Wrestling Roundup: January 25, 2020

The Wrestling Roundup is here to bring you all the news and rumors you need to know in one place.

WWE SmackDown Results

It’s the Royal Rumble go-home show! Scheduled for SmackDown was a contract signing between Daniel Bryan and The Fiend. What other surprises would be in store? Here are the full results from Friday Night SmackDown:

• Roman Reigns & The Usos def. King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode
• Nikki Cross & Alexa Bliss vs Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose goes to a no contest when Bayley & Lacey Evans interfere
• Braun Strowman & Elias def. Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro
• John Morrison def. Big E

WWE SmackDown Takeaways

The contract signing segment was excellent. WWE continues to find ways to integrate the Firefly Funhouse into Wyatt’s storylines, and his appearance as The Fiend was genuinely haunting. He signed the contract in blood, which made for quite the visual. These two may have an even better match than their excellent 2014 Royal Rumble match.

WWE always loves to remind people how the Royal Rumble works. It’s a pretty simple concept, but WWE still felt the need to interrupt what could have been a good tag team match in order to “preview” the rumble. Even if it wasn’t ideal, the heat in the feud between Lacey Evans and Bayley has been great. 

Remember that Shinsuke Nakamura has the Intercontinental Championship? Did you realize he has the longest Intercontinental Championship reign since Cody Rhodes in 2011-2012? It has been a ridiculously uneventful reign, and it looks like Braun Strowman will be the one to end it.

NWA Hard Times Results

The NWA crowned it’s new Television Champion on Friday night at Hard Times. Who made it to the finals and captured the gold, and who won the other titles on the line Friday night. Here are the results:

• Trevor Murdoch def. The Question Mark (NWA TV Title Quarterfinal)
• Dan Maff def. Zicky Dice (NWA TV Title Quarterfinal)
• Ricky Starks def. Matt Cross (NWA TV Title Quarterfinal)
• Tim Storm def. Ken Anderson (NWA TV Title Quarterfinal)
• Eli Drake & James Storm def. Wildcards and Rock ‘N’ Roll Express (c) to win the NWA Tag Team Championships
• Thunder Rosa def. Allysin Kay (c) to win the NWA Women’s Championship
• Trevor Murdoch def. Dan Maff (NWA TV Title Semifinal)
• Ricky Starks def. Tim Storm (NWA TV Title Semifinal)
• Scott Steiner def. Aron Stevens (c) by disqualification in an NWA National Championship match
• Nick Aldis (c) def. Flip Gordon to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
• Ricky Starks def. Trevor Murdoch to win the NWA Television Championship

Coming in April! #CrockettCup

As first broken by @StuBennett on #NWAHardTimes pic.twitter.com/9HVbFOfWaV

— NWA (@nwa) January 25, 2020

NXT Worlds Collide Card

There is no TakeOver on Royal Rumble weekend, but NXT is still represented with Worlds Collide. NXT and NXT UK will battle it out for supremacy of the NXT moniker. Here’s what the card looks like for the show, which starts at 7 pm EST on Saturday:

• Undisputed Era vs Imperium
• Rhea Ripley (c) vs Toni Storm – NXT Championship Match
• Finn Balor vs Ilja Dragunov
• #DIY vs Moustache Mountain
• Angel Garza (c) vs Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs Jordan Devlin vs Travis Banks – NXT Cruiserweight Championship Match
• Mia Yim vs Kay Lee Ray

Royal Rumble Surprise Spoiler?

The Royal Rumble match is usually chock full of surprise entrants. This year, an old fan favorite may be one of them. According to PWInsider, Santino Marella will be in Houston for the Royal Rumble (h/t WrestlingWorld). Marella was once the final elimination in a Royal Rumble, being last eliminated by Alberto Del Rio in 2011. He also has the shortest time spent in the rumble match at one second in 2009.

One for the Road:

Let’s have a lot of 24/7 Championships going on at once.

I mean…. this ain't that bad an idea doh. #wwe #slobberknocker pic.twitter.com/0FldekPXB2

— James Anderson (@kjamz8371) January 25, 2020