WWE SmackDown Preview: Confirmed matches and segments (05-22-2026)
Tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown takes place from the Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. Several matches and segments have already been confirmed for the broadcast, which acts as the go-home show for Saturday Night’s Main Event this weekend.
There are rumors that NXT Women’s North American Champion Blake Monroe will be making her debut on the blue brand tonight, but this is not confirmed as of writing.
WWE SmackDown Matches and Segments Tonight
Here are all of the matches and segments that have been confirmed for tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown:
- Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Talla Tonga
Yep, just the one match announced so far for tonight, with Shinsuke Nakamura taking on Talla Tonga after The MFTs member put him through a table last week.
There will likely be more confirmed during the day for tonight’s episode, however with Saturday Night’s Main Event this weekend, it will most likely be build up for that show and the Clash in Italy PLE next weekend.
WWE SmackDown Tickets compared to SNME
Tonight’s show is the defacto go-home programme for tomorrow night’s SNME, which takes place from Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, IN. 10,039 tickets have been distributed for that event so far.
It is worth noting that the buildings are only around 4 hours or so away from each other, so people deciding to go to one event or the other could definitely have been a factor for tonight’s SmackDown ticket sales.
Jake is an SEO-minded Football, Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief, Sports SEO Coordinator for NationalWorld and SEO Writer for F4Wonline.com. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012 under the name Jake Jeremy. His work has also been featured on Wrestling Headlines, Wrestlingnewsco, HotNewHipHop, The Hard Times and Sportskeeda.
Previously, he worked as the Editor in Chief of 24Wrestling, building the site profile with a view to selling the domain, which was accomplished in 2019. Jake was previously the Editor in Chief for FightFans, a combat sports and pro wrestling site that was launched in January 2021 and broke into millions of pageviews within the first two years. He previously worked for Snack Media and their GiveMeSport site, creating Evergreen and Trending content that would deliver pageviews via Google as the UFC and MMA SEO Lead. Jake managed to take an area of GiveMeSport that had zero traction on Organic and push it to audiences across the globe. Jake also has a record of long-term video and written interview content with the likes of the Professional Fighters League, ONE and Cage Warriors, working directly with the brands to promote bouts, fighters and special events.
He previously worked for the (then) biggest independent wrestling company in the UK, PROGRESS Wrestling, as PR Head and Head of Media across the social channels of the company.