Friday Night SmackDown Review - January 23, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tensions Boiled Over Between Sami Zayn, Trick Williams and Damian Priest

Zayn appearing in front of Montreal crowds has become comparable to CM Punk in front of Chicago crowds. He got a great reaction here and I enjoyed his exchange with Williams. Priest felt like the odd man out, but I understand his role in this segment was to build toward his main event match with Williams later on as well as hype up the Undisputed WWE Championship number one contender's Fatal 4-Way for Saturday Night's Main Event.

United States Champion Carmelo Hayes def. Ilja Dragunov

The chemistry these two have is unmatched and I look forward to every encounter they have. This was another excellent outing from them and I appreciated that they got as much time as they did. What I didn't appreciate was The Miz getting involved in lame fashion at the end, but at least Dragunov didn't lose clean for the second straight week. It also means Miz finally facing Hayes one-on-one is imminent.

Jacob Fatu Interrupted Michael Cole's Sit-Down Interview with Cody Rhodes

This was a pre-taped backstage segment and it came off much better that way than it would have in the ring. Both guys were fantastic here and I loved how Rhodes made it personal by bringing up Fatu's history in jail. Honestly, he sounded rather heelish here, so it will be interesting to see if he'll ultimately be revealed as the one who attacked Fatu a few months ago. This did its job in getting me even more excited for their match tomorrow night.

WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill def. AAA World Mixed Tag Team Champion Chelsea Green

Cargill has been feuding with Green and Alba Fyre for a few months now and it feels like nothing has been accomplish. I remain confused as to whether Green is a babyface or not, but she obviously was in front of this crowd in Canada. The match was whatever and more domination from Cargill. When Jordynne Grace faced off with Cargill afterward, I thought she might challenge her at Saturday Night's Main Event or at Royal Rumble, but she simply declared for the women's Rumble instead. That's fine, but I do wonder when we'll get that matchup. Elimination Chamber, perhaps?

The MFTs (Tama Tonga and Solo Sikoa) def. The Wyatt Sicks (Dexter Lumis and Joe Gacy) to Win the WWE Tag Team Championship

This rivalry has pretty much just existed. It's kept everyone involved busy, but that's about it. I've mentioned before that everything they've done up to this point has made sense, but these matches haven't done much for me, personally. The MFTs taking the tag titles isn't the answer, either, especially when SmackDown's tag team division was so much hotter at this time a year ago.

Nathan Frazer def. Johnny Gargano

This started out as #DIY feuding with Fraxiom, but Tommaso Ciampa's pending departure led to Gargano feuding with Fraxiom on his own. Okay, I guess he has Candice LeRae with him, but she's not facing Fraxion. Anyway, this was a nice bout between Frazer and Gargano, but it's not like they went all out or anything. I would've had Gargano go over if he's going to take on Axiom soon.

Undisputed WWE Champion Drew McIntyre Addressed His Potential Challengers

There wasn't much McIntyre could do on this show without knowing for sure who he's facing at the Royal Rumble with the next number one contender being determined tomorrow night, but for what this was, I thought he cut a quality promo. He did an effective job of addressing all four guys taking part in that four-way, though he made it rather clear Zayn will win based on the comments he made here as well as their interaction backstage later on.

Kiana James & Women's United States Champion Giulia def. Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair and Nia Jax & Lash Legend in a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Triple Threat Tag Team Match

This was the third Triple Threat women's tag team match we've gotten in recent weeks. Granted, the other two were on Raw and NXT, but it's still uninspired booking, not to mention those were better. This felt disjointed as the action was all over the place. James pinning Bliss for the win was genuinely shocking, but I didn't have an issue with the outcome. I don't know why Jax and Legend wouldn't automatically get a shot at the tag titles after beating The Kabuki Warriors while they were champions a month ago, but oh well. Giulia and James work as one-off challengers.

Trick Williams def. Damian Priest by Disqualification

I get that both of these guys will be a part of the aforementioned Fatal 4-Way at Saturday Night's Main Event, and it was cool to see Williams wrestling in the main event of SmackDown, but this felt like the wrong match to close a three-hour show. The crowd was largely quiet for it and it's hard to blame them. There just wasn't anything overly interesting about it despite it being a fresh bout. Randy Orton standing tall to close the show sent the crowd home happy, though.

Overall Show

This was the weakest edition of SmackDown so far this year, but that isn't to say this was a bad show by any means. The first three weeks were above average by the blue brand's standards and this was a middle-of-the-road effort in comparison. You could certainly feel the three hours this week, but there were some Saturday Night's Main Event and Royal Rumble developments, another awesome U.S. title open challenge, a must-see segment with Rhodes and Fatu, and a title change (even though that in particular was difficult to care about).

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews