WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 02/01
- Linus O'Howell
- Jan 3
- 6 min read
The Miz Starts the Show, The Kabuki Warriors, Nia Jax, and Lash Legend VS RHIYO, Alexa Bliss, and Charlotte Flair
The first Friday Night SmackDown of 2026 kicked off with The Miz coming out to air his grievances over a pretty rubbish 2025! Miz listed a number of different things that he wasn’t happy with, whilst also trashing the Buffalo Bills, before Randy Orton made his return to SmackDown to quickly floor The A-Lister with a pair of RKO’s! As far as first segments of the new year go, this was quite weak!
Grade: C-
After Randy Orton showed respect to Cody Rhodes backstage, we got our first WWE match of 2026 as Nia Jax and Lash Legend reunited with The Kabuki Warriors to take on Alexa Bliss, Charlotte Flair, and RHIYO! All of these women know each other very well, given the fact that they all faced each other in WarGames back in Novembe,r but that sort of poses a whole different problem! See, the whole point of WarGames is to end feuds, and instead, we just got exactly the same match here (minus AJ Lee, Becky Lynch, and two cages)! Like, this just didn’t make a lot of sense to me, and it certainly doesn’t make sense why Asuka and Kairi Sane keep teaming up with Nia and Lash! Anyway, eventually, a Riptide from Rhea Ripley, followed by an Over the Moonsault from Iyo Sky to Kairi San,e was enough for Iyo to pin 1/2 of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, which probably means they’re not winning come Monday!
Grade: C+
Kit Wilson VS ?, Sami Zayn Gets Interrupted, Carmelo Hayes VS Johnny Gargano: United States Championship Open Challenge
Nick Aldis was talking to Jordynne Grace about a potential deal to bring The Juggernaut to SmackDown, and this then led into Aldis threatening to strip Chelsea Green of her Women’s United States Championship if she continues to claim that she’s unable to compete! This then led nicely into the next segment as Kit Wilson was scheduled for in-ring action against a mystery opponent! That opponent was revealed to be none other than Zack Ryder… or should I say MATT CARDONA as The Complete finally arrived as a full-time WWE Superstar! It’s a pretty amazing story that Matt Cardona has had; his journey back to get back to WWE has been pretty incredible, but he definitely deserves another shot! Kit Wilson sold for Matt well; Kit’s new entrance is absolutely fantastic, but eventually, a Radio Silence (not Rough Ryder, Michael Cole) was enough for Cardona to score a win on his WWE debut!
Grade: B
After Damian Priest said he was going to finish his story with Aleister Black once and for all in tonight’s Ambulance Match, Bo Dallas and The Wyatt Sick6 stated that it’s time for them to chop down Solo Sikoa’s Family Tree (that’s actually a very clever use of words)! Sami Zayn then made his return to WWE Television as Sami wanted to talk about his experience of sitting in the crowd for John Cena’s Retirement Match! Sami said that whilst it was a pretty cool experience for him, it was also a tough one as he had to explain to his son why he’s never been a World Champion before, something Cena’s achieved a record-breaking 17 times! Zayn then followed this all up by saying that he is not waiting any longer, that he’s aiming straight for a World Championship, but this is when The Underdog from the Underground was interrupted by the one and only, Trick Williams! Not only did the crowd sing his song, but Trick carried an aura throughout this, both with his look and his promo! Williams nailed his lines, said all the right things, and proved why he really is a star in this business! The closing part of all of this was Sami telling Trick that at some point, he’s going to humble him, and I have to say, a Sami Zayn-Trick Willy feud could be amazing!
