{"id":150928,"date":"2026-01-16T16:48:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=150928"},"modified":"2026-01-16T18:05:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T23:05:26","slug":"grudge-match-set-for-wwe-saturday-nights-main-event-snme-xliii-on-smackdown-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/01\/16\/grudge-match-set-for-wwe-saturday-nights-main-event-snme-xliii-on-smackdown-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Grudge Match Set for WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event (SNME) XLIII on SmackDown in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

WWE SmackDown in London<\/a> on January 16, 2026, went off the rails, but in an absolutely good way. It was the first night of Drew McIntyre as Undisputed WWE Champion, as well as Cody Rhodes’ first SmackDown without it. The “American Nightmare” would declare a couple of things, such as earning a shot at the Undisputed WWE Title<\/a>, as well as unfinished business with Jacob Fatu, leading to an announcement for WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event (SNME) XLIII.<\/p>\n

Rhodes made it crystal clear that Fatu had a huge “receipt” coming his way after costing Cody the Undisputed WWE Championship last week in Germany<\/a>. Later in the night, Fatu would batter Kit Wilson to make a point, asking Rhodes to come and meet him in the ring and do something about it. Cody would oblige, leading to a massive fistfight smackdab in the middle of the ring and WWE Universe in London.<\/p>\n

The two were separated by a sea of WWE security and officials, with Nick Aldis even trying to lend a hand to keep these two apart. Unfortunately, these two were out for blood, and it took a lot to keep them from trying to tear each other apart, leading to Aldis announcing through the WWE commentary team that at WWE SNME, Cody Rhodes will take on Jacob Fatu in a Grudge Match to settle their differences.<\/p>\n

\"A
Photo Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These two have history, but the tension now is higher than ever before and it’s going to be one heck of a fight on January 24th, 2026 in Canada. It’s Jacob Fatu versus Cody Rhodes at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event (SNME) XLIII; prepare for chaos!<\/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 WWE SmackDown, WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event (SNME) XLIII, 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><\/amp-ad><\/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":"

WWE SmackDown in London on January 16, 2026, went off the rails, but in an absolutely good way. It was the first night of Drew McIntyre as Undisputed WWE Champion, as well as Cody Rhodes’ first SmackDown without it. The “American Nightmare” would declare a couple of things, such as earning a shot at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":131994,"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":[2,12,2192,26,4,3],"tags":[98,3006,9074],"class_list":["post-150928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-jacob-fatu","tag-wwe-saturday-nights-main-event"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150928","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=150928"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150960,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150928\/revisions\/150960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}