John Cena will team up with Kevin Owens (Picture: WWE)

John Cena made an unadvertised appearance on WWE SmackDown to set up a blockbuster match, ending 2022 with a bang.

After plenty of hype from The Bloodline, Friday night’s show ended in a huge way as the Hollywood megastar made a shock return two weeks early and revealed some major plans for January 30.

As already announced, Cena is making his WWE return for the last show of the year – and now we know he’ll be in action teaming with Kevin Owens against Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns.

The Bloodline closed the show with a lot of buzz as Zayn appeared in a sharp suit with a tidy beard and topknot with plenty of speculation about him becoming a fully fledged member of the Tribal Chief’s group.

However, there was a big twist as Reigns chatted about his family’s Kevin Owens problem, stemming from his long history with the Honorary Uce.

As revealed earlier in the night, KO and a partner of his choosing will face Zayn and Reigns on January 30, and it didn’t take long for the Prizefighter to find an ally.

Cena appeared on the titan tron to interrupt The Bloodline and revealed he’ll be Owens’ partner, keeping his own record alive by wrestling a match every year since his debut in 2002.

‘I haven’t had a match in 2022 and we’re running out of chances,’ he teased, before mocking Reigns and his crew as the show went off the air.

Uncle Howdy appears, Xia Li attacks Tegan Nox and more

The first match of the night saw Damage CTRL’s Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai escape with the Women’s Tag Team Titles, but the champions had some help.

A mysterious masked figure appeared and booted Tegan Nox in the head, costing her and Liv Morgan a shot at the gold in what had been a very entertaining clash.

Later in the night, WWE revealed the attacker to be none other than Xia Li, which isn’t the surprise some fans were hoping for but does give the star a much needed direction.

Later, LA Knight came out to target Bray Wyatt, complaining about being abducted and attacked lately before Wyatt came out to confront his foe, insisting he has never laid a hand on Knight and claiming his rival has been ‘barking up the wrong tree’.

He gave Knight a chance to ‘deliver his message’, and the former NXT star went straight on the attack, only to be cut off by a sinister warning from Uncle Howdy.

Things went from bad to worse as Howdy himself appeared live for the first time, showing he’s far more than just a figment of Wyatt’s imagination.

After plenty of hype, including a fantastic video promo from Ricochet, the One And Only was so close to becoming Intercontinental Champion.

GUNTHER – fighting without his Imperium teammates at ringside – was in the fight of his life against Ricochet as the World Cup winner got a shot at the gold and delivered in a big way.

He came up short with the Ring General finally hitting the Last Symphony for the win, before Braun Strowman came out to save Ricochet from an attempted attack from GUNTHER, Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser.

In an excellent Triple Threat Match, Hit Row earned themselves a shot at the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles by beating Legado del Fantasma and The Viking Raiders.

This was a great effort, and you’ve got to feel for Top Dolla after he slipped up on a dive to the outside.

Backstage, Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler attacked the already injury Raquel Rodriguez in the medical room.

WWE SmackDown airs Friday nights at 1am on BT Sport 1.

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