{"id":415041,"date":"2026-01-17T09:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/415041\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T09:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:42:07","slug":"sami-zayn-trick-williams-are-one-step-closer-to-being-the-next-wwe-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/415041\/","title":{"rendered":"Sami Zayn &#038; Trick Williams are one step closer to being the next WWE champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">WWE recently announced that next weekend\u2019s (Jan. 24) episode of Saturday Night\u2019s Main Event in Montreal will feature a Fatal 4-Way match to determine the number one contender for the WWE championship at Royal Rumble, which takes place on Jan. 31 in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Tonight\u2019s (Jan. 16) episode of SmackDown in London featured four qualifying matches to see which wrestlers will compete in the 4-way at SNME.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">First up was The Miz vs. Randy Orton. The Miz has tiny balls and needs every unfair advantage he can get on The Viper, so he ambushed Orton with a Skull Crushing Finale before the match officially began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">That move at least put the A-Lister in position to have a competitive match with Randy, but it was just a matter of time until the bout ended with an Orton win via RKO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Next up was Trick Williams vs. Matt Cardona. Trick beat the former Zack Ryder clean in the middle of the ring with the Trick Shot to advance to SNME.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Solo Sikoa went one-on-one with Damian Priest in the third qualifying match. Solo thought he had the whole world in his hands after stealing the Wyatt Sicks lantern last week, but Uncle Howdy paid him back here with a lights out distraction late in the bout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Wyatts showed up to run off the MFTs and try to get their lantern back. Solo took a few seconds to secure the lantern, but that delay gave Priest the opening he needed to hit his finisher and advance to Montreal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The final qualifier was Sami Zayn vs. Ilja Dragunov in the main event match. There\u2019s an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cagesideseats.com\/wwe\/411202\/wwe-smackdown-preview-jan-16-2026-london-wwe-title-tournament-zayn-favorite-leon-slater-fatu\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">obvious argument<\/a> for why Sami is the favorite to become the number one contender, and he took that first step in this match by defeating the Mad Dragon with the Helluva Kick. However, Zayn was laid out with a Trick Shot to end the broadcast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Based on these results, it will now be Randy Orton vs. Trick Williams vs. Damian Priest vs. Sami Zayn in a Fatal 4-Way match next weekend at Saturday Night\u2019s Main Event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Were you surprised by any of tonight\u2019s winners? Which of these four men will also win at SNME in Montreal and challenge WWE Champion Drew McIntyre at Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia? Give me your predictions in the comments below, Cagesiders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Catch up on all the results from SmackDown in our live blog right <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cagesideseats.com\/wwe\/411257\/wwe-smackdown-results-live-discussion-jan-16-2026-qualifiers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WWE recently announced that next weekend\u2019s (Jan. 24) episode of Saturday Night\u2019s Main Event in Montreal will feature&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,109215,13015,174429,38036],"class_list":["post-415041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-saturday-nights-main-event","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-royal-rumble","tag-wwe-smackdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}