WWE SmackDown 1/30/2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," coming to you this week from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (and thus airing internationally earlier in the day before its usual American broadcast Friday night). The go-home show for the 2026 Royal Rumble featured the latest men's US title open challenge, a star-studded tag team main event, and potentially one last WWE TV promo from AJ Styles before he stares down the end of his career on Saturday. The WINC staff have thoughts about all these things, and several other things that happened on the latest installment from the blue brand — including the fact that not a whole lot actually happened despite the three-hour runtime.

As always, those who missed the show and/or want an objective rundown can check out our "SmackDown" results page, which is unburdened by anything as gauche as an opinion. Opinions are what this column is for! Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 1/30/26 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"

Time and time again, we've consistently seen WWE drop the ball when it comes to their go home editions of "WWE Raw" and "SmackDown" countless times ahead of their Premium Live Events. They generally tend to not really accomplish a ton when it comes to paying attention to the storylines going into the Premium Live Event, nor do they do much outside of verbal confrontations and brawls to generate as much last minute hype as possible. This go-home "SmackDown" was no different than the others before it, feeling incredibly underwhelming and disappointing to watch.

Outside of some mild build for the Drew McIntyre and Sami Zayn encounter and (arguably) the 2026 Men's Royal Rumble match, absolutely nothing of note happened on "SmackDown." AJ Styles and GUNTHER had a very short lived verbal confrontation that felt far from as intense as it should've been. Absolutely no new entrants were announced for the 2026 Women's Royal Rumble, and there was just a total lack of real storytelling actually happening on this show. It felt more like a series of standard matches, and was an incredibly lazy way to leave a "lasting impression" on the fans ahead of one of the biggest Premium Live Events on WWE's calendar year.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

It is becoming a theme every week but once again Carmelo Hayes defended the United States Championship in an open challenge and once again it was a certified banger. Rey Fenix stepped up to the plate this time around in Riyadh, and if we're being entirely honest he didn't stand a chance of wresting the title from Hayes on this night, but that certainly didn't stop him from giving it his best shot.

Fenix, being one of the world's best luchadors, is a more than impressive high flyer with the silkiest of moves on the mat, the ropes, or anywhere in between. Combine with that with the hard-hitting yet bouncy style of Hayes and there was the perfect equation for a fast-paced and action-packed title match. Which, to be honest, should be half of the goal when it comes to a midcard title match. The other aspect that should be present is the spotlight for someone who needs it, and while his brother Penta has become a rather consistent fixture on the "WWE Raw" brand the same cannot really be said for Fenix.

He is undoubtedly one of the very best to do what he does, but there has been very little reason outside of that mythology to feel any type of way towards him in WWE. Losing a United States title match to Hayes is hardly going to remedy that right away and make him a star off the bat, but for what it was in the moment Fenix and Hayes put on a really enjoyable stretch of wrestling and there's really not much to be complained about there.

Written by Max Everett

Even though I am mostly among the believers who think that AJ Styles is losing to GUNTHER at the Royal Rumble tomorrow, I liked the promo he cut tonight on "SmackDown," and I really appreciated the fact he and GUNTHER were both on the show. "SmackDown" is the house that Styles built, to be fair, and he and GUNTHER didn't look out of place at all.

If the blue brand is going to continue to be three hours long every Friday, there's no reason why WWE shouldn't be putting stars from both brands on the final go-home show to big premium live events, especially this one, where all the talent had to fly around the world to Saudi Arabia.

And, while I'm (again, mostly) in the camp of believing Styles' WWE career is done as of tomorrow, I am ever-so-slightly shaky on that prediction, as I could see both ways, and in this promo, Styles did his best to convince fans that he will be going on a retirement tour after all, one that doesn't stop with "The Ring General." Styles told fans not to be worried about tomorrow, he's going to knock GUNTHER's teeth down his throat and that is what's going to kick off the "Phenomenal Farewell Tour." He mentioned wanting one more match with the likes of Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, as well as CM Punk when the crowd chanted his name.

This was also the first promo, I believe, that GUNTHER promised to make Styles tap tomorrow. Which, Styles had a great comeback to, bringing things all full circle, when he said that last time he checked, it was GUNTHER who tapped out "like a little b****." That didn't exactly help to make anything more clear for me as to how this goes tomorrow, as Styles was pretty convincing in his argument that he made GUNTHER tap first. I'll admit, this is one time I don't mind being unsure as to how things are going to go.

Either we get GUNTHER's "Career Killer" strengthened even further tomorrow, or we somehow get a John Cena-esque retirement tour for Styles. I think I'll be fine with either option, but if it is the end for Styles in WWE, he at least made a fine attempt tonight to convince us all that it's not. On a go-home show where not much exciting happened, an appearance by Styles to say his piece before what might be his final moment in the company was a welcomed addition.

