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Full Spoilers for Next Week’s WWE Smackdown on Jan. 1 (New Year’s Day), Big Match Added to Royal Rumble

By John Canton • Published 30th December 2018
TJR Wrestling

There was a WWE Smackdown Live and 205 Live taping tonight at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. Smackdown will air on Tuesday night, which is New Year’s Day on January 1 while 205 Live will air on Wednesday, January 2. Here the spoilers courtesy of WrestlingInc and PWInsider along with some tweets from people at the event.

205 Live Spoilers

Kalisto defeated Lio Rush
Kalisto won with a Salida del Sol. This was a Royal Rumble WWE Cruiserweight Title Fatal 4 Way qualifying match.

Akira Tozawa defeated Drew Gulak
This was a Royal Rumble WWE Cruiserweight Title Fatal 4 Way qualifying match.

Smackdown Live Spoilers

The New Day started the show with a New Year celebration. The trio of Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods announced that all three of them will be in the Royal Rumble match on January 27.

Samoa Joe defeated Jeff Hardy by submission
With the win, Joe moved on to the show’s main event, which was a Fatal 5-Way for a shot at the WWE Title at the Royal Rumble. The others in the match are Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, AJ Styles and Mustafa Ali.

There was a backstage segment with AJ Styles, Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon. AJ tells Vince he will see the real AJ Styles tonight. AJ then threatens Vince, causing an intense stand-off between Shane and AJ. Shane asks Vince if he really wants to see the real AJ Styles, and Vince laughs, then replies that he does.

The new US Champion Rusev had a championship celebration with his wife Lana. Shinsuke Nakamura attacks from behind and Lana jumps on his back. Nakamura superkicks Rusev and injures Lana in the process. Nakamura then hits Rusev with a Kinshasa. Nakamura leaves while Rusev and Lana are laid out in the ring.

Sonya Deville defeated Naomi
It looked like Naomi was wrestling Mandy Rose, but Mandy backed out. The match started when Rose distracted Naomi and Deville hit her from behind. Deville later won with a Spinebuster. Rose distracted Naomi by showing a photo of herself on the big screen, saying she sent it to Naomi’s husband Jimmy Uso earlier. It was a photo of Rose wearing just a towel. Here is that photo.

There were promos from Randy Orton and Mustafa Ali talking about the main event.

John Cena comes to the ring for a promo. Cena issues an open challenge, but Becky Lynch interrupts and tells him that she’s the new man around WWE, and she’s taking his place. Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega interrupt. Vega talks trash to Becky and Cena. Cena challenges Vega and Almas to a tag team match, and they accept. During the promo, Becky noted that Nikki (Bella) won’t be the only woman to drop Cena this year. By that she meant, she would kick his ass. You can see that line of the promo below.

Becky Lynch and John Cena defeated Zelina Vega and Andrade “Cien” Almas
Cena hit his signature moves on Almas, but Becky tossed Cena out of the ring and made Vega submit to the Dis-Arm-Her for the win.

There was a backstage segment with Shane McMahon and The Miz talking about how they should dress for their tag team matches with Miz saying he wanted Shane to dress like him.

Backstage, the trio Carmella, Becky and Charlotte make their case for a Women’s Title shot against Asuka. Triple H will make a decision as to who will challenge Asuka for the Smackdown Women’s title “later on.”

AJ Styles defeated Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, Mustafa Ali, Samoa Joe
Styles pinned Orton in what was described as a very good match that got a lot of time. AJ pinned Orton after a 619 from Mysterio that saw Joe grab Rey before he could get the pin and sending him to the outside of the ring. AJ hit a springboard 450 splash for the pin on Orton to win the match.

The win by Styles means he will challenge Daniel Bryan for the WWE Title at the Royal Rumble on January 27.

Here’s the updated Royal Rumble lineup on January 27.

30 Man Royal Rumble for Wrestlemania 35 WWE or Universal Title Match (Confirmed entrants: Drew McIntyre, R-Truth at #30, New Day’s Xavier Woods, Big E and Kofi Kingston)

30 Woman Royal Rumble for Wrestlemania 35 Raw or SD Women’s Title Match (Confirmed entrants: Carmella as #30, Natalya)

WWE Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman

WWE Championship: Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Buddy Murphy vs. Tozawa vs. Kalisto vs. fourth competitor TBA

That’s all for now.