WWE Smackdown: AJ Styles, John Cena sign contract, The Miz defends against Dean Ambrose

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- John Cena confronted his Royal Rumble opponent WWE Champion AJ Styles Tuesday on Smackdown Live to sign the contract for their upcoming match.

The segment presented by Smackdown Live general manager Daniel Bryan, featured the two heated rivals laying into each other verbally as emotions ran high.

Styles who has held onto the WWE Championship since September, dismissed Cena as a part-timer who has been too preoccupied with Hollywood and who has lost his passion for wrestling.

Now enraged, Cena fired back proclaiming that he has lost all respect for Styles and that he awoken a fire inside him. When things started to boil over, the pair were then joined by Baron Corbin, who declared he was entering into the Royal Rumble match and would be facing the winner between Styles and Cena for the title.

The distraction was enough for Styles to land a cheap-shot on Cena that laid him out. It was then announced that Cena would meet Corbin in the ring next week.

In the main event, reigning Intercontinental Champion The Miz defended his title against Dean Ambrose after the self-proclaimed Hollywood A-lister had disrespected his girlfriend, WWE reporter Renee Young.

The bout was proceeded by The Miz's wife Maryse who slapped Young backstage after having slapped Ambrose earlier in the night for touching her husband. When the bell finally rang, Ambrose took control of the match early against a scared Miz who was seen running out of the ring multiple times.

As usual, The Miz relied on Maryse for distractions in order to re-gain control, but this time it was not enough. Ambrose continued to dominate before Maryse slapped him again in order to end the match in a disqualification.

Knowing a disqualification would keep him winning the title, Ambrose pleaded with the ref to ban Maryse from ringside instead. This lead to The Miz hitting the Lunatic Fringe with the IC Title but only for a two count. Ambrose then nailed The Miz with Dirty Deeds for the three count to become the new Intercontinental Champion, much to the crowd's delight.

Afterwards on Smackdown after-show Talking Smack, The Miz enraged, ranted to Bryan and Young how WWE is working against him. "I'm the freakin' best! You and this company are plotting against me!" he screamed.