SMACKDOWN 1/19/24 REVIEW

Smackdown opens with The Bloodline waiting on Roman Reigns to arrive to State Farm Arena. Upon arrival he says he's there to make everything right again since the Bloodline couldn't couldn't make it right last week on Smackdown. As Roman walks off, Jimmy looks upset but Solo says, "I'll fix it, I'll fix everything."

 

After the arrival of the Bloodline, WWE goes to the ring where Nick Aldis awaits and welcomes everybody to Smackdown and to the contract signing for the fatal four way at the Royal Rumble. Nick Aldis is a no non-sense type of guy and wasted no time in bringing out the competitors starting with AJ Styles, who comes to the ring and immediately signs the contract. Following AJ, LA Knight came out to the ring with everybody saying, "LA Knight, Yeah!", and signs the contract. Once Knight's name was on the contract, the roof came off the State Farm Arena for The Viper, Randy Orton. Randy signs the contract and Nick calls the WWE Universal Champion to the ring to sign the contract but in his place was The Wiseman, Paul Heyman. 

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"Ladies and Gentleman, my name is Paul Heyman...." He asked, "Mr. Smackdown Executive", if Aldis was watching his own show because they just arrived to Smackdown and haven't had a chance to submit the contract to an attorney or even have himself lookover. Paul says that Roman Reigns will not be signing the contract this evening. 

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In response to Roman Reigns refusing to sign the contract, Aldis says that is fine, he will make it a triple threat match for the vacated title at the Royal Rumble. This ignites a "Randy!" chant to erupt in the arena.

Paul Heyman upon hearing that Nick Aldis' words marched back to the ring and onto the outside apron and places his hand on Nick Aldis' arm and says he cares about him and that he halfway respects and admires the mediocre job that he has done as the Smackdown Executive in charge of the show and that he looks good doing it in his wanna be Paul Heyman custom suits. Paul Heyman tells him there is no way he can sell this to the Board of Directors, sell this to the WWE universe or sell this to the Tribal Chief, who calls the shots here on WWE. Paul says Roman should be defending his title in a one-on-one match at the Royal Rumble. 

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LA Knights cuts him off and tell him to shut the hell up because it should be him that is facing Roman at the Royal Rumble since he pinned him at Crown Jewel before his crossed-eyed, half-wit cousin saved him. LA dares Paul to speak one more word cause he will cut back on off his fat back. This may be the funniest line of the night. LA continues on his rant until getting cut off by AJ Styles. 

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AJ accuses LA Knight of stepping over him after the Bloodline tried to end his career. AJ reminds LA that he lost and he's lucky to even be in the match. LA quick to fire back and tells AJ, he's got a horse shoe planted firmly up his keister. 

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During the LA and AJ war of words, Randy Orton was just in the back ground waiting for his time to strike and Paul Heyman was instigating AJ and LA into a fight. Paul Heyman is damn good at his job and before long they were throwing hands and security and producers were out to break them up and attempt to keep them separated. 

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The Wiseman, Paul Heyman was laughing as the ordeal was taking place and the Viper has waited in the bushes long enough and slowly approaches Paul and takes his tie in hand and wraps it around his hand pulling him in nice and close. Randy tells Paul, "I see what you are trying to do and it's not going to work, cause tonight I'm going to drop Solo right here in the middle of this ring, 1, 2 and 3" and after he does that he is going to reintroduce Roman Reigns to the three most dangerous letters in all of Sports Entertainment, "RKO"!

 

Finally, twenty minutes into Smackdown we get our first match. 

Before we can even get started with the six-man tag match, we see Nick Aldis approaching Roman Reigns' locker room and he is stopped by AJ Styles demanding LA Knight tonight on Smackdown. Nick Aldis tells him, you got it. 