Written by Daisy Ruth

We all know what Alexa Bliss, Charlotte Flair, Roxanne Perez, and Liv Morgan are capable of doing with their endless amounts of talent, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that all four women had a great tag team match with each other.

Now, I will be the first to admit that this was a very typical Judgment Day match with all of the interference and shenanigans that went on. However, in the particular case of this match, I actually think that all of the usual Judgment Day interference contributed to things rather than take away or distract as it usually tends to do. By having Stephanie Vaquer be the one to take out Raquel Rodriguez, it worked to build up the tensions between the two women ahead of their Women's World Championship match on "Raw" next week without taking anything away from the action that was going on inside of the ring.

Alexa Bliss may have also spent the vast majority of the match being beaten down by Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez, but the action was still engaging to watch in my opinion with a good pace throughout it. It felt like a very intentional choice, and works to provide Bliss with another reason to be angry at Flair when their inevitable split eventually happens to end their tumultuous yet fruitful friendship. On a "SmackDown" where I didn't really feel particularly excited about any one specific match or segment on the whole, this was the one that stood out far above the rest for me as a fun watch.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

The Miz is an odd phenomenon with me, both someone I can respect for his tenure and ability to remain on the booking sheet, but also someone I never really want to see step in the ring again. A great talker, a solid worker, and super consistent. The issue is, he is consistently not that good. Not bad. But definitely not good. The equivalent of watching paint dry; I understand it is a process the paint must go through but I do not know why I have to watch it. The answer to that situation is to simply not watch it. Trust me, I am acutely aware. But in the spirit of trying to review the show I watched, had some moments of fun with, I don't know if it's a good thing to stage matches that evoke that reaction.

Miz is a storyteller, for better or for worse, and absolutely does his best when there is a story to tell – that isn't the same as the past year's "No one respects me even though I have been here for so long" rigmarole, anyway. But just booking him opposite Dragunov and saying, "Now, wrestle" is not going to yield a good result. What happens instead is what happened — Dragunov working his a** off to produce a somewhat passable match and Miz, while not bad, is just incapable of switching into that next gear.

Everything he does feels a little bit played out, down to the "Yes" kicks he adopted from Bryan Danielson for a feud that ended years ago, the shenanigans and attempted cheating, the hyperbolic swinging DDT he does. Maybe it is Miz fatigue talking. And it's certainly not like I am saying he should be gone from the company – like my opinion would make a shred of difference anyway. He has a place. I just don't feel like it's opposite someone like Dragunov, clearly light-years ahead of Miz in terms of talent between the bells, and certainly not with the amount of offense he got in. It's just not believable when the gulf in quality is so wide. At least Dragunov won, there is that.

Written by Max Everett

After Jacob Fatu and Cody Rhodes' match at Saturday Night's Main Event never got underway, and was just one big, brutal brawl until Undisputed WWE Champion Drew McIntyre put an end to things, I thought maybe we'd get some more answers tonight on "SmackDown." If not answers, I assumed Fatu and Rhodes would be at each others' throats the entire night, ahead of the Royal Rumble where one eliminates the other, or they eliminate themselves trying to drag the other over the top rope. But, I didn't really get either of those things tonight, and the fact Fatu and Rhodes weren't brawling, and didn't even get physical at all until the very end of the night was pretty confusing.

Rhodes opened up the show and did acknowledge their brawl at SNME, but said their "fun" was interrupted by McIntyre, and chose to address the champion rather than the guy who was kicking him all around the arena on Saturday. Instead of Fatu coming out to do anything, it was Orton who interrupted Rhodes' promo when he continued to go on about the Royal Rumble. Sure, the Saudi fans loved Orton, but it was really strange that Fatu didn't do a single thing after what we saw on Saturday.

The main event of the show saw Rhodes, Sami Zayn, Jey Uso, and Orton take on The Vision, in WWE's usual multi-man babyface vs. heel match on a go-home show to a big event. Throughout that match, once again, no Fatu. We didn't see the "Samoan Werewolf" until the bell had rung on the match, after McIntyre interfered, causing the disqualification. And then, it was the champion who Fatu went after, not Rhodes, though "The American Nightmare" did get his hands on Fatu. They started to fight, but McIntyre then went after Rhodes. But, initially, Fatu didn't care about Rhodes being there whatsoever.

It's still not clear to me why McIntyre wants to be involved in any of this. Sure, Fatu thinks McIntyre is the one who put him on the shelf, but McIntyre could have just steered clear of him. I thought the story of tonight would be Rhodes and Fatu still going after each other ahead of tomorrow's Rumble match. That wasn't the case, and it makes their SNME non-match feel all the more strange. This wasn't a great go-home angle on their feud ahead of the Rumble match, and I'm left wondering just how it all plays out tomorrow when it could really count for both men.

Written by Daisy Ruth