Everything Announced for WWE SmackDown’s New Year’s Day Episode

WWE will kick off the new year with the first episode of Friday Night SmackDown for 2021 this coming Friday. The Royal Rumble is still a month away, and other than the titular Men’s and Women’s Rumble matches nothing has been confirmed for the show as of yet. WWE made two announcements regarding the episode on Thursday. The first is that Universal Champion Roman Reigns will appear to make some sort of “special request” from WWE management, while the latter is a tag team match between Sasha Banks & Bianca Beliar vs. Carmella & Bayley.

Big E vs. King Corbin was previously announced for the show, along with Seth Rollins’ return to television following the birth of his first child with Becky Lynch. However, there’s no mention of the latter on WWE’s preview for the episode as of now.

Reigns successfully retained his title once again against Kevin Owens last week, this time with the aid of Jey Uso and a set of handcuffs. Daniel Bryan seemed to indicate he’d be next in line for “The Tribal Chief” during Talking Smack, but he had already announced himself for the Men’s Rumble match.

“If I win the Royal Rumble, that means that I will go to WrestleMania and face whoever’s the Universal Champion,” Bryan said. “And Paul, I don’t lay claim to being better than many people, at certain things. But I’ll tell you this – I’m a better fighter than Roman Reigns, and I sure as hell am a better wrestler than Roman Reigns. And if I win the Royal Rumble and face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, he’s still the champion, I will beat him for that championship. Here’s another thing. If he’s not champion, somewhere down the line I’m going to beat him anyways.”

Meanwhile, Paul Heyman seems to think the newly-crowned Intercontinental Champion Big E is on his way to challenging “Te Head of the Table.”

“I said to you two weeks ago you’re going to be a singles champion. I told you that’s where you needed to go. I told you Sami Zayn was a great step for you. And what did you do? You mowed him down, and you took the Intercontinental title away from Sami Zayn. And now, you’re going to learn, in your heart, just how much you love being a singles champion. And then you’re going to fall in love with it all over again to the point that you’re going to say, ‘That Intercontinental title is beautiful, wonderful. But it’s not the Universal title.’ That’s what you want. You want to be a WrestleMania main eventer, and you can be,” Heyman reassured Big E. “You want to be the Universal Champion. I understand you want that opportunity. Here’s how I look at it: Big E, you are a big box office. You’re a magnificent athlete, and you’re someone I would love to one day see in the ring with Roman Reigns.”