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Credit: WWE.com
There is a new No. 1 contender for the Universal Championship after Friday’s WWE SmackDown, and his name is … Adam Pearce?
The WWE officer traded his ticket to the Royal Rumble and a date with Roman Reigns through his victory in a gauntlet fight, largely thanks to The Tribal Chief’s interference, and now he faces a very real and painful lesson, courtesy of the upper dog of the blue mark.
This result highlighted another superb broadcast of a program that prospered due to good writing and the best leap in the market.
Dive deeper into the evening’s events, as well as your other topics that deserve attention, with this recap of Friday’s SmackDown.
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Adam Pearce sealed his fate a week ago, when he went against the orders of universal champion Roman Reigns and reserved Jey Uso against Kevin Owens. On Friday night, he paid for his sins.
Reigns and Uso attacked Pearce in the final minutes of a gauntlet fight to determine The Tribal Chief’s leading candidate before placing his battered body in an unconscious Shinsuke Nakamura and ensuring that the WWE officer will face Reigns at the Royal Rumble on January 31. .
For Pearce, it is an opportunity to relive your days as an active competitor. He was once one of the most prominent independent fighters in the country, there is no denying that he can give up if pressed.
WWE fans have never had the opportunity to see what Scrap Iron is capable of doing between the strings. A former NWA world champion and principal Ring of Honor booker before his arrival at McMahonland, he is more than capable of defending himself.
The Reigns he will be confronted with on pay-per-view, however, are a beast totally unlike anything Pearce encountered on his travels.
More about the head of the table in a moment.
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For 312 days, The Street Profits reigned over WWE as tag team champions for Raw or SmackDown. Their race with the belts came to an end on Friday night, when Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode capitalized on a lame Montez Ford and used a spinebuster / Zig-Zag combo to win the titles.
While some may argue that veterans like Ziggler and Roode were not the right team to end the long Profit reign, he said the result sets Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford to chase the titles. It also creates the possibility of new confrontations, especially as Otis and Chad Gable continue to build their tandem into one that can fight.
Ziggler and Roode are an experienced team, have partnered before and are more than reliable enough to take the gold as officials find out which direction they want to take in the future.
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Shinsuke Nakamura carries so much credibility from his New Japan Pro-Wrestling days that he can win a No. 1 contender fight at any time and be played in a major pay-per-view event and people would agree.
Case in point, Friday’s Gauntlet Match to determine the top contender for the Roman Reigns Universal Championship.
Nakamura entered the fight in third and defeated Rey Mysterio, Daniel Bryan and, finally, King Corbin on his way to being screwed in his world title opportunity in some time by Reigns himself.
If there were fans in the crowd, Nakamura would almost certainly have been the biggest contender on Friday’s show. Not only does it have credibility, but also the respect of fans who know its past and have never understood or agreed to its use in WWE.
They would have stood solidly behind his unexpected run and despised Reigns for robbing him of a title shot.
Hopefully, his display is an indicator of better things for The Artist, who has not lived up to WWE expectations for a variety of reasons, but who suddenly has a clear path to a confrontation with Reigns in the next two months as a result of planted seeds by WWE Creative.
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Roman Reigns is the best thing about professional wrestling at the moment.
It’s a feeling you’ve heard on social media before, but Friday night was more proof of what made The Tribal Chief such an extraordinary and effective character.
He talked to a man who is, technically, his superior in Adam Pearce. He intimidated him and then used his star power to manipulate the main event of the gauntlet fight to make Pearce have to face him in a fight at the Royal Rumble.
He was intimidating and sarcastic, the kind of villain that everyone has met at least once in his life. He uses the power he has accumulated as the company’s main star, hides behind “family” as the reason for his abominable actions and hopes to have different standards because of his stardom.
He is skilled, intelligent, manipulative, inspiring.
Dangerous.
He’s the best heel WWE has produced since CM Punk’s Straight Edge Savior persona exploded on television in 2010.
It is no surprise that the blue brand was such a strong product with a leap in quality as the centerpiece of the show.