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Match 1 

Latino World Order (Carlito/Cruz Del Toro/Joaquin Wilde) vs. Legado del Fantasma (Santos Escobar/Angel Garza/Humberto Carrillo) 

This is a six-man tag match that was guaranteed to bring a lot of action to kick off Smackdown. The LWO and LDF have a lot of animosity towards each other and that guaranteed a hard hitting match-up that included double teams and triple teams as well as plenty of high flying luchador action. In the end amongst the chaos of a six-man tag match it was Santos Escobar who stole the match by pinning Carlito for a roll-up victory. 

Winner: Legado del Fantasma 

 

Backstage Segment 

Kayla Braxton is waiting backstage for her guests, Pretty Deadly. Yes Boy! Kayla asked, "Are you ready for your match-up tonight?" The Pretty Smart Boys, said they have been studying tape and are prepared for tonight. Yes Boyyy! 

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Before jumping into the the second match of the night, we get a video package from Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits discussing the Final Testament and how their intimidation tactics weren't going to work. They tell them to name the time and place and they'll teach them about intimidation.

 

Match 2 

Pete Dunne/Tyler Bate vs. Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince/Kit Wilson) 

The Bruiser Weight is back, Pete Dunne! The WWE Universe has been waiting for this moment. The Big Strong Boy and the Bruiser Weight are in rare form and as vicious as ever, however, Pretty Deadly are not to be taken lightly. Pretty Deadly mounted a small comeback but Pete and Tyler were to much for Pretty Deadly tonight. It was good seeing Pete Dunne back to being a vicious fighter and ending matches with the Bitter End. 

Winner: Pete Dunne/Tyler Bate 

Backstage Segment 

 

Pretty Deadly are walking through the back and they clearly are having a bad night. Kayla Braxton has a follow-up interview for them and asked, "What happened, You said you were ready"? Pretty Deadly said they were ready, but Tyler Bate had a new partner. Who is Pete Dunne? Great segment and Pretty Deadly can go in the ring and their character work is top notch. 

 

Back in the ring, it time for the KO SHOW! On tonights episode of the KO Show, the special guest is Logan Paul, KO's opponent at the Royal Rumble for the US Championship. Just like KO, I'm also tired of seeing Logan Paul on Smackdown. KO goes to speak and Logan cuts him off and takes over the KO Show and says KO is the reason he is in the WWE. Logan says it's because KO embarrassed him at Wrestlemania, he joined the WWE so he can show KO and the entire WWE universe that he belongs here in the WWE. The Atlanta crowd is HOT and is chanting, "One More Time!", just like the Atlanta crowd I want to see KO stun Logan. KO says he doesn't remember stunning Logan cause he is just one of many he's stunned. KO says he's not one of them, he's not a Rey Mysterio, a Seth Rollins or a Sammy Zayne, and he sure isn't a Kevin Owens. Logan says he's not one of them, he's one of one and then list a bunch of adjectives to describe himself. The crowd broke out into "Logan Sucks!" chants and again I'm agreeing with the crowd in Atlanta.

 

KO says he's heard what Logan has said about him but he can't say what he really wants to say because Logan is protected and Logan's title reign is a joke. Logan brings up the cast on KO's broken hand again and KO says he won't go into the Royal Rumble wearing it and if it makes Logan feel better he'll take it off now. While KO is removing the cast, Logan Paul sucker punches him and celebrates like he just won at bingo but like KO said he's been hit harder and he's right back up. Logan turns around is visibly in shock because KO is on his feet screaming, "Is that it"? This led to a scrap and Logan attacking the still injured hand of KO. 

 

In the Bloodline locker room, Roman is upset and berating everyone and Solo steps up, as the Tribal Heir, and says he'll fix it. Solo steps out of the locker room followed by his brother, Jimmy. 

 

Match 3 WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship 

Katana Chance/Kayden Carter (c) vs. Unholy Union (Alba Fyre/Isla Dawn) 

Katana and Kayden's tag team really needs a name. This will be a interesting match-up with the return of the Unholy Union and Damage Ctrl on commentary. Bayley says, they are out on commentary to keep an eye on the Unholy Union since they interferred in Damage Ctrl's last match. The Unholy Union are bringing the fire out the gate by hitting the champs as they turned to go to their corner. The Unholy Union had a great showing against the champs but it was a destroyer and the Keg Stand that put the Unholy Union away. 

