WWE Friday Night SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Jan. 26, 2024) with a live show emanating from Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, featuring the go home show ahead of tomorrow night’s Royal Rumble premium live event.
Advertised for tonight: Katana Chance and Kayden Carter defend the WWE women’s tag team titles against The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane).
Also on the card: LA Knight vs. Solo Sikoa, The Pride (Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits) go face-to-face with The Final Testament (Karrion Kross and AOP), Carlito goes one-on-one against Santos Escobar, a rematch between Carmelo Hayes and Austin Theory, and more!
Come right back here at 8 pm ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on FOX. It will be below this line here. (Note: Links to illegal streams are prohibited. Pics and GIFs are allowed.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR JAN. 26
Night is over, now it’s dawn. Your final day has begun, but me? I’m just here to liveblog this pro wrestling show for you, folks.
The show opens with a recap of last week’s effort by Solo Sikoa to take care of business on the Tribal Chief’s behalf.
Eladio Carrion makes his entrance and gets on the mic.
He welcomes us to the show and presents us his personal friend, Randy Orton.
Orton makes his entrance and embraces his pal, shaking his hand and posing in the turnbuckles simultaneously.
Randy gets on the mic and says he bets you didn’t think he’d be friends with Eladio, before talking about the Bloodline and Roman Reigns’ unfathomable title reign. Nobody can stop him or the Bloodline, well except maybe for him. He lays out his vision for winning the title tomorrow, and it’s simple— RKO.
Enter AJ Styles.
He tells Orton to join the club because he asked Nick Aldis for his own match against Solo Sikoa so he can take his head off, but Nick gave LA Knight that match instead. He tells Orton he has a receipt coming for the RKO last week, and he’ll be stepping over him, Roman, and LA—
Enter LA Knight.
He tells AJ to quit his crying because he doesn’t WANT to fight Solo Sikoa tonight but as far as he can see it’s real convenient that he’s the only one of the four have a match tonight, and that tells him Paul Heyman lobbied to get him softened up because he’s the biggest threat.
He’s gonna walk in tonight, he’s not gonna complain about it, he’ll hit Solo so hard he’ll do his dad’s dance move, and then he’ll walk over the three of them to win the title, and that’s not an insult, that’s just a fact of life, YEAH.
STYLES HITS A SUPERKICK AND FOLLOWS IT UP BY LAYING ORTON OUT WITH A PELE KICK!
Carlito makes his entrance to send us to break.
Carlito vs. Santos Escobar
Carlito backing him into the corner with right hands, Escobar scrambling away but Colon stays on him. Santos with a knee and chops, Carlito fights back and lays him out with a big one! Escobar’s lackeys run interference and Colon ends up laid out on the floor as we go to break!
Back from commercial, Escobar working Carlito over, tearing his shirt off, up in the turnbuckls... CROSS ARMBAR IN THE ROPES! Continuing to work the arm over, but Colon fires up and comes back, vertical suplex dropped into a Final Cut for two! Spinebuster follows, the floor in chaos as both men’s seconds get into it, Elektra Lopez is here to equalize Zelina Vega...
Santos Escobar wins by pinfall with a folding press.
Commentary hypes up Raw moving to Netflix in 2025 as well as the news of Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson joining the board of TKO.
AJ Styles is sullen and walking backstage when he runs into “Big” Jim Uso.
Uso tells him everybody knows where LA Knight is tonight and asks him to help take care of him because it’s good for everyone involved.
Good Brothers and Mia Yim roll up and ask AJ what that was about and he tells them not to worry about it, and we go to break.
Back from commercial, NXT general manager Ava Raine meets with Nick Aldis and he congratulates her on being the youngest GM in WWE history.
Bobby Lashley and the Pride roll up to pick their Rumble entry and they have a brief showdown with Santos Escobar and Legado del Fantasma.
We get a Bayley video package where she hypes Damage CTRL up.
Damage CTRL make their entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, R-Truth spins the tumbler and sings a little song before taking his number and observing that balls are everywhere.
He pulls it out and gets real upset about it and asks if that means he’ll have to quarantine. He thanks “Mr. Pearce” and congratulates him on how fast his hair grows.
Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane) vs. Katana Chance & Kayden Carter (c) (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship)
Argh, a copy paste error cost me the liveblog for this one, my apologies.
Anyway, it was a fast-paced back and forth affair that saw the champs in control early but getting ground down by Kabuki Warriors until...
Kabuki Warriors win by pinfall with an inverted DDT / diving elbow drop combination on Kayden Carter, winning the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.
Backstage, Paul Heyman chats with “Big” Jim Uso and Solo Sikoa.
He’s trying to talk sense into Sikoa, telling him he solved the problem last week but he was asked to fix it, and he begs of him to fix the problem and not to be merciful.
