Adam Pearce is scheduled to take on Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble
This week’s WWE SmackDown took everyone by surprise after Adam Pearce won a gauntlet match to take on Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble.
Earlier in the episode, Pearce announced that a gauntlet match will be the episode’s main event, with the winner getting a title shot at Reigns’ belt in 3 weeks’ time. Reigns did not like it at all.
After some string-pulling by his manager Paul Heyman, Pearce was added to the gauntlet match. He was the last one to enter with Shinsuke Nakamura awaiting him in the ring.
The Japanese had eliminated Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, and King Corbin. The only wrestler separating him from a shot at the WWE Universal title was a guy who hadn’t fought in the ring since 2014.
It was not to be, as Reigns and Jey Uso attacked both of them and put Pearce’s body over Nakamura to hand the American a win by pinfall. This confirmed Pearce as the Tribal Chief’s opponent at Royal Rumble.
The 42-year-old has now posted a video of his NWA World heavyweight championship match against Brent Albrighton in 2008.
He captioned it by saying that he isn’t in prime, but he didn’t ask to be put in the match against The Big Dog. Adding to that, he says that he lost the NWA title match but he learnt a lot from it.
He also wants people to “sleep on him” before his title fight with Reigns. Pearce wants to bill himself as the underdog here and wants people, especially Reigns, to underestimate him.
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