WWE Friday Night Smackdown results and highlights: January 22, 2021

Bengaluru, January 23: The penultimate edition of SmackDown before Royal Rumble pay-per-view aired with an obstacle course challenge and Intercontinental Championship Match on the card.

Also, the newly become challenger for the Universal Champion was set to address the title picture on the show that went down from the Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, Florida. Here are the results and recap of the show:

WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns along with Paul Heyman kicked off Smackdown as the pair spoke right away about the swerve played by Adam Pearce which led Kevin Owens to become the new challenger for the title at Royal Rumble 2021. After some verbal shots, Reigns set up Heyman in a one-on-one match with Pearce in a main-event match.

Later, the Women’s Tag Team Champions – RAW Women’s Champion Asuka and Charlotte Flair appeared on Smackdown to compete against The Riott Squad. Asuka released a German suplex on Liv who tagged in Riott quickly.

Billie Kay was at ringside and distracted the referee as Riott rolled Asuka up for more than a 3-count. Asuka then neutralized Liv and Billie before she hit a Codebreaker on Riott and tagged in Flair, who executed the Natural Selection for the pinfall win.

Next up on SmackDown, Daniel Bryan appeared for an interview but he was interrupted by Cesaro. The two wanted to have a rematch from last week and the Smackdown Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode walked out.

Eventually, Ziggler accepted the challenge to face Cesaro. It was a quick match where Cesaro kicked out of a Zig-zag and hit back with the Neutralizer finisher for the pinfall win.

Later on the show, Carmella’s sommelier Reginald and SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks faced off in a one-on-one match up. Banks took a rose from Reginald before he requested a kiss on the cheek. Banks rocked him, instead, with some quick moves. A Meteora, Backstabber followed before Banks applied the Bank Statement on Reginald to claim a submission win.

WWE Intercontinental Title was on the line next as Apollo Crews challenged Big E. Apollo was in control of the match after Head-butt. He attempted a high-flying top rope move but Sami Zayn suddenly ran into the ring and delivered a Helluva Kick on Apollo to disqualify the match. Sami then delivered another Helluva Kick on Big E before he left the ring.

Next up, Bayley and Bianca Belair went through an Ultimate Athlete Obstacle Course Challenge on Smackdown where the two athletes had to lift a 400-pound tire, then go through some hurdles, and military walls around ringside, with a rope on the last wall.

Belair was declared as the winner as she completed the entire trick with 17 seconds remaining than Bayley. A frustrated Bayley then attacked Belair at ringside and sent her into a hoop setup.

Later, King Baron Corbin continued his feud with the Mysterio family as he competed against Dominik in a singles encounter. Dominik digested a clothesline but countered the End of Days with a 619 attempt. Corbin grabbed his opponent’s legs and dropped him with the End of Days for the pinfall win.

Paul Heyman was about to compete against Adam Pearce in the main event of Smackdown but Reigns appeared in the ring to drop Pearce with a Superman Punch. Reigns continued to beat up the WWE official through ThunderDome LED boards until Kevin Owens made the saev.

The Prizefighter delivered two Stunners to drop Reigns on his back. Owens then downed Reigns with Pop-Up Powerbomb through the announce table at ringside. The officials stopped Owens from doing further damage as the show came to an end.