Friday’s “WWE SmackDown” saw the competitors determined for Saturday Night’s Foremost Event’s WWE Championship primary contender’s four-way next Saturday.
Following Drew McIntyre’s capture of the WWE title from Cody Rhodes during “SmackDown” in Berlin, it was announced that a four-way would determine his first challenger on the Royal Rumble. To that effect, 4 matches were announced on Friday to ascertain qualifiers for the bout next weekend, pitting Randy Orton against The Miz, Trick Williams against Matt Cardona, Solo Sikoa against Damian Priest, and Sami Zayn against Ilja Dragunov.
Miz would hit two Skull Crushing Finales, the identical move that won his first WWE Championship from Orton in 2011. But Orton ultimately caught Miz with the tried and true RKO to get the three-count. Williams then defeated Cardona with a single Trick Shot and pinfall in the midst of the ring, with Kit Wilson then attacking Cardona to rub further salt within the wound.
Solo Sikoa was on the technique to victory due to the interference of the MFT, just for the lights to exit and the Wyatt Sicks appeared. That distraction allowed Priest to get the win with a South of Heaven chokeslam; Uncle Howdy then reclaimed the “Wyatt Family Lantern” before getting dropped by Talla Tonga, repossessing the lantern over again and escaping with Sikoa to go away that feud open moving forward.
Within the fundamental event, Zayn beat Dragunov to advance and avenge his United States Championship loss in October. Zayn didn’t get to have a good time for long, nonetheless, with Williams emerging to attack him and standing tall to shut the show.