Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn Challenge AJ Styles
QUESTION: Does #SDLive‘s @AJStylesOrg think @SamiZayn and @FightOwensFight will take his #WWETitle at #RoyalRumble?
ANSWER: pic.twitter.com/qd2SLfxWPy
— WWE (@WWE) January 24, 2018
Best friends Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn walked/skanked their way down to the ring to cut another great promo. Owens immediately went for the throat: making fun of all of the legends that appeared on Raw 25 last night. They the two discussed their upcoming 2-on-1 matchup against AJ Styles, saying that he has no chance of beating them on Sunday, mixing in plenty of “yeps,” which eventually incensed Styles enough that he came to the stage to give his rebuttal.
AJ was still trying to make “Kami” and “Nope” happen, but the crowd wasn’t quite buying it. He went back and forth in an argument with Owens and Zayn about who is the very best, like no one ever was.
Owens and Zayn challenged him to a match against each of them back to back later in the evening, at which point Daniel Bryan appeared. He told AJ he believed in him, but Styles wasn’t having it. Styles said he didn’t need any help, he could easily take them on, and agreed to the matches.
Daniel Bryan / Shane McMahon Backstage
“Are you questioning if @AJStylesOrg has the ability to defend himself tonight?” – #SDLive General Manager @WWEDanielBryan
“No, Daniel, that’s not whose ability I’m questioning.” – #SDLive Commissioner @ShaneMcMahon
? ? ? pic.twitter.com/Xoxa87KqBS
— WWE (@WWE) January 24, 2018
Daniel Bryan walked backstage to discuss his recent interaction with Styles and Kami with Shane McMahon. As usual, the awkward tension between them got in the way. At this point I just want one of them to say, “punch me or kiss me” Brock Lesnar style.
Jey Uso vs. Chad Gable
… and just like that, @WWEGable pins one-half of the #SDLive #TagTeamChampions, #JeyUso! @WWEUsos pic.twitter.com/Sj7dvSGsro
— WWE (@WWE) January 24, 2018
Jey, along with his twin Jimmy, made their way to the ring for Jey to take on Chad Gable.
The Usos have been super hot lately, and their feud with Gable and Benjamin has been building over the last few weeks. I’m here for it, personally, because all four guys can go in the ring. This match was pretty violent from the start with several ring post/floor spots.
Gable was surprisingly dominant through the entire match. He was thrown from the ring at one point and took a dive from Jey Uso, but recuperated quickly and took Jey down with a bridging German suplex.
Winner: Chad Gable
Naomi vs. Liv Morgan
Who said anything about FRIENDS in the #RoyalRumble Match? #RumbleForAll #SDLive @NaomiWWE @BeckyLynchWWE pic.twitter.com/22LjvvzAtj
— WWE (@WWE) January 24, 2018
Naomi and Liv Morgan had a short match, with quite a bit of offense from Liv Morgan. She even got a near fall, but Naomi got the pin in the end.
While the match was taking place, several women in the rumble this weekend came out to ringside and got physical the moment the match was over.
The SmackDown Women’s Champion, Charlotte, interrupted the action by coming to the stage to announce that she will remain the champ, regardless of who wins the rumble on Sunday.
Winner: Naomi
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin
OUTTA. NOWHERE!#RKOOuttaNowhere #SDLive @RandyOrton @ShinsukeN @BaronCorbinWWE pic.twitter.com/8w0HRoe1Xb
— WWE (@WWE) January 24, 2018
Watching these guys wrestle is a little strange because Nakamura is about 1000x more athletic than Corbin, so it kind of looked like he was doing gymnastics around a statue. After a few short minutes, Corbin was apparently tired of the match and tried to leave, but Nakamura followed him, leading to Nakamura being thrown into the side of the ring.
Corbin beat Nakamura down a bit but lost control of the match when Nakamura rocked him with several kicks and knees. Nakamura tried to hit the Kinshasa but was countered and thrown down by Corbin. It really is impressive, even when Nakamura is getting tossed around, he looks graceful as hell.
Just as we all thought Nakamura was about to come back and win the match, Randy Orton appeared and gave both competitors RKOs out of nowhere.
Winner: Randy Orton (sort of)
The New Day and Bobby Roode vs. Rusev, Aiden English, and Jinder Mahal
10+ years in @WWE, and @TrueKofi‘s STILL GOT IT! #SDLive pic.twitter.com/K9qTUmqhWr
— WWE (@WWE) January 24, 2018
The New Day walked to the ring all pancakes and pelvic thrusts. On their way down, they announced their entrance in the Royal Rumble match. They then introduced Bobby Roode, who joined them in the ring in glorious fashion. After a playful couple of minutes with The New Day, the heels made their way down the ramp.
The 6-man tag was over quickly, but it had a few fun spots. It felt like it was meant more as a “hey guys, Bobby Roode is neat” than anything else, but New Day, Rusev, and Bobby Roode all on screen at once was pretty cool.
Winner: The New Day and Bobby Roode
AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens
.@FightOwensFights TAPS to @AJStylesOrg‘s #CalfCrusher, but The #PhenomenalOne is not letting go!
Up next, a one-on-one match with @SamiZayn! #SDLive pic.twitter.com/ztBe0CBM74
— WWE (@WWE) January 24, 2018
As Kevin and Sami were walking to the ring, Shane O’Mac came out to tell them that if either of them interfered with the other’s match, they would be fired on the spot. Then mocked them with a “yep” of his own.
Styles started off strong, drop kicking Owens in the face. Owens suffered a “leg injury” very early in the match which AJ took advantage of, making Owens tap to a Calf Crusher.
Winner: AJ Styles
AJ Styles vs. Sami Zayn
YEP! @SamiZayn ALWAYS has his best friend’s back! #SDLive @AJStylesOrg @FightOwensFight pic.twitter.com/57l2fqtxtP
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) January 24, 2018
Before the match with Styles had officially begun, Zayn jumped in the ring and punched him in the face, getting revenge for inflicting injury on his best friend. Although Kevin was still in the ring, since AJ’s match with Owens was technically over, he wasn’t breaking Shane’s rules by doing so. Zayn got extremely violent with Styles, severely weakening him before the bell ever rang.
Sami Zayn put the smackdown on Styles while a stretcher was brought out for Kevin Owens. After a few minutes of throwing little more than a punch, AJ finally dealt some payback. Once he was done with Zayn, he threw a few jabs at Owens who was still lying on the floor in pain.
Zayn, of course, couldn’t let that slide and continued to pound on Styles. Styles seemed to have a little more life in him at this point and fought back a little more than he was before. After a few successful big moves, he tried for a Styles Clash, but couldn’t pull it off.
Some more back and forth between the two and Styles had to get one more blow to Owens in, shoving the stretcher over with Owens on top of it. This distraction cost him the match, however, as Sami Zayn pinned him clean after a Blue Thunder Bomb.
This match. Was. Awesome.
Winner: Sami Zayn
What letter grade would you give tonight’s show? #SDLive
— Rumble Ramble (@TheRumbleRamble) January 24, 2018