 

After the match, the Kabuki Warriors grabbed the titles and got in the ring and made a show of presenting the titles to Katana and Kayden. 

Winner: Katana Chance/Kayden Carter

 

Backstage Segment 

The OC are talking and AJ Styles walks and Karl Anderson tells AJ, we got your back still. AJ stares and walks off. 

 

WWE plays a video package from The Last Testament. Karrion says they'll see Bobby and the Profits next week in the ring. 

 

Backstage Cathy Kelly is welcoming her guest, Carmello Hayes. Cathy asked, "What happened last week"? Carmello says unfortunately in the heat of battle things happen and he while he didn't win, he didn't lose either.  Grayson and Austin are waiting and come in accusing Carmello of nearly ending his career last week. Austin says Carmello is getting rewarded and in his city but Carmello steps up and says lets spin it back next week in Miami. Austin said he was busy next week until Grayson opened his mouth and said he wasn't. This left Austin looking confused as to why Grayson would push him into a match. Carmello said he'd talk to the GM and make it official. Austin said Grayson had to stop doing that. 

 

Match 4 

AJ Styles vs. LA Knight 

AJ is home in Georgia tonight and he is looking bigger, stronger and more pissed off than ever. These two came out angry and throwing haymakers at each other. AJ and LA beat the hell out of each other both inside and outside the ring before the Bloodline showed up with a distraction by Jimmy Uso that allowed Solo to attack LA with a Samoan Spike from behind. Solo then turned his attack to AJ Styles and threw him into the steel steps before tossing him into the ring to deliver a Samoan Spike to him as well. 

Winner: LA Knight by DQ

 

After the attack to AJ and LA, Solo asked for a mic and announced, "Two down, one to go"! Then told Randy Orton to get out there and its main event time. 

 

Ringside, Smackdown GM Nick Aldis is waiting with the contract in hand like he is expecting Roman Reigns to interfere. 

 

Main Event 

Randy Orton vs. Solo Sikoa 

Randy learned a lot from HHH. His walk out and in ring entrance is all cerebral. These two are giving everything to each other with Randy slamming Solo into the announce table that didn't give and he just bounced off of it. Randy was hitting vintage Orton offense and landed a hanging DDT. During the match, Jimmy starts his walk to the ring but is quickly intercepted by the waiting LA Knight who levels him but Jimmy was quickly up and started back to the entrance way when he was again intercepted by AJ Styles and thrown into the entrance way screen. AJ starts making his way toward the ring leaving Randy watching the distraction when Solo sneaks back into the ring and tries to give him a Samoan Spike but Randy counters in a RKO for the pinfall victory. 

Winner: Randy Orton 

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After the match, AJ and LA enter the ring for looks like a showdown with Randy Orton. During the confrontation, LA lays out AJ Styles and turns around to catch a RKO from Randy Orton. Randy mocks LA Knight and signs his name in the air points to the laid out LA and delivers a RKO to AJ Styes who had just got back to his feet. The crowd was going crazy and Roman Reigns from out of nowhere with a Superman Punch to Randy Orton. Roman walks to the rope and Nick hands him the contract, Roman has a look around and then signs the contract who throws it outside at Nick Aldis' feet. Roman sets up to spear Randy Orton but he reverses it and RKO's the Tribal Chief. After the vicious RKO, Randy takes the finalized contract from Nick and lays it in front of Roman Reigns.

 

Takeaways 

1. Pete Dunne is BACK! 

2. Carmello Hayes and Austin Theory run it back next week.

3. Katana Chance/Kayden Carter and the Kabuki Warriors are set.

4. Our Main Event at the Royal Rumble is set. 

5. Yes Boy!