Bengaluru, January 24: We witnessed the contenders for the WWE Championship return on last night's Smackdown Live which was the final episode of the show before heading into the 31st edition of the annual Royal Rumble PPV.

Check out what transpired from the show hosted by the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

The show kicked off with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn as they cut a promo on their championship match at Royal Rumble. They were soon interrupted by the champion, AJ Styles who talked about Daniel Bryan's favoritism towards the heels. So, he demanded a back to back match against the heels later on the show, which were sanctioned by the General Manager as the main event.

The opening contest took place between Jey Uso and Chad Gable. Uso missed a splash off the top rope after which Gable delivered a German Suplex and pinned via a bridge for the win.

Next up, in a six-man tag team match, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and Bobby Roode defeated Rusev, Aiden English, and Jinder Mahal. Woods delivered a flying elbow for the win.

Liv Morgan had singles match against Naomi with the Riott Squad, Carmella, Lana, Tamina, and Natalya at ringside. Naomi was distracted numerous times by the heels forcing Becky Lynch to show up which allowed Naomi to connect with a sunset flip for the win.



After the contest, a brawl broke out between the Riott Squad and the Welcoming Committee. The babyface stars gained the upper hand and stood tall in the end. Becky Lynch pushed Naomi over the while Charlotte Flair appeared on the ramp to wish luck to all the participants of the Royal Rumble.



Later, Shinsuke Nakamura had a singles contest against Baron Corbin and was on the verge of victory but Randy Orton showed up and hit him with an RKO. Corbin also suffered the same consequence to the surprise of the crowd.

Just before the main event of Smackdown Live, Shane McMahon announced that if Sami Zayn interferes in Kevin Owens' match then he will be out of the WWE title match in Royal Rumble. The same rule applied even for Kevin Owens.

In the first match, Owens got locked into the Styles Clash to tap out. Zayn came from behind and assaulted Styles to gain the upper hand. The champion tripped on a ringside stretcher as Zayn hit him with a Helluva Kick for the win. Owens and Zayn celebrated to end Smackdown.