Tonight's episode of WWE SmackDown (January 23, 2026) emanates out of the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and will air at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network.
This post here will be updated frequently throughout the night to reflect live coverage of Friday Night SmackDown, including all the match results, rundowns of the promos, and any other interesting or noteworthy things that take place. Keep refreshing for updates to find out all the winners and more!
Preview & Predictions for WWE SmackDown:
On tap for tonight's episode, Solo Sikoa's MFTs are getting another opportunity at winning the WWE Tag Team Championship from The Wyatt Sicks. I think they'll be successful, but it's a question of who is competing in the match. If it's Tonga Loa in any fashion, they'll likely lose, but if it's a duo like JC Mateo and Talla Tonga, I'm banking on a title change.
When it comes to the women's triple threat match to determine which tag team gets the next shot at the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, I think a lot of that depends on where WWE wants to go for WrestleMania. Since I don't think Giulia and Kiana James will be in that match (as Giulia will probably defend her US title instead), I would rather them win and keep the other teams fresher, but I do think it'll probably be Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair who come out on top of this match.
Let's go Trick Williams over Damian Priest unless Randy Orton steps in and hits Williams with an RKO while the referee is distracted or some other kind of shenanigans like that. The match could also end in a no contest with Sami Zayn and Orton getting into the fight and it just devolving into a brawl segment.
And since Axiom isn't the one facing Johnny Gargano, I don't think Nathan Frazer will be able to get his tag team partner's mask back. We're probably looking at another week at least of pushing this story to a level where Gargano says if he beats Axiom, then Axiom will have to unmask. At least, that's probably how I would have booked this. We'll see if they don't just end the angle tonight instead.
All that and more will go down tonight, so keep checking and refreshing for the most up-to-date results!
Here are your results for WWE SmackDown - January 23, 2026:
- Sami Zayn opened the show with a promo, which Trick Williams interrupted for some jaw-jacking. Damian Priest then also came out and eventually, things came to blows, with Williams running off. Randy Orton was watching backstage to remind everyone that RKO are the three most dangerous letters in wrestling.
- Open Challenge for the WWE Men's United States Championship: Carmelo Hayes (c) retained over Ilja Dragunov by pinfall.
- Jacob Fatu interrupted an interview Cody Rhodes was having, leading to the two of them arguing over their issues to build hype for their Saturday Night's Main Event match.
- Jade Cargill defeated Chelsea Green by pinfall. Jordynne Grace was down for a fight with Cargill after, but Jade opted to do the "not now; on my time" backaway.
- WWE Tag Team Championship Match: MFT (Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga) defeated The Wyatt Sicks (c) by pinfall to win the titles. MFTs still have the lantern.
- R-Truth is putting his balls in the hands of Nick Aldis for the Royal Rumble. Aldis talked to AJ Styles about putting his career on the line against Gunther. Shinsuke Nakamura wants Styles to prove that he's still "phenomenal" and challenges him to a match for Saturday Night's Main Event.
- Nathan Frazer defeated Johnny Gargano by pinfall due to some trickery where Axiom put his mask on Candice LeRae, leading to some confusion where she accidentally hit Gargano. But this all blew up in Axiom's face as LeRae ran off with the mask, because Axiom didn't bother to just take it.
- Drew McIntyre cut an in-ring promo about his potential challengers who are having their Fatal 4-Way tomorrow at Saturday Night's Main Event.
- Rey Fenix hasn't forgotten about Trick Williams, who doesn't even seem to give the slightest care about Fenix.
- Matt Cardona confronted Kit Wilson about having a problem with him, saying they should settle it in the ring, which of course is toxic of him to do, according to Wilson.
- Giulia and Kiana James defeated Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair and Lash Legend & Nia Jax in a Triple Threat match to become the next #1 contenders for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
- Sami Zayn had a backstage segment with Damian Priest, where he was trying to bury the hatchet and say he'd be in Priest's corner opposite Trick Williams, but The Archer of Infamy doesn't want that and they left things tense. Zayn then bumped into Drew McIntyre and slapped him.
- AJ Styles had a moment with Cody Rhodes backstage where The American Nightmare acknowledged the retirement scenario. Rhodes then went to his bus and saw that McIntyre had put a picture of himself on the door (with him holding the title with "The Real American Dream" written on the photo) just to get in Cody's head and troll him.
- Giulia and Kiana James were interviewed about their triple threat win. James translated what Giulia said, which equated to how Giulia is in the Royal Rumble and soon enough, she'll be holding the women's US title, the women's WWE title, and that they would be the tag team champions as well.
- Trick Williams defeated Damian Priest by disqualification after Sami Zayn got involved and went after Trick. Priest was upset about this afterward, and this whole segment ended ultimately with Randy Orton giving Trick an RKO, and then, giving one to Zayn.
What are your thoughts on tonight's episode of Friday Night SmackDown? Drop your reactions in the comments below and spark a discussion!