WWE SmackDown Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights from January 15 - Bleacher Report

Vengeance, thy name is Roman Reigns.

It is a reality that faced Adam Pearce again Friday as the WWE official signed the contract for his Universal Championship match against The Tribal Chief at Royal Rumble on January 31.

Moments after Paul Heyman vowed to fix the contract for a dissatisfied Roman Reigns’ Universal Championship defense against Adam Pearce at Royal Rumble, Jey Uso hit the ring to kick off the evening’s broadcast.

“We run this show!” Uso said of him and Reigns.

He warned Pearce about what awaits him at Royal Rumble and suggested WWE officials thank The Tribal Chief for their success.

He declared his entry into the Men’s Royal Rumble Match and vowed to go to Raw, where he would win the WWE Championship from Drew McIntyre. .

He was passionate and put over the current nature of his relationship with Reigns, talking up The Tribal Chief and putting his family over as the most badass entity in the sport.

Fueled by his partner’s presence at ringside, Nakamura launched Uso into the ring post heading into the commercial break.

The Artist controlled the match coming out of the timeout as Cesaro joined Michael Cole and Corey Graves on commentary, excusing his absence from last week’s show by claiming Tropicana Field was too big for him to get to the ring and help his partner as he was beaten down by Uso and Reigns. .

The match was hurt by the poorly-placed commercial break.

The effort was there and there was definitely chemistry about it that makes one wonder what the performers would have accomplished had the contest not been plagued by the break so early on.

Despite Heyman getting Pearce to sign a contract for a No Disqualification Match against Reigns at Royal Rumble, an unsatisfied Tribal Chief expressed his desire for a Last Man Standing Match and said he would sign that contract in the ring.

Kay didn’t have to get in the ring, tripping and stumbling around.

The bigger, stronger, more ferocious Corbin dominated the action, pummeling Mysterio for the majority of the match.

Back in the ring, the young star attempted to defend himself but Corbin sent Rey into his son and finished him off with End of Days for the win.

The perpetual losers suffered a familiar fate this week as Corbin continued to build heat for himself.

The match was perfectly fine for what it was, which was an extended squash that saw Corbin steamroll Rey until he needed a distraction to score the win. .

Michael Cole threw to the ring for the debut episode of “Ding Dong Hello!” with Bayley.

The former SmackDown women’s champion introduced her first “G-U-EST,” Bianca Belair.

Daniel Bryan and Cesaro took to the squared circle for singles competition and wasted little time taking to the mat for some chain wrestling

An errant kick by Bryan saw him crash into the ring post heading into the break

Back from the commercial, Bryan and Cesaro teed off on each other with hard-hitting strikes

Bryan and Cesaro are master craftsmen between the ropes and here, they turned in a beautiful match

Counter-heavy and full of punishing strikes, it ultimately came down to Cesaro capitalizing on an opening created by a Bryan misstep and scoring a much-needed victory

In consecutive weeks, former world champion Bryan has been selfless, putting over both Nakamura and Cesaro in an attempt to strengthen the overall quality of the SmackDown roster

On the same night he joined Roman Reigns in his locker room, learning under The Big Dog, Apollo Crews battled Sami Zayn in singles competition while intercontinental champion Big E watched from a sofa at ringside. 

Especially if he is aligned with Reigns

Roman Reigns bullied and intimidated Adam Pearce into signing the contract for their Last Man Standing Match at Royal Rumble before taking his place at the head of the table

Reigns put pen to paper, apparently pleased with his actions and the way things unfolded

“I’ve waited all night for you to do that,” Pearce said before he exited the ring and made his way up the ramp. 

With that, he introduced Kevin Owens, who signed the contract for the Rumble title shot

After months of Reigns manipulating things in his favor, his overconfidence proved costly as Pearce one-upped him and put The Tribal Chief’s universal title reign in jeopardy

Reigns in a Last Man Standing Match should be fantastic based on the strength of their recent encounters.