WWE SmackDown Results: Winners, News And Notes On January 22, 2021

WWE Friday Night SmackDown advertised an Intercontinental Championship rematch between Big E and the heel-skewing Apollo Crews in addition to Bayley and Bianca Belair competing in an Ultimate Athlete Obstacle Course Challenge.

Last week’s broadcast of SmackDown was up in viewership, garnering 2.262million viewers.

• January 15, 2021—2.262 million
• January 8, 2021—2.120 million
• January 1, 2021—2.013 million
• December 25, 2020—3.303 million
• December 18, 2020—1.030 million viewers (FS1 Broadcast)

WWE Friday Night SmackDown—Key Competition

• Mainstream Cable News Coverage

Pro Wrestling Bits—Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton Bring out the Worst in Each Other

WWE SmackDown Total YouTube Viewership this past Friday 6,404,739 views (Up from 6,112,582)

• Most-Viewed: Pearce Declares Owens will Challenge Reigns (1,617,815 views) 
• Least-Viewed: The Street Profits Pledge to Reclaim SmackDown Tag Team Titles (118,361 views)
• Median Viewership: 468,147

WWE SmackDown Results—Friday, January 22, 2020

Opening Segment Featuring Roman Reigns

The Roman Reigns character talked about busting his ass for this company, fighting through injury and the fact that it took leukemia during a pandemic to keep him out of action all while the Adam Pearce character weaseled his way out of a match last week by lying about a knee injury. Who’s the heel in this scenario again?

Adam Pearce vs. Paul Heyman sounds wacky on paper, but I fully expect it to end in the demise of Pearce via outside interference.

Charlotte Flair and Asuka def. The Riott Squad

It’s nice to see the women’s tag team champions finally exercise their traveling rights and show up on SmackDown.

Sami Zayn handcuffed himself to a barricade and I pray he stays out there for multiple segments.

Billie Kay tried to catch poor Liv Morgan and failed miserably.

Daniel Bryan Appears Live

Daniel Bryan was dressed like the SmackDown GM, not like the Royal Rumble favorite.

If WWE moves forward with a heel vs. heel match between Ziggler and Cesaro I’d be shocked.

Cesaro def. Dolph Ziggler

This match needed a Sami Zayn picture-in-picture camera. He has two cameramen right there, what’s the problem?

Tonight was a rough night for Michael Cole, who asked Daniel Bryan whether or not he has been in the Cesaro Swing. The answer was yes, since this literally happened seven days ago.

Sasha Banks def. Reginald

Reggie finally decided to wear socks and they were dedicated to the L.A. Lakers. Suddenly, I think I like him better without them.

Nobody loved Reggie’s athletic ability more than Corey Graves. Reginald is quickly becoming the odds-on-favorite to be the Best Man at the Corey-Carmella wedding.

This was closer to a Dancing with the Stars Duet than a wrestling match.

Apollo Crews def. Big E by DQ

Michael Cole made sure to remind the viewing audience that Big E and Apollo Crews were “longtime friends,” something that is not supported by WWE canon.

This marked the end of Sami Zayn’s handcuff strike as he disrupted the match with a Helluva Kick to Apollo Crews. Michael Cole called it Zayn ruining a perfectly good match, but really, he ruined a perfectly good gimmick.

Bianca Belair def. Bayley—Obstacle Course

Bayley surprisingly wore her old ring gear to complete this obstacle course competition.

Bianca Belair smoked this competition like you knew she would, Otis on her back and all.

Baron Corbin def. Dominik Mysterio

After yet another loss for the increasingly frustrated Dominik Mysterio, add Rey-Dominik to the growing list of tandems headed for a split. With the Royal Rumble around the corner, this split might happen sooner rather than later.

Paul Heyman vs. Adam Pearce

Turnabout was fair play in this one as Paul Heyman faked an injury only to leave Adam Pearce to face Roman Reigns as “Card is Subject to Change.”

When Kevin Owens crashed this match, a part of me became nervous that he was going to help Adam Pearce win this match. Thankfully, we didn’t see Pearce for the rest of the night once he was shelved in the virtual audience.