Let’s get into the results:

WWE Women’s Tag Team titles: Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY (c) def. Guilia and Kiana James

Carmelo Hayes def. The Miz

Elimination Chamber qualifier: Tiffany Stratton def. Lash Legend and Chelsea Green

Oba Femi def. Kit Wilson

Tama Tonga def. Shinsuke Nakamura

Jade Cargill and Jordynne Grace def. Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan

Elimination Chamber qualifier: Randy Orton def. Solo Sikoa and Aleister Black

Notes:

Drew McIntyre attempts to open SmackDown, but Cody Rhodes attacks him. His best line refers to CM Punk and Roman Reigns having a d*** measuring contest and they’re glad he isn’t in it because there’s a reason he’s nicknames ‘Raheem’ – that’s a wild line if I’ve ever heard one!

He threatens that Drew will not make it to WrestleMania. His focus is squarely on the WWE Undisputed Heavyweight champion.

Nick Aldis asks Cody Rhodes to leave the building, threatening to pull him from next week’s Elimination Chamber qualifier if he doesn’t. He leaves.

Aleister Black interrupts Randy Orton’s backstage interview to tell him it’s great WWE still has him after two legends retired… “at least one part of you.”

Kit Wilson gave another stupidly entertaining promo before Oba Femit turned up to destroy him.

McIntyre tries to come out and talk again, this time Jacob Fatu appears and beats the brakes off of him.

Johnny Gargano was laid out depressed backstage. Axiom and Motor City Machine Guns had zero sympathy despite Candice LeRae’s please.

Nia Jax and Lash Legend interrupt Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY talking backstage and insist they are heading to see Nick Aldis to get their title match.

Rare Apollo Crews sighting! He’s standing with Matt Cardona as Kit Wilson gives him a frustrated dressing down backstage.

Raquel Rodriguez accidentally gives Liv Morgan the big boot during their tag team match…

Sami Zayn was meandering backstage looking depressed. Rey Fenix tried to cheer him up, but Trick Williams arrived to deliver some more slander. It did more for Fenix v Williams than anything else; Zayn said nothing.

Jordynne Grace vs Jade Cargill for the title next week is made.

Drew McIntyre finally does speak. He addresses the digs Reigns and Punk made against him Monday night on RAW. He also makes a compelling argument for why his world title has the most prestige. After a cracking promo, Trick Williams arrives as McIntyre is leaving and they exchange some words which ends with Drew firing a warning to the NXT export’s way.

Analysis:

Both of the Elimination Chamber qualifying matches went the way you’d think, but next week it’s Rhodes vs Fatu vs Zayn and that’s two title challengers that will have to suffer a setback somehow. One has to fear for Zayn’s direction in WrestleMania season now.

WWE has an adundance of options for the top matches right now. They have fresh options too, but it appears it’s going to be Cody Rhodes and McIntyre battling once more with potentially a third wheel added to the equation; likely Fatu.

Oba Femi and Trick Williams are right there with plenty of fan interest, but Rhodes is certainly WWE’s guy and it’s hard to argue against it.

Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan encountered yet more difficulties after their Royal Rumble fiasco and tense talks on Monday. Morgan is almost certainly facing Stephanie Vaquer at WM41, but it feels like they are going to find a way to put Raquel in there.

Personally, the Vaquer title reign has been underwhelming and some of that is not her fault. She hasn’t been given the tippy-top opponents that helps cement a new star.

Overall it’s a decent SmackDown that keeps us ticking along nicely to Elimination Chamber, although Cody Rhodes’ ‘Raheem’ reference might be the most noteworthy part of it!

WWE had pencilled in Bron Breakker to win the men’s and Bianca Belair to return from injury and win the women as of December 2025.

As Wrestling Observer notes, plans radically changed when Triple H felt the road to WrestleMania felt predictable and Drew McIntyre would dethrone Cody Rhodes.

Breakker was originally the man they wanted to challenge CM Punk for the title after Seth Rollins went down injured, scuppering their plans for Rollins vs Reigns and Punk challenging Rhodes.

Now it’s expected that Breakker will instead face a returning Rollins in Las Vegas and we know that Reigns will challenge Punk.

The world title picture on SmackDown is still working itself out, but Jacob Fatu has managed to insert himself into the picture.

Belair has been out injured since WrestleMania 41 last April with a severe knuckle injury but it was believed/hoped she would return in time for the Rumble.

Not only did she not win the event, but she did not appear at all leading many fans to speculate that she is not healthy yet.

