WWE SmackDown Spoilers: Complete Results and Analysis for January 31

WWE has plenty of momentum as it rolls into Toledo, Ohio for Friday Night SmackDown.

The Royal Rumble was great. The sight of Dave Batista pointing to the WrestleMania XXX sign, with pyro exploding in celebration of his win while 15,000 fans booed him, was almost worth Daniel Bryan not being in the match.

Almost. But there’s hope for the bearded one in the form of the Elimination Chamber.

Raw was an interesting show indeed, partially because of the above reason and also because of Brock Lesnar's angle with Batista and Randy Orton.

But we know Lesnar is too cool for SmackDown, but in his place, we’ll get the return of Christian plus a few really exciting sounding matches.

The following are full spoilers for the January 31 edition of Friday Night SmackDown (courtesy of WrestlingInc.com's Marc Middleton).

Quick Results

• The Shield open SmackDown with a promo. They tease an implosion, but Seth Rollins calms everyone down, and the three then talk about how they’re going to wipe out The Wyatt Family. Vickie Guerrero and Triple H come out, and The Shield vs. The Wyatts is announced for Elimination Chamber.
• Antonio Cesaro defeats Dolph Ziggler in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match.
• Fandango beat Xavier Woods.
• The Prime Time Players are defeated by Ryback and Curtis Axel. After the match, Titus O’Neil walks out on Darren Young. The two have an exchange on the microphone, with Titus saying he wants to be WWE Champion, but Young is holding him back. He then comes to the ring and beats down Young.
• Christian returns and qualifies for the Elimination Chamber by pinning Jack Swagger.
• Kofi Kingston beats Damien Sandow with an SOS.
• Renee Young interviews Christian backstage; he says he’s desperate to become champion.
• Road Dogg was defeated by Cody Rhodes following a Disaster Kick. After the match, Goldust and Billy Gunn enter the ring, and the two teams brawl.
• The Shield comes out but before their match The Wyatt Family appears on screen and cuts a promo—Luke Harper reportedly actually spoke (!). The Shield get a win over Daniel Bryan, Sheamus and Rey Mysterio after Rey gets hit by a spear and pinned by Roman Reigns.

One More Match!

WWE.com

The highlight of this week’s show looks to be the return of Christian, who defeats Jack Swagger to qualify for the Elimination Chamber match.

He tells Renee Young backstage that he’s going to be champion, but we all know that his chances of winning the Chamber match lie somewhere between "extraordinarily unlikely" and "scientifically unfathomable."

Still, seeing Captain Charisma back will be great; let’s just hope he can manage to get through WrestleMania season without sustaining an injury.

The ‘Mania card is completely unannounced so far but looks to be absolutely stacked with huge stars, so it’s hard to think where Christian will fit in.

Hopefully, the criminally underrated star will get an opportunity to show off just how good he is.

And speaking of showing off, Dolph Ziggler’s match with Antonio Cesaro, if given enough time, should be a must-watch.

Return of the Six Man!

WWE.com

For the last few weeks, my world has been in shock.

It seemed like a Shield six-man tag closing SmackDown was as constant as time and space, but for a few weeks, it hasn't happened.

Well, it’s back, as The Shield takes on and defeats the super babyface team of Daniel Bryan, Sheamus and Rey Mysterio.

The Hounds of Justice's victory is a little surprising—we know how much officials/Triple H loves Sheamus, and Daniel Bryan is as popular as, well, you know.

You’d think WWE would like to protect those stars, and to a certain extent, they did with Rey taking the fall.

But you can probably gather from this that the WWE is more serious about pushing Roman Reigns than Daniel Bryan.

Reign’s is a beast and has mega-potential, but that sentence is still a little disappointing to write.

Prime Time Breakup 

WWE.com

Despite their mostly untapped potential as a babyface tag team, the Prime Time Players will arbitrarily break up this Friday.

From the sounds of things, it foreshadows a push for Titus O’Neil, the bigger and more aesthetic of the pair.

The problem with this is timing; midcard acts usually don’t get the time or attention they deserve at the best of times, especially during WrestleMania season.

This could be a nice feud, but it’s unlikely to get an opportunity to mean much.

Still, it’ll be interesting to see—firstly, where this leaves Darren Young, and secondly, how long it will take for officials to bore of Titus O’Neil.

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Follow Daniel on Twitter @dvanboom