WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 30/01

Linus O'Howell
3 days ago
5 min read

Cody Rhodes Starts the Show, Carmelo Hayes’ United States Championship Open Challenge

The final Friday Night SmackDown before the 2026 Royal Rumble kicked off with Cody Rhodes talking about how he is aiming to make history as only the second person to ever win 3 Royal Rumble Matches! The crowd very much weren’t keen on this idea, but the Saudi Arabian fans clearly seem to love Randy Orton, given the reception that The Viper received! Jey Uso and Sami Zayn would also then interrupt at various points, with them all stating their case for winning the Rumble, except for Sami, who wanted to remind them that he’s going to be the one leaving today’s (at time of writing) show as the new Undisputed WWE Champion! The Vision then decided to interrupt because why not, and all Paul Heyman did was remind everyone that Bron Breakker’s the guy who’s being backed to win the Royal Rumble, with Nick Aldis then arriving to book an 8-Man Tag Team Match for the show’s Main Event! This segment went on way too long; well over 20 minutes, and all it did was clunkily achieve its goal of setting up a Main Event (which Aldis clearly hadn’t already booked pre-show)!

Grade: C

Thankfully, we were able to then recover with the opening match of the night as Rey Fenix answered Carmelo Hayes’ United States Championship Open Challenge! I thought this match was great; for me, it was the best match of Carmelo Hayes’ United States Championship run so far, and the only downside was that most of the crowd left (this became a running theme throughout the night)! In fairness, the crowd that stayed were quite loud; you could tell that they watch more than just Main Roster WWE (and I’m including other promotions in this), and for that I’m glad this match took place! It also helps that you have two amazing performers in Hayes and Fenix, with Rey going massively under the radar for what he can deliver inside that squared circle! Eventually, a First-48 followed by Nothin’ but Net was enough for Melo to score another successful US Title retention, and the A-Champion seemingly shows no signs of slowing down!

Grade: B+

Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair VS The Judgment Day, Axiom VS Johnny Gargano

The Miz tried to feed Ilja Dragunov a story that it was actually Carmelo Hayes who asked him to attack The Mad Dragon last week, but Dragunov made it clear that he didn’t care, as he would happily destroy The Miz anyway! Damian Priest then found out his Royal Rumble entrant number (R-Truth made it obvious that this wasn’t a high pick), before Drew McIntyre cut a promo outside! Honestly, I’m not sure what Drew said because I was so distracted by the background scenery! Anyway, after Giulia, Kiana James, Lash Legend, and Nia Jax all made their intentions clear to RHIYO regarding the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair had an awful promo segment that eventually resulted in them having a match against The Judgment Day! I really don’t want to talk about the promo segment because I genuinely feel like Alexa and Charlotte are horrific together on the mic, but the match was at least better! Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez continue to work well together, whilst Raquel Rodriguez kept trying to interfere on the outside! Eventually, Stephanie Vaquer showed up to deal with Raquel, allowing Bliss to drop Perez with a Sister Abigail to get the win! The fact that The Judgment Day lost this match is a good thing for the Rumble tonight!

Grade: C+ for the Match, E for the Promo Segment

Jordynne Grace was talking about how she’s going to win the Women’s Royal Rumble before Jade Cargill attacked her! Then, after Nick Aldis barred Candice LeRae from ringside, Johnny Gargano had to go it alone as Axiom fought to regain his mask! This was another good match that barely had anyone in attendance watching, and that’s honestly quite frustrating! Just like earlier, the fans that were watching are clearly into NXT, with them getting behind Johnny Gargano a lot, but seeing all of the empty seats certainly wasn’t a good look! However, like I said before, the match itself was good, and the ending was very clever! See, after Johnny stole another one of Axiom’s masks (by literally ripping it off the face of the Spaniard), Axiom decided to put his old mask on, stunning Gargano as he nailed Johnny Wrestling with a Golden Ratio to get the win! This was a very clever finish; I liked it a lot, and I’m assuming that this is now the end of this feud!

Grade: B

AJ Styles and Gunther’s Final Confrontation, Ilja Dragunov VS The Miz

Ilja Dragunov made it clear to Carmelo Hayes that next time he sees him, he’s not going to be asking for a United States Championship rematch; he’s expecting it! Trick Williams then cut the greatest promo I’ve ever heard (Worldwide Willy is an absolute star), before AJ Styles came down to the ring for (most likely) his final-ever appearance on Friday Night SmackDown! AJ talked about how the crowd shouldn’t be worried about his career coming to an end as The Phenomenal One knows that he’s going to beat Gunther at the Royal Rumble before he listed his dream final year in Professional Wrestling! This brought out Gunther, who laughed off Styles’ goals as nothing more than fantasy, before Styles peeved off The Ring General by telling him that he’s going to make him tap out in Saudi Arabia! Like I’ve said before, if this is going to be the end of AJ Styles’ WWE career, this is quite the Phenomenal way to bow out!

Grade: B-

Tama Tonga told Shinsuke Nakamura that he should also consider having a retirement run, before The Miz was ready to go one-on-one with Ilja Dragunov! This match actually went a lot longer than I expected it to, and that coincided with The Miz getting in far more offense than he probably should’ve! I thought Ilja should’ve dominated here after losing multiple matches recently, but that wasn’t the way that WWE decided to go! However, in the end, Dragunov was still able to score the win with a Torpedo Moscow/H-Bomb combo, and I’m excited to see how The Mad Dragon gets on in today’s Royal Rumble!

Grade: C+

Jey Uso, Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Sami Zayn VS The Vision

After Solo Sikoa and Uncle Howdy continued their feud with pre-recorded promos, it was Main Event time as Jey Uso, Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Sami Zayn all teamed up to take on The Vision to end this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown! Interestingly, a lot of this match saw The Vision beat up Cody Rhodes, something I don’t feel like we’ve seen too much of in the past! I will say that, like usual, I think The Vision work really well together, but this was crazy! Anyway, after standing on the apron throughout the match, Randy Orton was finally able to run wild with a hot tag, before Sami Zayn put himself in a position to win this match, only for Drew McIntyre to arrive to cause the DQ finish! This led to Jacob Fatu running down to start a brawl with both McIntyre and Cody Rhodes, before Zayn nailed Drew with a Helluva Kick! However, as the show looked to be closing with both Cody and Sami holding the Undisputed WWE Title, Bron Breakker nailed them both with a Spear to stand tall! That wasn’t the smartest decision that Breakker’s ever made (given how WWE works)!