Grade: B+
Ilja Dragunov praised Carmelo Hayes in a nice backstage interaction, before Melo thanked The Miz for leaving him alone! Rey Fenix was then chatting with Nick Aldis about his goals for 2026 before Trick Williams interrupted, resulting in a match being made between the two for next week’s show! Carmelo Hayes was then set for his first Title defence on the Main Roster as Johnny Gargano challenged HIM for the United States Championship! This was a really strong match, definitely the match of the night, and it was a lot of fun! Firstly, Johnny Gargano came out to his “Comin’ Back for You” theme (which I absolutely love), whilst these two were sort of just allowed to put on a match you could’ve seen them having down in NXT! In fact, that’s sort of been the beauty of the United States Championship Open Challenges, because they’ve always felt like matches from NXT a few years back! Anyway, Candice LeRae tried her best to get involved; distracting Hayes to open the door for her husband, but eventually, a First-48 followed by Nothin’ but Net was enough for Melo to beat Gargano to earn his first successful Title defence!
Grade: B
Drew McIntyre Selects the 3 Stages of Hell, Chelsea Green VS Giulia: Women’s United States Championship
After an interesting interaction between Tama Tonga and Shinsuke Nakamura, Aleister Black made it clear that whatever happens in the Main Event, Damian Priest still won’t ever be the same again! Jade Cargill then came face-to-face with Jordynne Grace (now that’s an interesting matchup), before Cody Rhodes asked Sami Zayn if he’d seen Drew McIntyre! Speaking of Drew McIntyre, this led into the next segment as Drew officially confirmed the stipulation for their 3 Stages of Hell match! Firstly, they will have a straight singles match, because Drew wants to prove that he’s simply the better wrestler! The second fall will then be contested in “Falls Count Anywhere”, and if they do need to go to the third fall, well, that’s going to take place inside of an old-school Steel Cage! In terms of stipulations go, these choices aren’t the most exciting, but I can’t say I’m too surprised! Anyway, McIntyre wasn’t done there as he’d “broken into” Rhodes’ Tour Bus and stolen a picture of Cody with his Dad, Dusty Rhodes, before he smashed the framed picture onto the floor! This set Cody off, but things only got worse for The American Nightmare as The Scottish Psychopath appeared in the ring to burn the photograph into ashes! Cody Rhodes was rightly furious, but he was stopped from doing anything due to the fact that otherwise, he would lose his Undisputed WWE Championship! Unfortunately, I expect Cody to win next week, and it will be interesting to see how the crowd reacts!
Grade: B-
Giulia was then out for revenge as The Beautiful Madness challenged Chelsea Green in a rematch for the Women’s United States Championship! This match certainly got a lot more time than its predecessor a few months ago, meaning it was definitely a much better match! However, the crowd didn’t seem all that interested in the actual action, and that sucks! After Chelsea delivered Radio Silence, Kiana James distracted the referee, resulting in Alba Fyre having to deal with Giulia’s business partner! However, this opened the door for The Beautiful Madness to floor Green with a Northern Lights Bomb to get the win, meaning Giulia is now a 2-time Women’s United States Champion! I sort of feel like WWE are changing a lot of their Champions at the moment to make everything feel fresh in 2026, and I guess that makes sense! The thing that doesn’t make sense is Giulia losing to Chelsea Green in the first place, but there we go!
Grade: C+
Aleister Black VS Damian Priest: Ambulance Match
After another backstage interaction between RHIYO, Alexa Bliss, and Charlotte Flair, and Axiom got himself a match with Johnny Gargano for next week’s SmackDown in Berlin, it was Main Event time as the first Friday Night SmackDown of 2026 saw Aleister Black and Damian Priest go one-on-one in an Ambulance Match! Ambulance Matches have always been a bit of a weird stipulation; you literally win by shutting the ambulance doors on your opponent, but I guess in this match, it worked alright! There were certain parts of this match that I quite liked; Rhea Ripley coming out of the ambulance to deal with Zelina was quite a cool visual, and Aleister opening the side door was certainly a unique one! However, the problem that this match had is that this feud has just been too long now; it’s not interesting anymore, and it has to end after this! After getting revenge with a fireball, a Razor’s Edge onto the windshield, and a nasty drop from the top of the ambulance through a table, Damian Priest was able to shut Aleister Black inside the Ambulance to get the win, meaning 2026 started with a win for The Archer of Infamy!
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