WWE SmackDown live results: Three Stages of Hell stipulation reveal
The first WWE SmackDown of 2026 from Buffalo, New York is also the first of the year to be in a three-hour format.
The show will be headlined by the reveal of the stipulations for the upcoming Three Stages of Hell match between WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre.
There will also be a rare ambulance match between bitter rivals Damian Priest and Aleister Black where the winner must send their opponent packing in an ambulance.
A star-studded eight woman bout is on tap when Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss take on The Kabuki Warriors, Nia Jax & Lash Legend. The match will be a preview for the WWE Women’s Tag Team title match between Asuka & Kairi Sane against Ripley & SKY on Raw this Monday.
The WWE Women’s United States Championship will be on the line as Chelsea Green defends against former titleholder Giulia.
Our live coverage kicks off at 8 p.m. Eastern.
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– Over a live shot of the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, NY, Michael Cole welcomed us to the first SmackDown of 2025. Cole then tossed to a recap of last week’s events involving Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre, which included the Three Stages of Hell match coming next week being set up.
– Shots of the aforementioned Rhodes, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, plus the Kabuki Warriors and the team of Lash Legend & Nia Jax arriving to the arena were shown. Inside the SmackDown arena, we saw an Ambulance situated next to the stage for the Damian Priest vs. Aleister Black match later tonight.
– As Cole and Corey Graves were talking, they were interrupted by The Miz, who angrily said that we weren’t moving on to 2026 until he aired his grievances for 2025.
The Miz’s 2025 Grievances
Miz started off by stating that he should’ve been the one to make John Cena tap out because of their shared history. He said that while Cena was out riding off into the sunset, he was stuck in Buffalo instead. Grievance #2: Young superstars who didn’t heed his advice and that everybody didn’t respect him enough. Grievance #3: He was passed over for Timothee Chalamet for Marty Supreme. Grievance #5: Miz said that He (in reference to Joe Hendry) ruined his final SmackDown of 2025 and that Hendry bringing back a very “untrue” nickname (“Tiny Balls”) hurt him. Miz said that we would not bring that nickname back, as he called himself the new face of WWE after John Cena left. Miz made a cheap local sports team heat reference by stating that unlike Buffalo’s sports teams, he won championships as he boasted his accolades, which in Miz’s eyes, made him the locker room leader.
Before Miz could continue on, the long-awaited sounds of “Voices” hit, which signaled the return of one Randall Keith Orton to SmackDown. Orton got a great ovation from the Buffalo crowd, as they serenaded him with a singalong of his entrance theme. As Orton got into the ring, he made Miz flinch by pretending to go after him before he posed on the turnbuckle. After a good while of posing for the crowd and the crowd chanting for him. Miz tried to hype himself and Orton as the gatekeepers of the locker room and the faces of the WWE, as he suggested “Miz-KO” as a name for them.
Orton’s response to this idea? An RKO out of nowhere to the hapless Miz. The crowd chanted for Orton to do it one more time. And with a “Happy New Year, Miz!” Orton obliged the crowd’s request with one more RKO.
I think this was an effective way to bring Randy Orton back into WWE, though I am curious about what’s in store for him, especially with previous teases of him eyeing the Undisputed WWE Title. Will the long-awaited feud with Cody Rhodes finally happen at some point? Only time will tell.
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– Lash Legend & Nia Jax talked with the Kabuki Warriors and said that they were owed a Women’s Tag Title shot after their team-up tonight. Asuka and Kairi Sane brushed off the idea as they got ready for the big eight-woman tag match coming up next.
– After the break, Randy Orton met up with Cody Rhodes and explicitly stated to the Undisputed WWE Champion that he is gunning for the title once Rhodes dealt with Drew McIntyre next week. Nick Aldis warned Rhodes about the “no-touch” stipulation when McIntyre shows up later tonight to lay out the Three Stages of Hell stipulations. Rhodes said that he’d get a handle of it.
Eight-Woman Tag Match: Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss vs. Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane), Nia Jax, Lash Legend
The bell rang with the heel women attacking their foes as Ripley was left to face Asuka off to start this match. Asuka stomped away on Ripley, but had her last kick blocked. Asuka got sent to the outside by Ripley, as did Sane. Tag to Alexa Bliss, who barreled into the Kabuki Warriors with a dive from the apron as we took the first of (surely many) commercial breaks for tonight.
We returned from the break as Jax and Legend were double teaming Bliss, to no avail. Legend got thrown out of the ring as Bliss then flattened Jax with a tornado DDT. Bliss got the tag to Flair, who hit both Legend and Jax with the crossbody. Flair teed off on both her opponents with chops as Legend got dropped by the somersault clothesline. Flair connected with Natural Selection on Jax as she then headed to the top rope and made no mistake with the moonsault. However, Jax managed to kick out at two.
On the apron, Flair hit Legend with a boot, but failed to connect with a slingshot spear as Jax blocked that maneuver. Asuka got the tag but immediately got stacked up for the pin by Flair, who then applied the Figure Eight submission. However, Sane got on the top rope and hit an Insane Elbow on Flair. Sane got thrown out of the ring by Bliss, while SKY was tagged into the match and unleashed her wrath on both Kabuki Warriors. Double missile dropkick on both Asuka and Sane by SKY, as Ripley was pulled down from the apron just as she was set for the tag.
In the ring, SKY was taken out by a powerful boot from Legend, but that wasn’t enough to put this one away as we got a sports-style replay of said boot before we took another break in the action.
The match continued from commercial as SKY created some needed separation between her and Sane, but Asuka knocked Bliss off the apron. SKY dumped Asuka as Ripley entered the match for the hot tag. Ripley was on fire as she used an unorthodox offensive move by using Sane as a weapon to knock Asuka down. Things began to break down when Jax attacked Ripley and we got all the women in the ring taking one another out. Sane was caught by Ripley after a failed high-risk maneuver and got hgit with Riptide. SKY got the tag and hit the Over The Moonsault to pick up the win for her team.
IYO SKY, Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair, and Alexa Bliss def. The Kabuki Warriors & Nia Jax and Lash Legend via pinfall
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– Backstage, Nick Aldis was talking with NXT’s Jordynne Grace, who was informed by Aldis that SmackDown’s 2026 could involve hjer. Chelsea Green appeared and tried to beg off of facing Giulia for the Women’s U.S. Championship. Mr. Aldis wasn’t buying it and threatened to “impeach” Green by stripping her of the Women’s U.S. Title.
WWE SmackDown recapper. Former NXT PLE/WWE Saturday Night's Main Event/fill-in recapper.