WWE SmackDown New Years Revolution 2024 Predictions: Randy Orton Will Acknowledge Roman Reigns

WWE SmackDown New Year's Revolution is continuing its road to WWE Royal Rumble 2024, which is shaping up with some top candidates like CM Punk and Bayley to be potential Rumble winners this year. On this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown, four matches are officially scheduled: (1) Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles vs. LA Knight in a World Title Number One Contender's Match, (2) Iyo Sky (c) vs. Mia Yim for the World Title, (3) Kevin Owens vs. Santos Escobar in the U.S. Title #1C Tournament Finals, and (4) Peter Dunne and Mystery Tag Partner vs. Pretty Deadly in a Tag Team Match.

In other news regarding WWE SmackDown, Damage Control is still shaky, especially when about Bayley, who could be kicked out of the group soon. Kabuki Warriors have some beef with Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn after being attacked by them during their holiday match last week. Also, Charlotte Flair unexpectedly picked up an ACL injury during her match with Asuka a few weeks ago. This will keep her out of action for around 8 months, thereby ruining her plans to be on the WrestleMania 40 card this year, as she was rumored to battle Bianca Belair on the Show of Shows.

With that being said, the following will focus on the four announced matches for WWE SmackDown and the idea of Randy Orton acknowledging Roman Reigns on the road to WWE Royal Rumble 2024.

Peter Dunne & Mystery Tag Partner vs. Pretty Deadly [Mystery Tag Match]

Peter Dunne and his mystery tag partner, Tyler Bate, will defeat Pretty Deadly because Bate has been rumored as a potential NXT Call Up and WWE would not tease a mystery partner if that team was not going to win. Bate has a ton of history with Dunne in NXT UK, so this new team should work perfectly from a storyline perspective. Dunne can finally get his revenge on Pretty Deadly for all of the prior backstage attacks when Ridge Holland left him high and dry. This should solidify the culmination of Butch with the Brawling Brutes and the start of something new for Peter Dunne in 2024.

Prediction: Peter Dunne & Tyler Bate

Kevin Owens vs. Santos Escobar [U.S. Title Tournament #1C Finals]

Kevin Owens will defeat Santos Escobar in the U.S. Title Tournament #1C Finals to battle Logan Paul at the Royal Rumble. Although Escobar has a compelling story for the U.S. Title and now has backup in Los Lotharios, Owens is the only babyface here who already teased a future match-up with the heel, Logan Paul, before this tournament began. Los Lotharios were effective in helping Escobar defeat Lashley, but Rey Mysterio and Carlito are expected to be back on TV soon and they will be the vengeful equalizer here to stop Los Lotharios from costing KO the match.

Prediction: Kevin Owens

Iyo Sky (c) vs. Mia Yim [World Title]

Iyo Sky will retain the World Title against Mia Yim because she is not losing her world title on weekly television, especially after her epic cash-in at SummerSlam and compelling storyline with Damage Control as of late. She will lose it on PPV. It was initially puzzling why Mia Yim pinned the champion, Iyo Sky, clean in their 8-women holiday tag match last week. The champion should not be pinned on live television in any capacity. Bayley could have easily taken the pinfall there. However, it seems WWE ill-advisedly used that shocking pinfall as a means to set up a world title match for this episode.

Prediction: Iyo Sky

Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles vs. LA Knight [World Title #1C Match]

Randy Orton will defeat AJ Styles and LA Knight to become the official number one contender for Roman Reigns' WWE Universal Title at the Royal Rumble because he returned after 1 year and 6 months with a mission to get his revenge on The Bloodline after they heinously attacked him in May 2022. Admittedly so, AJ Styles has a similar story and revenge plan against The Bloodline, but he awkwardly refocused some of his anger on LA Knight. LA Knight already got a world title shot against Reigns, so he can instead focus on his new feud with Styles whilst Orton focuses on Reigns.

Prediction: Randy Orton

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