WWE will kick off 2022 with its first-ever New Year’s Day pay-per-view, dubbed Day 1. The show will take place inside Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, and as of now four matches have been confirmed — two world championship matches, including another Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar bout, the return of The Usos and New Day rivalry over the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and an unlikely grudge match pitting Edge against The Miz.
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Over the weekend, BetOnline released its initial betting lines for all four matches, expecting the three champions to all retain and “The Rated-R Superstar” to pick up a win over “The A-Lister.” The betting lines read as follows:
- WWE Univeral Championship: Roman Reigns (-250) vs. Brock Lesnar (+170)
- WWE Championship: Big E (-200) vs. Kevin Owens (+600) vs. Seth Rollins (+200)
- SmackDown Tag Team Championships: The Usos (-250) vs. The New Day (+170)
- Edge (-700) vs. The Miz (+400)
None of the lines should come as a real surprise. Reigns has consistently walked into every championship match as the odds-on favorite and multiple reports have stated he and Lesnar will meet again at WrestleMania 38 in April, while E’s WWE Championship reign is still fresh and Owens (whose contract expires in January) was seemingly added to the match so that neither E nor Rollins would have to take a pinfall. The biggest potential upset of the four could be Edge vs. The Miz, simply because Edge winning the first match wouldn’t necessitate the need for a rematch.
The next goal for Roman Reigns is clear, and that is to be better tomorrow than he is today,” Paul Heyman said in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated regarding Reigns’ dominant run as Universal Champion. “His goal is to be better in two weeks than he is next week, to make next week’s SmackDown better than this week, and to make the SmackDown that airs in three weeks better than it is in two weeks. Roman Reigns continues to set a pace and achieve levels that no one in WWE has ever or will ever achieve. The world has the privilege and joy of watching it unfold every Friday on SmackDown.”
