WWE SmackDown Results, Winners, Live Grades, Reactions, Highlights After Royal Rumble 2026

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of WWE SmackDown on February 6.

We are fresh off The Royal Rumble, and while Roman Reigns has already declared his intention to challenge CM Punk at WrestleMania following his Rumble win, Liv Morgan hadn't announced her pick heading into Friday's show.

The Rumble also saw the debut of Royce Keys, formerly known as Powerhouse Hobbs in All Elite Wrestling. He didn't show up on Raw, so all eyes were on SmackDown to see if the newcomer showed up.

Also, after weeks of teases during backstage interactions, Tama Tonga and Shinsuke Nakamura finally stepped into the ring for a match.

Let's take a look at what happened on this week's SmackDown.

Cody Rhodes Holds a Grudge

Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images

After a video recap of the Rumble and the usual shots of Superstars arriving at the venue, Drew McIntyre made his way to the ring to kick off the show.

Before Drew could actually get to the ring, Cody Rhodes attacked him from behind and began beating him up until security separated them.

The American Nightmare grabbed a mic and cut a scathing promo on the man who eliminated him from the Rumble.

After vaguely claiming to have a large penis for some reason, Rhodes ended the promo and stared at the WrestleMania sign knowing his path to the event was still unclear.

This was an energetic way to kick off the show with a little action and a promo that didn't last any longer than necessary. This got the crowd hot for the rest of the show.

Grade: B-

Rhiyo vs. Kiana James and Giulia

Joe Maher/WWE via Getty Images

Last time in action: Rhiyo and Stephanie Vaquer defeated Judgment Day (Raw, Jan. 26), Giulia and Kiana James win a triple threat tag match (SD, Jan. 23)

After Nick Aldis was shown asking Rhodes to leave the arena for his own good, we went back to the ring for a women's tag title match with Ripley and Sky defending the belts against James and Giulia.

Ripley and James had a brief exchange before Giulia tagged in and demanded Sky come in to face her. The U.S. champ won an exchange of strikes and mocked The Genius of the Sky before the high-flyer made her pay for it.

The women's tag team division in WWE has a tendency to ebb and flow, but recent months have seen increased attention placed on the titles thanks to a few high-profile stars being heavily involved.

Rhiyo has been a great babyface team, and Giulia and James have developed into a solid duo even if Giulia is booked much stronger than James in singles matches. They gave the champions a good challenge this week.

This bout had good energy from all four women, but the outcome was pretty predictable. After overcoming a close call, Rhiyo got the win to retain.

Result: Rhiyo defeated James and Giulia

Grade: B-plus

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Notable Moments and Observations

Sky is very popular, but the reaction Ripley got made her look like a rockstar.

Wade Barrett kind of made a "Dashing" Cody Rhodes reference on commentary that probably flew under the radar for most people.

It's easy to underestimate James' size until you see her next to someone like Ripley. James is deceptively muscular.

The suicide dive Sky hit toward the end of the match was wild. She almost ended up faceplanting into the floor.

Carmelo Hayes vs. The Miz

Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images

Last time in action: The Miz and lost the Rumble (Royal Rumble PLE), Carmelo Hayes defeated Rey Fenix (SD, Jan. 30)

We thought we were going to see Ilja Dragunov challenge for the United States Championship, but it ended up being The Miz following a backstage interaction.

The A-Lister went right after the champion once the bell had rung. He looked more aggressive than he has in quite some time, but Melo didn't take too long to begin fighting back.

The storyline between these two has gone on longer than it needed to, but adding Dragunov to the mix has helped keep it fresh. These three men have fought several times in every combination possible, so it feels like a triple threat is inevitable.

Melo has been fantastic in every outing he's had as the U.S. champion, and he once again helped The Miz put on one of his best performances in recent memory. Hayes got the win, but both men came away from this looking great.

Result: Hayes defeated The Miz

Grade: B-plus

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Notable Moments and Observations

Dragunov not putting up more of a fight to be the challenger this week seemed out of character.

The Miz hit Hayes with what might be the stiffest chop he has ever delivered. The sound it made was loud.

The way The Miz countered a frog splash and turned it into a pin looked smooth.

Lash Legend vs. Chelsea Green vs. Tiffany Stratton

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Last time in action: Lash Legend, Tiffany Stratton and Chelsea Green all lost the Rumble (Royal Rumble)

After all three women came up short on Saturday at the Rumble, Green, Stratton and Legend stepped into the ring for a chance to compete in the Elimination Chamber. Tiffy and Legend sent Green out of the ring and took care of Alba Fyre before they took the fight to each other.

The former United States champion recovered and ended up hitting a huge dive from the top rope to the floor before Legend wiped her out with a big boot to send us into a break.

All three women filled different roles in this match. Legend was the powerhouse heel, Stratton was the typical babyface, and Green fell somewhere between. The crowd loves Chelsea, but she is great at getting them to cheer for her opponents, too.

This bout had some highlights, but it also had a few moments that didn't look as good as desired. None of them ruined the match, though. In fact, the last couple of minutes were a lot of fun. Stratton got the win with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever to advance to the Elimination Chamber.

Result: Stratton defeated Green and Legend

Grade: B-

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Notable Moments and Observations

Bo Dallas and The Wyatt Sicks had a video promo directed at Solo Sikoa. We also saw Stratton and Green have a backstage interaction before this match.

Nia Jax may not have been competing but she ended up taking a few bumps by catching Tiffy and Green during dives.

The second suplex Stratton hit on Green almost ended badly due to how Green wasn't balanced properly and almost fell in the wrong position.

Kit Wilson vs. Oba Femi

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Last time in action: Kit Wilson defeated Apollo Crews (Main Event, Jan. 23), Oba Femi lost the Rumble (Royal Rumble)

Wilson came to the ring and gave another promo about toxic masculinity. He focused on the Royal Rumble and got the crowd to chant "Toxic" every time he said it. He put out an open challenge to anyone who was in the Rumble with him, which was answered by Oba Femi.

The Ruler proceeded to decimate Wilson with a couple of moves to get the easiest win of his career. This match was so fast that there is no way to even rate it properly. It was basically over in two moves.

Result: Femi defeated Wilson

Grade: Incomplete

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Notable Moments and Observations

The video that recapped some of the Rumble stats did a good job recapping the matches in less than two minutes.

Wilson's character might be dumb, but he was pretty funny in this promo.

Damian Priest was shown watching Femi's match with R-Truth backstage.

The Champion Has Many Enemies

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After failing to begin his promo at the top of the show, McIntyre came back out to the ring to give it another shot.

Before he could speak, Jacob Fatu attacked him from behind. He took The Scottish Psychopath down with a huge suicide dive before taking out a bunch of security guards who tried to break up the fight.

This was much quicker than the fight between Rhodes and McIntyre earlier, and it didn't lead to Fatu giving a promo, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

The champion should be a target for everyone on the roster and WWE has done a good job establishing McIntyre as a man with many enemies.

Grade: B-

Tama Tonga vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Rich Wade/WWE

Last time in action: Nakamura lost to AJ Styles (SNME, Jan. 24), The MFTs defeated The Wyatt Sicks (SD, Jan. 23)

Two men who have history dating back several years to their time in NJPW stepped into the ring for a fight this week when Nakamura faced Tonga. These two have had a handful of interactions recently to build up to this showdown.

Tonga has been in WWE for almost two years, but this match might be the first time he has looked like a threat as a solo act. He has almost exclusively served as a henchman for Solo Sikoa, so it was great to see him get a chance to have his own program.

He controlled Nakamura for most of the first half and through the commercial break. The King of Strong Style made a comeback when we returned, but he still had to worry about Tama's allies at ringside.

Unfortunately, JC Mateo and Tanga Loa got involved and helped Tonga get a dirty win over Nakamura, which is easily his biggest singles victory to date in WWE.

