{"id":149831,"date":"2026-01-02T20:18:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T01:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=149831"},"modified":"2026-01-02T20:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T01:24:42","slug":"wwe-legend-returns-to-2026-new-years-edition-of-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/01\/02\/wwe-legend-returns-to-2026-new-years-edition-of-smackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE Legend Returns to 2026 New Year’s Edition of SmackDown"},"content":{"rendered":"

After nearly three months away from a WWE ring and his home of WWE SmackDown, a legend has returned on the January 2, 2026, edition of Friday Night Fight Night, with the “Viper” Randy Orton making his much-awaited return. To kick off the first three-hour SmackDown of 2026<\/a>, The Miz would air out his grievances, calling out people like John Cena, Carmelo Hayes, Joe Hendry, and even movie star Timothee Chalamet.<\/p>\n

Miz christened himself as the “only adult in a room full of children,” also effectively declaring himself as the “new face of WWE,” due to the retirement of John Cena, and the self-appointed locker room leader of SmackDown, as he ran down his illustrious resume in front of a heated Buffalo, New York crowd.<\/p>\n

The “Apex Predator” Randy Orton’s music would hit, as Miz quickly backtracked, saying\u00a0they<\/em> are the locker room leaders and faces of WWE, and they could be a team called “Miz-KO.” With an amused look on his face, Orton would try to say something, but instead, he ended up hitting The Miz with a devastating RKO. Egged on by the crowd, Orton would deliver one more for the road, hitting Miz with another RKO.<\/p>\n

\"SmackDown
Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Backstage, Randy Orton would get in touch with Undisputed WWE Champion, stating that once he beats Drew McIntyre in Berlin next week, he’s gunning for the title.<\/p>\n

WWE Universe, no one is safe as the biggest dog in the yard is back for 2026, and he looks like he’s on a mission. Welcome back to WWE SmackDown, Randy Orton!<\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> for more on Randy Orton, The Miz, WWE SmackDown results, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the significant news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Main Event, as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After nearly three months away from a WWE ring and his home of WWE SmackDown, a legend has returned on the January 2, 2026, edition of Friday Night Fight Night, with the “Viper” Randy Orton making his much-awaited return. To kick off the first three-hour SmackDown of 2026, The Miz would air out his grievances, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":144208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2192,26,4,3],"tags":[58,55],"class_list":["post-149831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-randy-orton","tag-the-miz"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149831"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149837,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149831\/revisions\/149837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}