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In a shocking turn of events, Adam Pearce will challenge Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble. Adam Pearce was the last entry into the gauntlet match that was held on this week's episode of WWE SmackDown. Pearce surprisingly won the match when he pinned Shinsuke Nakamura.
On the most recent episode of WWE SmackDown, Adam Pearce pinned Shinsuke Nakamura in a gauntlet match to become the next challenger for the WWE Universal Championship. Pearce was thrown into the match after Paul Heyman pulled some strings and forced him to compete.
The announcement came as a response to Adam Pearce's decision to give Kevin Owens a match against Jey Uso on last week's episode of WWE SmackDown. "The Tribal Chief" took this development as a sign that Pearce doesn't respect him. After a short confrontation, Heyman convinced Reigns to back down. But "The Advocate" worked his magic and had Pearce entered into the match.
Pearce is set to face Reigns for his title at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view later this month. Some fans are quite confused by this decision. But at the very least, WWE threw the viewers a curveball by inserting Pearce into the title picture.
Adam Pearce has not wrestled in six years
As Adam Pearce mentioned on WWE SmackDown this week, he had not competed in a wrestling match in six years. But later this month, he'll be back in the spotlight when he faces Reigns. Pearce's last match was in 2014, when he faced Colt Cabana in a singles match.
Pearce has been working as a WWE official since 2013, and he was recently put in charge of both WWE RAW and SmackDown. He has been an on-screen authority figure for both shows. He will now have to start training for his upcoming match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
