8 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (16 Jan - Results & Review)

1. A Different Kind Of Cody Rhodes Promo

Cody wasn’t the WWE poster boy champ here.

He acknowledged the mixed reaction from the crowd in London, as well as chants for Drew, then called his second WWE Title reign “a little bit episodic”. After that, Rhodes got fired up and declared himself for the Royal Rumble, put McIntyre over as “just that good”, called out Jacob Fatu and expertly handled the tweener response he was getting.

Yep, this was really, really good, because it continues to show a developing and different side to Rhodes. He’s absolutely right too. Some of his promos as champ were starting to feel a touch formulaic, and his cry of: 'What do you wanna talk about?' often seemed a tad forced or (dare we suggest) phoned in; that was especially true when he had to carry select PLE builds on his own.

Cody brawled with Fatu later when Jacob called him out, and they’re now official for Saturday Night’s Main Event. No, it still doesn't make much sense that Rhodes went after Fatu during his '3 Stages Of Hell' loss to Drew in Berlin, but wrestling Jacob is a neat spin off post-title defeat for the 'American Nightmare'. You just know he and Fatu will get so physical that even Dragunov will be wincing watching it on the monitors backstage.

SmackDown's promo was one of Cody's strongest and most interesting for a while. He didn't ignore how fans were reacting to him, but wasn't full blown heel either. The internal battle Rhodes will contend with before he does go rogue could produce some of the best TV of 2026. Strap yourselves in for that.

What did you think of this week's WWE SmackDown? For more wrestling, check out 25 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Ruthless Aggression PPV and 12 Super Weird Quirks Unique To ONE Wrestler!