Friday's "WWE SmackDown" saw the competitors determined for Saturday Night's Main Event's WWE Championship number one contender's four-way next Saturday.
Following Drew McIntyre's capture of the WWE title from Cody Rhodes during "SmackDown" in Berlin, it was announced that a four-way would decide his first challenger at the Royal Rumble. To that effect, four matches were announced on Friday to establish qualifiers for the bout next weekend, pitting Randy Orton against The Miz, Trick Williams against Matt Cardona, Solo Sikoa against Damian Priest, and Sami Zayn against Ilja Dragunov.
Miz would hit two Skull Crushing Finales, the same move that won his first WWE Championship from Orton in 2011. But Orton ultimately caught Miz with the tried and true RKO to get the three-count. Williams then defeated Cardona with a single Trick Shot and pinfall in the middle of the ring, with Kit Wilson then attacking Cardona to rub further salt in the wound.
Solo Sikoa was on the way to victory thanks to the interference of the MFT, only for the lights to go out and the Wyatt Sicks appeared. That distraction allowed Priest to get the win with a South of Heaven chokeslam; Uncle Howdy then reclaimed the "Wyatt Family Lantern" before getting dropped by Talla Tonga, repossessing the lantern once more and escaping with Sikoa to leave that feud open moving forward.
In the main event, Zayn beat Dragunov to advance and avenge his United States Championship loss in October. Zayn didn't get to celebrate for long, however, with Williams emerging to attack him and standing tall to close the show.