Solo leaves and Paul shifts his attention to Jim Uso, telling him Roman seized the moment to move from Big Dog to Tribal Chief and if Uso can seize the moment of Seth Rollins walking on one leg by making him a martyr, enter the Royal Rumble, win the Royal Rumble, challenge Seth Rollins, win World Heavyweight Championship for the Bloodline, then he’ll understand that the line of succession to who is truly the Tribal Heir all starts at the Royal Rumble.
Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits make their entrance to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Bianca Belair is backstage picking her number for the Royal Rumble.
Bayley rolls up to give her guff before selecting her own number.
In the ring, Bobby Lashley reintroduces his group, talking up the Street Profits as Triple Crown Tag Team Champions (quadruple if you count the Evolve Tag Team Championship!) and his own championship accomplishments in WWE. He says they didn’t come here to play, they came to fight, and a fight is what they’ll bring.
He calls the Final Testament out to come get some.
Authors of Pain are out first, followed by Karrion Kross, with Paul Ellering and Scarlett Bordeaux bringing up the rear.
Bordeaux slides in the ring and stares Bob down, which leads Lashley to ask what kind of coward leaves his lady to do his work for him. Angelo Dawkins says this was supposed to be a face-to-face, Montez Ford says he’s figured it out, Final Testament are scared, a thing they could never be.
Paul Ellering says there’s no fear in Karrion Kross, and Kross says Ellering speaks the truth and all he sees in the men in the ring is frustration and desperation, and he understands. They feel like things aren’t going according to plan anymore, like they’re not in control, and guess what, they’re not.
But he’ll give Bob one thing, they were supposed to do this face-to-face, and here Lashley’s standing across from the prettiest face in the world! But they’re not getting their fight tonight. Bobby says he’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, but they lied because they certainly are fighting tonight.
The Street Profits jump to the floor but Scarlett jumps on Lashley’s back and claws at his eyes! Karrion rushes in and takes Bob out as AOP beat the Profits down!
“Big” Jim Uso arrives to enter the Royal Rumble and pulls his number, and he seems dissatisfied with it.
Austin Theory makes his entrance flanked by Grayson Waller, to send us to break.
Back from commercial, LA Knight is shown getting ready for his match later tonight.
Austin Theory vs. Carmelo Hayes
Hayes with chops in the corner, Theory cuts him off with a knee, back suplex, land on his feet, springboard elbow from Carmelo! Austin runs away, cheap shot takes Melo out on the floor and we go to break.
Back from commercial, La Mistica gets Hayes a nearfall! Ataxia connects... NOT ENOUGH! Theory with a handful of tights...
Austin Theory wins by pinfall with an O’Connor roll and a handful of tights.
Post-match, Theory and Waller go to beat Hayes down... TRICK WILLIAMS MAKES THE SAVE AND MIAMI IS HAPPY TO SEE HIM!
But the reunion isn’t totally happy, because Trick tells Hayes he’s saving him for the semifinals of the Dusty Classic.
Eladio Carrion is interviewed backstage.
He says it was super fun being in the ring for the first time and predicts Randy Orton winning the Universal Championship when the Bloodline roll up to intimidate him. He’s appropriately scared and offers his respect and Paul Heyman backs Solo Sikoa down.
LA Knight makes his entrance to send us to break.
LA Knight vs. Solo Sikoa
Knight going to town on Sikoa’s right hand in fairly short order, smashing his hand into the steel steps over and over! Back in the ring, Solo takes control and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Sikoa with a big Samoan drop... NOPE! Off the ropes, Knight with a front kick, Solo cuts him off with a lariat, fireman’s carry, LA slips out, boot up in the corner! Diving bulldog gets Knight some breathing room, lighting him up with strikes, side Russian legsweep backs him into the corner!
LA stomping the proverbial mudhole, running knee in the corner! Taking Uso out, DDT for the Enforcer, a clothesline sends Solo over the ropes and Knight follows it with a wrecking ball dropkick! Smashing Sikoa’s face into the announce desk over and over again, lining him up... KNEE TREMBLER!
But AJ Styles appears on the barricade! One Phenomenal Forearm later...
LA Knight wins by disqualification.
Post-match, AJ picks LA up and throws him into the steel steps! “Big” Jim Uso gives Styles a chair and eggs him on, telling him to do what he has to! AJ picks the chair up but doesn’t jump on Knight, and Solo Sikoa orders him to hit LA before he takes care of him! AJ refuses and wallops Solo with the chair!
Randy Orton is here! AJ slides in the ring but Orton cuts him off with an uppercut! Snap scoop powerslam on Uso but Sikoa pulls Randy out of the ring and to the desk! Orton cuts him off and back suplexes him into the announce desk! Hanging DDT on Uso! Styles appears with the Phenomenal Forearm but Randy ducks it and hits the hanging DDT on him as well!
He goes to that special place... RKO ON STYLES!
LA KNIGHT OUTTA NOWHERE WITH THE BFT ON ORTON!
That’s the show, folks.