The working idea for Belair to win the Rumble would be to go on and finally face Jade Cargill in their dream match.

Whilst it’s not clear what Belair’s current status is, that could still happen with the Elimination Chamber.

Reigns won his second Rumble match last week and is now scheduled to face CM Punk at WrestleMania 42 for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Some fans found Reigns winning the Rumble an uninspired decision from Triple H and WWE creative with youngster stars like Bron Breakker and Jacob Fatu on the cusp of main event status.

Uso, a controversial winner to some fans the year prior, took to social media to defend his real-life cousin.

“So much hate on dis mf,” he posted on his Instagram status. “[I’ll] never hate on my own family we lift [each] other up, the whole world already trynna keep us down.. WE still runnin s***. Flowers to mines.”

Uso followed that post up with another one taking a dig at unhappy fans.

“Oh That ‘cinema’ term we use in wrestling now… Came from the bloodline Your welcome,” he boasted.

Reigns and Punk look set to main event night two of WrestleMania and that does seem like the biggest match they have.

While winning the Rumble may not have been the most creative method to get there, the ends arguably justify the means.

Uso is currently a tag team champion with his brother Jimmy and their WrestleMania plans are not yet set.

Interestingly Solo Sikoa and his MFTs currently hold the other Tag Team titles, so a unification match where the Bloodline battle once again could be on the cards.

Reigns and Uso have been almost attached at the hip for the past five years now. From facing each other at the start of his record-breaking title reign to working alongside each other in the Bloodline to being rivals once again – and then making up again – they’ve told so many stories.

The 48-year-old called time on his wrestling career with a defeat to Gunther at the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia.

His WWE contract expired at the start of February so it was a case of perfect timing, but will he retire from wrestling full-stop?

It’s believed that AEW would be interested in signing Styles if he doesn’t want to quite hang up his boots and fans keep speculating that Styles may yet make an appearance with TNA.

At the end of his loss to Gunther, Styles started to take his gloves off to leave in the ring, but ultimately decided to keep them on.

Speaking on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast, Styles claimed he doesn’t know why he didn’t leave them in the ring.

“I don’t know,” Styles said. “Never say never, right, that’s the saying. And you know…I know there’s…I think everybody’s allowed once to come out of retirement.

“I’m not saying that I’ll do it anytime soon, I’m just saying…well, I mean, what if my son wrestles? The opportunity to tag with him once? You never know.

“So there’ll be a time when the gloves never go back on, and it may be now. But we’ll see.”

Styles seems very open to the idea of wrestling again if the right opportunity presents itself. The total opposite to Cena, it has to be noted.

His words will surely give AEW fans some enthusiasm for something special down the road – it’s certainly an open door.

Styles lost to Gunther at the Royal Rumble and as the stipulation called for, he had to walk retire from WWE.

But does that mean retiring from wrestling?

His WWE contract was up this month anyway so it seemed like a natural stopping point for all involved, especially given Gunther’s ‘career killer’ gimmick that had already retired Goldberg and John Cena.

Styles has been desperate to retire for a while. He has made no secret of his desire to stop wrestling, but we’ve heard similar things from names like Bryan Danielson before and they ended up working elsewhere.

Appearing on The Battleground podcast, AEW owner Tony Khan addressed Styles’ retirement.

“Oh, I’m a huge fan of AJ Styles. I think he’s incredible. He’s had great matches all over the world.

“We were just talking about ROH – he did some incredible things in ROH that are a part of our library, and also with our partners at New Japan Pro Wrestling. He was involved in some of the all-time greatest matches.

“His match with Minoru Suzuki is one of my all-time favorites, and he’s had great matches with multiple companies all over the world.

“He’s never been in AEW before, but he certainly has history with a lot of the promotions we work with. And of course, in ROH, he has a great history.

“For me, he’s one of my all-time favorites. Just personally, in my opinion, I think he’s one of the greatest wrestlers ever. I have only the highest praise for AJ Styles. Thanks for asking.”

Fightful has also reported that if AEW are told there’s a chance to sign AJ Styles, that’s exactly what they’ll try and do.

With just two months to go until WWE’s showpiece event of the year, Lesnar is looking for his first dance partner in two years after missing 40 and 41 due to his name popping up in the Janel Grant lawsuit.

Femi and Lesnar certainly looked like an exciting, fresh matchup when they went toe-to-toe in Saudi Arabia but according to Dave Meltzer, it’s not a forgone conclusion.