Result: Tonga defeated Nakamura

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

Aldis was shown telling Fatu to leave the building or he would lose his chance to be in the chamber.

It seems like the MFTs might be using the Freebird rule for the titles because Tama was not carrying one of the belts. Loa and Mateo had them.

Tonga hit a move that was very similar to the Cross Rhodes, but he twisted a different way on the way down.

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

Joe Maher/WWE via Getty Images

Aldis welcomed Liv Morgan to the ring to talk about winning the Royal Rumble. Raquel Rodrigues was by her side, but the rest of Judgment Day was absent.

She talked about having to pick between Jade Cargill and Stephanie Vaquer for her WrestleMania title shot, but she said 'Mania is not the only thing on her mind.

Rodriguez took the mic from her and said she wanted to address the elephant in the room, but Cargill's music hit before she could say more. She warned Morgan against choosing her before getting in Raquel's face.

Jordynne Grace joined the party and Aldis booked a tag match that got started right away. Morgan and Rodriguez were both planted with spinebusters by the powerhouses, who immediately began arguing about who would be the legal competitor as the show went to a break.

The segment that led into the match was pretty standard stuff, but Morgan's energy helped make it more entertaining. The fight that followed saw a miscommunication lead to Rodriguez taking out Morgan with a big boot.

Grace ended up getting the win for her team by pushing Raquel into Jade and then rolling her up. While this wasn't a bad match, it didn't exactly leave a lasting impression either.

Result: Grace and Cargill defeated Morgan and Rodriguez

Grade: C-plus

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Notable Moments and Observations

Johnny Gargano was shown backstage looking very depressed. Candice LeRae couldn't snap him out of it, and Fraxiom and MCMG had no interest in helping.

Morgan looked genuinely elated. She even gave Aldis a high five.

It was weird how it looked like Raquel and Liv were going to argue but then seemed fine a minute later.

Randy Orton vs. Aleister Black vs. Solo Sikoa

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Last time in action: Black lost to Priest (SD, Jan. 2), Sikoa and Orton lost the Rumble (Royal Rumble)

Drew McIntyre finally got to give his promo and talked about feeling insulted by Roman Reigns and CM Punk implying the world title meant more than the WWE Championship. He had a quick interaction with Trick Williams before leaving.

After the break, we got the main event with Orton, Black and Sikoa competing for one of the spots in the Elimination Chamber.

These are three very different kinds of performers, but all three are talented enough to work with just about anybody, so it took them no time at all to find their groove.

This match followed the typical layout of a triple threat. We got to see every combination of opponents fight one-on-one with moments of all three men fighting at once sprinkled in.

There were no alliances, so it never felt like anyone was at a disadvantage, which made the outcome harder to predict because all three men would be suitable competitors in the Chamber.

While this was not the best match of the night, it was definitely a worthy main event. They did a good job keeping everyone on their toes until the end. The Viper scored the win with an RKO to Sikoa, earning him a spot in his 10th Chamber match.

Result: Orton defeated Black and Sikoa

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

Aldis booked a title match between Grace and Cargill for next week.

Seeing Zelina Vega stand next to Orton makes her look even smaller than she actually is.

Orton hasn't used the sequence where he stomps on various body parts much in recent years, but it was fun seeing him do it to both opponents at once.

Trick Williams watched the match from ringside but didn't join the commentary team for some reason.

The Final Word

Friday's SmackDown was a good followup episode to the Royal Rumble because it did a good job balancing recapping the PLE and setting up Elimination Chamber at the same time.

However, the real attraction this week was how action-heavy the episode felt. Not only did it not feature any overly long promo segments, but we got seven matches, which is more than most WWE PLEs these days.

The women's division was highlighted across three matches with a total of 11 talents competing and several more being involved in non-wrestling roles.

While Hayes and The Miz had the best match of the night, Rhiyo vs. Giulia and James was a close second. 

This was a strong episode that did a good job laying the groundwork for the Chamber and next week's SmackDown. 

Grade: B