WWE SmackDown results, recap, grades: Kevin Owens ends wild show as the last man standing - CBSSports.com

31 Royal Rumble event drawing ever nearer, WWE still has some heavy lifting to do before the second biggest of their annual pay-per-view events.

That work continued during Friday night's edition of SmackDown, which was largely anchored by the continued issues between Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, Adam Pearce and Kevin Owens.

Reigns was once again looking to exact revenge on Pearce for defying his wishes, putting together an elaborate series of events that would result in the universal champion getting Pearce one-on-one in the ring to close the show.

Reigns was not counting on Owens showing up to spoil his fun, however, and was caught off guard and laid out as Owens sent one of his final messages ahead of their Last Man Standing match at the Rumble.

Roman Reigns opened the show in the ring, saying that, despite Kevin Owens promising to send a message, no one would see Owens during the show, because Reigns said so.

Reigns said nobody snuck one past them when Adam Pearce and Kevin Owens managed to switch places for the upcoming Royal Rumble match, calling the use of "card subject to change" was the move of losers.

He then implied that maybe his injuries would keep him from defending the title against Owens at the Royal Rumble event.

Pearce joined Reigns and Paul Heyman in the ring, getting further run down by the duo before pointing out that he was not willing to take any verbal abuse from Heyman, leading to Heyman demanding a match against Pearce later in the night.

Owens was, in fact, not in attendance, cutting a promo from inside a car and blaming Reigns for pulling strings to keep him away.

Paul Heyman ended in a no contest. After Pearce was in the ring, Heyman walked to the ring and began limping before telling Pearce, "Card subject to change." Reigns then walked to the ring to replace Heyman in the match.

Reigns hit a Superman punch as soon as he stepped into the ring, sending Pearce to the outside of the ring.

Owens then ran in and attacked Reigns and the action hit the ring where Owens hit Reigns with a stunner.

Finally, Owens drove Reigns through the announce table with a pop-up powerbomb as the show went off the air.

Scrap Daddy fans are being teased with Pearce actually having a match almost weekly at this point, but they'll have to settle for Pearce landing a single punch on Reigns.

It's been a necessary development in recent weeks to have Owens get one over on Reigns, otherwise the story is just Owens constantly running into walls and never achieving anything meaningful.

Zayn also announced that he was entering himself into the Royal Rumble match.

Kay tried to win their favor back by telling them she had gotten them entered into the Royal Rumble, but Riott still walked off telling Kay things were better without her.

Cesaro cut off a Daniel Bryan promo about his desire to win the Royal Rumble.

Deville, in charge as Adam Pearce was getting ready for his match, said they had to wait until Montez Ford recovered from his leg injury, but when he was healed, they would be back in the title picture.

Tomorrow morning on the Free Version of @WWENetwork ⤵️#TalkingSmack #SmackDown @KaylaBraxtonWWE @HeymanHustle pic.twitter.com/Ntnqech3Jh

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Tomorrow morning on the Free Version of @WWENetwork ⤵️#TalkingSmack #SmackDown @KaylaBraxtonWWE @HeymanHustle pic.twitter.com/Ntnqech3Jh

#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/qmmxtciuQy

#SmackDown @itsBayleyWWE @otiswwe @WWEGable pic.twitter.com/jILoy0FEiy

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With unfinished business in the air, @WWEBigE and @WWEApollo pull out all stops in this #ICTitle Match on #SmackDown