“That’s not 100% by the way,” Meltzer said. “It should be, I agree it should be but it’s not…I had asked about a bunch of matches for Mania and most of them were correct as it turned out, including Roman Reigns and [CM] Punk, although that was very clear obviously.

“But the one that I was told that’s not –I mean it could happen, I’m not saying it’s not happening, I’m just saying that I was told that this one’s not 100%, that was the Lesnar and Oba Femi match.”

It makes sense that the matchup would be pencilled in. Femi has just made the jump from NXT and WWE are incredibly high on his potential.

He has to be presented like a massive star from the jump and facing Lesnar at Mania should be the level you want to present him at.

For Lesnar’s part, he has faced pretty much every top guy in WWE today. He too could benefit from having a fresh dance partner and WWE can’t lose with the result.

If Lesnar beats Femi than the former NXT champion loses nothing in reality. Lesnar is a sure-fire Hall of Famer and is still a formidable beast.

Or, you have Femi beat him and he really arrives as a main eventer this year.

Let’s get into the results:

United States title Open Challenge: Carmelo Hayes (c) def. Rey Fenix

Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss def. The Judgement Day (Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez)

Axiom def. Johnny Gargano (and wins his mask back)

Ilja Dragunov def. The Miz

Sami Zayn, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso def. The Vision via DQ

Notes:

Jade Cargill attacked Jordynne Grace backstage.

A graphic accidentally flashed seemingly showing Bron Breakker is the first entrant into the men’s Royal Rumble tomorrow.

Damien Priest got his Royal Rumble number and he didn’t seem over the moon with it.

Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss did a fair amount of debating over the Royal Rumble.

Drew McIntyre interferred in the main event, very predictably.

Bron Breakker stood tall to close the show after Spearing both Zayn and Rhodes will they held McIntyre’s title.

AJ Styles and Gunther had an intense promo battle before the big match tomorrow.

Analysis

Sad to say, I think AJ Styles is really going to retire. WWE played a lot into that last week with making him wrestle overtime, but I think the whole playing up to what he is planning to do for the rest of the year makes it fairly obvious it’s all lined up for Gunther to get some more super heat.

You don’t have Gunther become the career killer and dispatch of Goldberg and John Cena just to stop now, at a Saudi Arabian Royal Rumble, do you? AJ Styles has been begging to retire – I think it’s over. Great segment, though, and I’m sure the match will be too.

WWE has done well to position the Royal Rumble as anyone’s game and the fields are stacked. There is a slight worry there won’t be too many surprises, but one assumes Chris Jericho will certainly be one.

It was a decent SmackDown, but nothing special. The hot Saudi crowd actually added a lot to it; we’ve come a long way from those first Saudi shows!

“This past Tuesday was my last appearance on NXT & subsequently WWE. Thank you to all who have cheered, watched, and supported me through my journey. While my decision to not renew my contract was very difficult, it’s also new turning point in my life. It has been an honor & a privilege to be Ava,” she wrote on Instagram.

She had been performing under the name of Ava and was the acting general manager in NXT.

She is still only 24-years-old and appears to be seeking a new opportunity.

Johnson joined the company in 2020 and only managed six matches, two of which were singles, during her tenure.

All of those matches came back in 2023.

A serious knee injury before she joined the company that had a tendency to flare up played a significant part in that. She then gravitated towards an on-screen personality role, which she grew into very well.

Speaking to Pat McAfee on the eve of the first pay-per-view in 2026, Reigns suggested WWE has not evolved creatively and some of the young stars are yet to get ‘over’.

“To be completely honest and transparent, two years ago, everything changed. What I’ve been doing out there hasn’t exactly been the same as what I’ve done before.

“The way I look at it, I’m a generous tribal chief. I give the people plenty of time – these young talents, get over, kids, get over, you know what I mean?

“And now we’re two years in, and we haven’t advanced. We haven’t evolved. We have great leadership – Nick Khan, God bless him, what a businessman, a genius—but we have to be able to keep up creatively.

“That’s why people like me – people striving to be the very best, the greatest, the GOATs, the MJs – just can’t sit around and watch mediocrity. Not when I’ve set it up for everybody to see at home.

“I mean, we’re on Netflix, for crying out loud. We’ve got people over here playing around, trying to figure it out, and I have the formula. I know how to cook it up.”

Reigns took a reduced schedule a couple of years ago which has seen him dip in and out like Brock Lesnar did once upon a time.

The 40-year-old took the company to new heights with The Bloodline storyline and his record breaking world title reign helping to usher in the Netflix deal WWE now enjoys.

