WWE Saturday Night's Main Event 1/24/2026 Full & Final Card
This weekend will mark the 43rd edition of the WWE Saturday Night's Main Event special offering up something of a prologue to the road to WrestleMania, one week removed from the Royal Rumble in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
It will be the first SNME of 2026, following on from the event that saw John Cena retired by Gunther, and as confirmed during Friday's "WWE SmackDown" it will see Gunther's next opponent, AJ Styles, take on storied rival Shinsuke Nakamura in case his career comes to an end at the hands of the "Ring General." Styles has long said that 2026 will mark the end of his in-ring career, but given it took a full-year run for Cena to hang up the jorts there may have been some expectation that it may have been a little time away. Nonetheless, he is facing Gunther with his career on the line on January 31, thus spurring Nakamura to make the challenge to revisit a rivalry yielding matches at Wrestle Kingdom and WrestleMania on January 24.
Another storied rivalry to be getting the spotlight on Saturday is the one shared by partners-turned-championship rivals Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan. Though they will not be alone in that endeavor, with Ripley and Iyo Sky defending their WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against the Judgment Day femme fatales in Morgan and Roxanne Perez. Ripley and Sky dethroned the Kabuki Warriors earlier this month to win the titles, completing their own journey from championship rivals to championship partners. While on the other hand, Raquel Rodriguez's pursuit of the Women's World title has seen Morgan pursuing the tag titles she never lost alongside the woman who replaced her, and eventually lost the titles, in Perez.
The WWE Championship will not be on the line but there are two matches adjacent to the company's top title, with former champion Cody Rhodes taking on Jacob Fatu and a four-way to determine the Royal Rumble challenger for Drew McIntyre. McIntyre won the title from Rhodes in a Three Stages of Hell match, the last fall taking place within a Steel Cage and ending when Fatu's interference to cost McIntyre backfired and cost Rhodes instead. Thus, Rhodes and Fatu are meeting in a grudge match before entering the Rumble next weekend to get back on the path to McIntyre and the title.
The four-way to determine a challenger for McIntyre will feature a home national in Sami Zayn competing against fresh call-up Trick Williams, former WWE World Champion Damian Priest, and 14-time World Champion Randy Orton. Each man had to win a qualifier to get into the match, with Zayn defeating the man who had taken his United States title last year in Ilja Dragunov, Priest defeating Solo Sikoa, Williams defeating Matt Cardona, and Orton defeating The Miz.