Smackdown Delivers Solid ‘Go Home’ Show Before the Royal Rumble

The go-home episode of SmackDown came to us live from the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, 24 hours out from the Royal Rumble event. The Rumble will take place in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the WWE will typically run events in the territory for which a “Premium Live Event” is scheduled—the Monday Night Raw after Saturday’s Rumble will take place in Tampa, Florida.

WWE has not utilized go-home shows as well as they have in the past, and tonight’s SmackDown was not very different from that trend. It wasn’t a bad episode, but it failed to amplify anything for tomorrow night’s Rumble. Perhaps upping the hype is too much to ask for, as WWE has done a terrific job of creating stakes for the Rumble and intertwining multiple storylines, making this one of the most anticipated Rumbles in recent times.

IS ROMAN’S REIGN IN TROUBLE?

All logic suggests that Roman Reigns walks in with the title on Saturday and leaves Tropicana Field with it following his fatal four-way match against AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and LA Knight. The overall arch of tonight’s SmackDown focused on furthering the WWE world title match and the disappointment Roman has had in his cousin Solo Sikoa.

Sikoa has been tasked with “fixing” a problem for the Bloodline, which is to say a problem Roman has with defending his title against three other men in a match that he does not have to get pinned to lose the title. Sikoa has been unable to “fix” the problem to Roman’s satisfaction, and an air of disappointment has surrounded the Bloodline’s enforcer.

Sikoa took on LA Knight in the main event of SmackDown, giving him one more chance to neutralize a Roman threat the night before he is set to defend the title. But an interesting moment occurred between Paul Heyman and Jimmy Uso before that match.

After giving clear orders to Sikoa to take out LA Knight without mercy, he turned to Jimmy and reminded him of his opportunity Saturday night. Heyman reminded Jimmy that a world title on the RAW brand is currently held by a one-legged champion—Seth Rollins.

That gives Jimmy a narrative heading into the Rumble that he desperately needed even to be considered a long shot to win it all.

The main event was decent enough, as LA Knight’s connection with the WWE Universe was interrupted by AJ Styles, who attacked LA Knight and caused the disqualification. Earlier in the night, Jimmy Uso got into Styles’ ear and reminded him that their goals aligned when it came to LA Knight, and it was proposed that Styles help the Bloodline take out Knight.

With a chair in hand, Styles was ordered to use it on Knight or face the consequences (Solo and Jimmy), but before he could decide, Randy Orton came out for the save. Orton’s motivation isn’t clear since Knight represents the same threat to him as he does to Roman, AJ, and Knight.

Orton stood tall just before SmackDown went off the air, but LA Knight would then attack Orton just before the credits hit, leaving him with the momentum heading into the fatal four-way and getting over the oldest adage related to the Rumble: every man for themselves.

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE (ROYALLY)

An often-underutilized aspect of Rumble storytelling is the drawing of numbers. In the past, WWE has used the drawing of numbers to further the complexity of the 30-man over-the-top-rope match. For example, drawing #1 or #2 means that a wrestler is at a disadvantage compared to someone who draws #30. But the WWE has ignored those factors in past Rumbles.

On SmackDown, we got several wrestlers drawing their entrance number in backstage segments with subtle facial expressions that suggest their displeasure or excitement with their draw.

For example, Bayley drew her number following her faction’s win over Katana Chance and Kayden Carte for the WWE women’s tag team title. She entered the room shortly after Bianca Belair drew her number, which she seemed satisfied with, but by comparison, Bayley did not look happy with the number she drew—indicating she could enter at the workhorse spot of #1 or #2.

Bobby Lashley drew his number earlier in the night with the Street Profits by his side. Lashley had a big smile on his face before showing the Street Profits his number, which they congratulated him for, signaling a possible late entry for “The Almighty.”

I love the little details the WWE is putting into the Royal Rumble storytelling, and with so many different plots and sub-plots, it is truly anyone’s guess as to who will be the last man standing this Saturday.

Mario Mungia

Mario Mungia Jr. has a decade worth of experience as a combat sports journalist and correspondent which began with ThaBoxingVoice (TBV) as a podcast co-host, writer and editor-in-chief. Aside from his online resume, Mario spent a fair portion of his early career working for Spanish/English magazine Premier Round and the Mexican website Izquierdo. Mario has also contributed to NYFights while simultaneously working for MIC Sports Network as part of the broadcast crew covering local high school sports. Since then, he has launched his own podcast/live stream (Infighting/Work In Progress) and is covering pro wrestling for FightsATW.

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