But he isn’t impressed with the work done by his peers in his absence. Is he speaking in character. Absolutely. Is he mixing in some of his real feelings as well? Probably, yes.

When explaining why he needed to take a reduced schedule, Reigns admitted the grind of WWE and his busy family life finally collided.

Just six days before the Royal Rumble, let’s get into the results:

Six woman tag: Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY and Stephanie Vaquer def. Judgement Day (Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez)

Theory def. Rey Mysterio

WWE Tag Team titles number one contenders match: Alpha Academy (Otis and Tozawa) def. Los Americanos, American Made and The New Day

WWE World Heavyweight title: AJ Styles def. CM Punk (C) via DQ

Notes:

AJ Styles opens the show to talk about his match with Gunther, but CM Punk comes out, full fo respect we should add, to say he doesn’t like the matchup because it means he might not ever get the chance to wrestle AJ in a WWE ring. Styles takes that as a sign that Punk doesn’t believe he can beat Gunther and finds it disrespectful.

The outcome? Styles and Punk agree to fight for the title right here tonight.

Balor catches Punk backstage. Balor thanks Punk for the most memorable night of his career. Punk tells Balor that he needs to leave the Judgement Day and ‘garbage’ like Dom Mysterio if he wants to be champion again…

The Vision arrive in full force for a promo. They are here to have a face-to-face with GM Adam Pearce. Heyman shows footage that Pearce put his hands on Breakker first and he took brass knuckles from Heyman that Rey Mysterio then used to beat Theory.

Pearce gives a seemingly heartfelt, but confident apology. He lifts Breakker’s suspension, puts all Vision members in the Royal Rumble and then gives Theory and rematch agaisnt Mysterio.

Theory won, but there was carnage everywhere with Dragon Lee, Penta and The Vision all got into it at ringside. After the match, The Vision destroyed the luchadors. You give The Vision an inch, they take a mile.

Natalya gives her first promo since turning in a vignette backstage. “Natalya elevates. But Nattie decimates,” is her main line. Seems the Bloodsport Nattie has arrived.

Gunther does a sit down interview and Michael Cole questions why he wants to rob the fans of AJ Styles having a retirement year. Gunther says he’s sick of old timers clinging on for one more moment. Those are his moments.

Finn Balor tries to declare himself for the Royal Rumble but Adam Pearce tells him it’s full. Liv Morgan then catches the Irishman outside and scolds him for thanking Punk and considering leaving the Judgement Day. Balor says “It’s not as simple as it seems” and walks away.

Becky Lynch gives a promo backstage (very entertaining again) and she is interrupted by the Kabuki Warriors who says Becky is not ready for Asuka, Becky says she is… then they say “we’ll see you in the Rumble.”

Je’Von Evans catches AJ Styles backstage to wish him well and hopes he faces him on the retirement tour.

Oba Femi is announced for the Rumble.

The Vision discuss their Rumble plans backstage and Logan Paul proposes they work together to ensure Breakker wins it.

In the main event, after both Punk and Styles had given all they had, Balor attacked Punk, seemingly heeding Morgan’s words. A few shotgun dropkicks into the barricade and then three coup de grace.

Analysis

Interesting direction for Balor just as fans thought they might be getting the babyface version we have all missed. The thing with WWE at this time of year is, they line up world champions with challengers unlikely to beat them.

Yes, Drew McIntyre was the exception to that rule with Cody, but if you look at the Royal Rumble in years gone by, the champion hardly ever drops the title. The last time a world title changed hands on this PPV was four years ago and that was just so Brock Lesnar could then go into the Rumble and win.

So Balor finds himself in that position. It seems like Roman Reigns may well be on course to face CM Punk and Balor will most likely have a story with the Judgement Day, more specifically, Dom Mysterio.

Otis and Tozawa becoming the number one contenders – see my point above.

Something about Logan Paul suggesting Breakker has to win the Rumble immediately makes me suspicious. The group shouldn’t fracture at this point, but if Breakker doesn’t win this will be a moment to recall. Have to doubt Paul is this selfless all of a sudden.

If AJ Styles is not retiring on Saturday, then WWE are doing a good job fooling me. He’s been doing the rounds on all their shows and has snuck in a couple of dream matches before facing Gunther. They either know this makes it look like he’s retiring and are playing into it, or he really is going. I sense the latter – Styles has been begging to retire for a while.

A strong RAW by all accounts heading into the Rumble. Finn Balor was a good thread running through the show, some good developments with The Vision and a stellar, star-studded main event. Very good.