Friday Night SmackDown aired live this week from inside the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, as we are 24 hours away from Saturday Night’s Main Event inside the same venue.
Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre were walking backstage when they ran into Jordynne Grace. Green told her she wanted to take the time to be the bigger person, as per usual, and tell her that she is a star that deserves a platform to shine on. That platform is Green offering the coveted position of being a Slaygent for Green’s Secret Hervice, thinking that Grace could start next week at the Royal Rumble when they team up together in the match, but as a better idea, why doesn’t she start tonight? Green will be facing the WWE Women’s Champion, Jade Cargill, and Grace decides to walk out with her.
Green decides to jump out of the ring onto Cargill to start the match, although The Storm quickly took control as Grace was very observant on the outside. Cargill taunted both her rival and opponent throughout, doing push-ups in the ring and getting into the face of Grace. Fyre also tried to get involved, only to receive a big boot from Cargill before hitting Jaded on Green for the victory.
Grace then took the microphone and entered the ring, questioning the point of the match and wondering if it was just to prove that she could wrestle without the title needing to be on the line. Grace has spoken to Nick Aldis and she confirms herself to be a participant in this year’s women’s Royal Rumble match, and after winning, she’ll be seeing Cargill on the other side – or, since she’s already warmed up, they can do this right here and right now. Cargill simply blows a fake kiss and leaves the ring.
Alexa Bliss was watching it all go down on a monitor backstage as her tag team partner Charlotte Flair booty bumped her again. Flair asks Bliss if she’s good because she seems distracted, although Bliss tells her that she thought they went over this last week: she can still focus on other titles and their team at the same time. However, Flair is actually worried about the Rumble being next week and wants to make sure they are going to be stronger than ever. Bliss says it would be hard to top last year’s match, which Flair agrees with since she won, although Bliss did make an epic return that night.
Bliss adds on to that and says that if Charlotte had won the WWE Women’s Championship from then-title holder Tiffany Stratton at WrestleMania 41 last April, they would not have been best friends, tag team champions, or trying to get the titles back. Flair believes that her words are true, but they will worry about the Rumble next week, and tonight, they will worry about the team.
Candice LeRae accompanied her husband Johnny Gargano for his match against Nathan Frazer, with the two (plus Axiom) continuing to beef over Axiom’s blue mask. As The Poison Pixie got up on the ring apron as she usually does to distract Frazer (and the referee openly noticing it), Axiom would grab his blue mask to put it on her face, making LeRae unable to see and accidentally clobbering Gargano for Frazer to win via roll-up. Initially irate, she soon swiped the mask back from Axiom and ran off into the crowd.
Cathy Kelley interviewed Nia Jax and Lash Legend right after, with Lash saying that they’ve proven week after week that they are the most dominant, destructive duo in all of WWE, so do they really need to say what they think is going to happen? Because to them, it’s quite obvious. Jax tells Kelley, in case she doesn’t get it, that tonight Lash and her will become the #1 contenders to the Women’s Tag Team Championships, then go on to the Women’s Royal Rumble and eliminate everyone one by one as a team, because they’re not fake like Charlotte or Alexa, who Jax thinks will most likely stab each other in the back. Legend says her and Jax are actually cohesive, so they are going to work together and eliminate all the competitors until one of them is on their way to WrestleMania.
The triple threat women’s tag team match took place in the last hour of the show, with the winning team going on to face the winners of tomorrow’s Women’s Tag Team Championship match: either current champions Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY or potential new champions Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez of The Judgment Day.
Kiana, Charlotte, and Lash began things for their respective teams, with each women battling for a semblance of control. Although Giulia and The Boujee Bully briefly tried to work together to take her out, Flair was able to stay steady throughout, throwing chops left and right aimed at Legend and James and being able to reverse their attempt at a double underhook suplex into a DDT of her own. Bliss tried to reach her hand for a tag, but Giulia would pull her down to the floor.
Surprisingly, the comparatively shorter James was able to hold Nia, who herself was carrying Charlotte on her back, and powerbomb her, although the subsequent pin attempt on Flair wasn’t successful. James started to berate Flair, but was soon bulldozed by Jax, prompting tags in to Bliss and Giulia, who fought with Jax over the next minute before sending The Irresistible Force out of the ring. Bliss was primed to hit Sister Abigail on Giulia, but would get a boot to the face from Lash. Giulia then tagged in James, who hit the 401K on Jax.
Bliss tried grabbing Lash in a Tornado DDT, but The Boujee Bully was able to muscle her way out of it and put her in position for the Lash Extension, which she hit before being speared out of the ring by Charlotte. James took advantage to pin Bliss for her and Giulia to win the match.
Cathy Kelley was at it once more, now interviewing Giulia and Kiana James backstage. She congratulates them and asks Giulia how she feels knowing they just won and could be a double champion soon. The Beautiful Madness responds in Japanese, with James translating and telling Kelley that Giulia is already the Women’s United States Champion and soon, the two of them will be the Women’s Tag Team Champions, and Giulia will be on her way to win the Royal Rumble and become a triple champion. Their plan is clear, and it’s just the beginning.
Saturday Night’s Main Event airs tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (5 p.m. for viewers in the Pacific Time Zone) on Peacock in the United States and Netflix in other countries. Here is what’s set to take place:
- Women’s Tag Team Championship: RhIYO (Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY) (c) vs. The Judgment Day (Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez) – the winners of the match will go on to face Giulia and Kiana James
The 2026 Royal Rumble airs Saturday, January 31st from the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern Time (11 a.m. for viewers in the Pacific Time Zone) on ESPN+ in the United States and Netflix in other countries.
It will feature the women’s Royal Rumble match. You already know the drill – 30 women will battle it out in 1 ring, and the winner of the match will go on to WrestleMania 42 in April to face either the Women’s World Champion, Stephanie Vaquer of Monday Night Raw, or Women’s Champion, Jade Cargill of Friday Night SmackDown. 15 Superstars have declared that they will compete so far, featuring the likes of:
- IYO SKY
- Rhea Ripley
- Roxanne Perez
- Liv Morgan
- Raquel Rodriguez
- Bayley
- Lyra Valkyria
- Asuka
- Chelsea Green
- Jordynne Grace
- Charlotte Flair
- Alexa Bliss
- Nia Jax
- Lash Legend
- Giulia
There are still 15 spots left remaining, to be filled by a mix of other women from Raw and SmackDown, women from NXT, Evolve, LFG, and possibly even Legends or Hall of Famers.
Next week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown will also air from the same venue, although no women’s matches or segments are currently advertised.
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s edition of SmackDown, plus your SNME and Royal Rumble predictions in the comments below.