The Road to WrestleMania is about to be wide open this Sunday with the Royal Rumble taking place, but before we start down that path, there was one more edition of SmackDown Live to get through on Tuesday night. We use "get through" because, to say the least, the blue brand hasn't been putting out some stellar efforts recently. 

So, with one Tuesday night showing left until the Royal Rumble, did the SmackDown Live crew garner some more interest heading into one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year?

The short answer here is: not really. This was your typical Royal Rumble go-home show, this time just setting the stage for not one but two Rumble matches this year. There was also more Daniel Bryan-Shane McMahon insertion that was more eye-rolling than anything as their never-ending slow-burn feud continues, as well as WWE pulling out the trick of giving away portions of a PPV main event days before it's set to take place. 

AJ Styles faces Owens and Zayn ... five days early?

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn made their way out to begin the Royal Rumble go-home edition of SmackDown Live, with the best friends both proclaiming their intention to become co-WWE champions on Sunday night by defeating AJ Styles. Both Owens and Zayn took their verbal shots at Styles, with Zayn professing the pain they're going to cause Styles after they take his title on Sunday -- and this brought out the champion. 

Styles came out to fire back at his Royal Rumble championship match opponents, only to have them show footage on the titantron of Styles acting confident by reminding everyone that he was the one who asked for this match in the first place -- a segment that took place three weeks ago -- and he also proclaimed two weeks ago that he could beat them both in one night. This prompted Owens to suggest Styles wrestle both he and Zayn back-to-back Tuesday night, and this suggestion was put into motion for later in the night by SmackDown general manager Bryan. 

After commercial, we got a backstage segment with Bryan and Shane where the commissioner of the show expressed his disappointment with Bryan for putting the WWE champion in two matches Tuesday night, just five days before the Royal Rumble. 

Prior to the first of the two bouts -- Styles vs. Owens -- Shane McMahon made his way out and stated that should either KO or Zayn interfere in each other's matches with the champion, they will be fired on the spot. 

The first of the two matches didn't last long whatsoever, as in just a few minutes Styles locked on the Calf Crusher and Owens started tapping the mat relentlessly. Sort of a shocker there, making Owens look so weak five days before the Rumble, but there was a larger meaning here. 

Immediately, Zayn then hit the ring to attack the WWE champion to get the early upper hand in the second of the two matches while Owens limped around the ringside. Having gotten the jump on Styles right after the match with Owens, Zayn was in control for most of this one, with Styles getting some offense in spurts. While the match was happening, though, they kept panning to Owens on the outside, who was being attended to by medical staff as he laid on a gurney. 

Styles' hatred of Owens would end up being his downfall, however, as he left the ring to dump KO off the stretcher. That turned out to be a terrible idea -- because of course -- as when he hit the ring to resume the match, Zayn nailed the champ with a Helluva Kick, followed by a Blue Thunder Bomb for the win. Zayn and Owens stood tall over Styles to end the Royal Rumble go-home episode. 

Obviously, the real story here is that Zayn actually won a match with the Blue Thunder Bomb. 

OK, so the obvious narrative here is that Styles is his own worst enemy. They drove this point home in the opening segment -- which ran unnecessarily long and dragged out -- when Owens and Zayn reminded him he got himself into the handicap match predicament at the Royal Rumble and, of course, with the champ's actions against KO on the outside cost him the second match of the back-to-back. 

This entire Bryan-Shane-Owens-Sami-Styles shtick has just lost everyone, for the most part, and hopefully SmackDown can do sort of a hard rest on all of this after Sunday -- presumably after Styles overcomes the odds and retains his title after he's been made out to look like the buffoon in recent weeks. 

What else happened on SmackDown?

  • Chad Gable def. Jey Uso via pinfall: Gable got the clean win after hitting one of his signature rolling German suplexes. Now, Gable and Shelton Benjamin set their sights on taking the tag team titles from the Usos on Sunday in Philadelphia in what should be one of the better bouts on the Rumble card. 
  • Naomi def. Liv Morgan via pinfall: Naomi took this one after a sunset flip -- which is something you don't see every day -- but that wasn't the story here. Aside from the Riott Squad at ringside with Morgan, Becky Lynch, Carmella and Natalya made their way down during the match as well. To further hype up the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match coming up this Sunday, the women started tossing each other over the rope. This brought out the women's champion, Charlotte, who lectured them all about the every-woman-for-herself aspect and what lies ahead with her as the champ. It was a bit of a heelish promo -- which is good because heel Charlotte is the best Charlotte. 
  • Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin ended in a no contest when last year's Royal Rumble winner, Randy Orton, appeared literally out of nowhere to flatten both Nakamura and Corbin with RKOs. This match was set up earlier in the show when Corbin interrupted a backstage interview with Nakamura, but it was Orton who ended up standing tall ahead of the Rumble match on Sunday. 
  • Bobby Roode & The New Day def. Jinder Mahal, Rusev & Aiden English: The new United States champion and The New Day got the win after Xavier Woods landed the elbow from the top on English. It appears they're going to continue with Roode and Mahal down the road for the time being as it pertains to the U.S. title.