Roman Reigns To Defend Undisputed WWE Title In Fatal Four-Way Match At Royal Rumble

As the triple threat match to determine Roman Reigns' challenger for the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship at Royal Rumble on tonight's "WWE SmackDown" wore on, all of LA Knight, Randy Orton, and AJ Styles had chances to win — until The Bloodline decided that nobody would. From there, "SmackDown" General Manager Nick Aldis took action, setting the stage for a wild scene in St. Petersburg in a few weeks.

With Knight bloodied on the outside, Styles went for a Phenomenal Forearm on Orton, only to get it countered by an RKO out of (relatively) nowhere. As Orton went for the win, Knight came to enough to pull referee Charles Robinson out of the ring, negating the pin attempt, and as all three started to get their bearings and regroup, Reigns' music hit, and out came "The Tribal Chief" alongside Paul Heyman, Solo Sikoa, and Jimmy Uso. Ordering his minions to attack the challengers, Reigns would eventually join the fray, with the trio doing all of its damage right there in front of Aldis, who made his way over to Heyman with a message.

"When [Reigns is] done celebrating," Aldis said, "tell him congratulations. Cause he's just earned himself a fatal four-way match with all three of these guys at the Royal Rumble."

The added drama of a fatal four-way match begins and ends with the fact that the champion doesn't even need to be pinned to lose his title. And with The Rock looming, following his "Raw" appearance, the intrigue surrounding WWE's next PLE just reached a whole new level.