe this week.

By Raja
An obstacle challenge course set for Smackdown (image courtesy WWE.com)

Bengaluru, January 22: Less than two weeks away from the 34th annual Royal Rumble event, things are getting heated on WWE Friday Night SmackDown, where the new contender for the Universal Title will address the WWE Universe this week.

Also announced for tonight, an obstacle course challenge between two bitter rivals and the Intercontinental Title will be hanging in the balance when the show comes live from the Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, Florida.

The main event title picture of SmackDown saw a drastic change when Roman Reigns received a new opponent for Royal Rumble. Adam Pearce was originally scheduled to face Universal Champion Roman Reigns at the upcoming PPV event after the Tribal Chief engineered his victory in a huge Gauntlet Match two weeks ago.



After a long negotiation, the stipulation of the title match was changed to a Last Man Standing match as both the participants signed the match contract. However, Pearce suddenly began to limp as an old knee injury crept up and prevented him from competing on the January 31 PPV.

Kevin Owens was then introduced as Pearce's suitable replacement for the title match and KO instantly signed the contract to confirm himself as the new challenger for the Universal Title. The Prizefighter will be present on this week’s SmackDown to note on the swerve he scripted alongside Pearce to upstage The Head of the Table.



Big E successfully defended his Intercontinental Championship against Apollo Crews on the January 8 episode of SmackDown via a clean pinfall. But Apollo received some much-needed pep talk from Paul Heyman on Talking Smack over how he 'scre**d up' in his pursuit of the prestigious title.

Then after having another talk with the Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Crews headed into the match against Sami Zayn with a new resolve and grabbed his opponent's tights to score a win. Now, he gets another title shot as Big E volunteered to put his belt on the line. The champion has to be careful as his opponent has found this new attitude to win a match by any means.



For weeks now, the animosity between Bayley and Bianca Belair has grown on SmackDown. The Role Model then welcomed The EST of WWE as her special guest on the premiere episode of her talk show, “Ding Dong, Hello” to question the athletic agility of her adversary. So these two will now go through an “Ultimate Athlete Obstacle Course Challenge” to prove who is the superior athlete.



In the title scene, Carmella has already secured a non-title pinfall win over the WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion and now she eyes an actual title shot. It can happen with a twist.

Banks tried to attack her big-mouth opponent in thd backstage, but the sommelier, Reginald stood in the middle to make the save. For weeks now, this newbie has proven to be a trouble for the Legit Boss.

So, Banks agreed to give Carmella a title shot, but only if she can have a match with Reginald first. Mella officially accepted the challenge but she indicated the same to set up another title match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

Previously, Carmella defeated Banks by DQ, with the title on the line, during the December 11 SmackDown episode while the champion retained over Carmella by submission at the WWE TLC pay-per-view. The feud has continued for quite sometime and one more match should be made official when SmackDown airs this week from the ThunderDome.

Story first published: Friday, January 22, 2021, 12:50 [IST]
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