{"id":150941,"date":"2026-01-16T17:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=150941"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:20:18","slug":"tna-wrestling-star-challenges-for-title-on-wwe-smackdown-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/01\/16\/tna-wrestling-star-challenges-for-title-on-wwe-smackdown-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"TNA Wrestling Star Challenges for Title on WWE SmackDown in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

WWE SmackDown in London<\/a> was packed with a ton of action and a lot of news surrounding WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event XLIII<\/a>, as well as the 2026 Royal Rumble<\/a>. However, the surprises did not stop there as Carmelo Hayes defended the United States Championship in a “U.S. Open Challenge.” On social media, Melo tweeted out that he wants “Britain’s best,” and that’s precisely what he got in the form of TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater.<\/p>\n

Slater has had many standout performances, not only in TNA Wrestling but also recently in WWE. On the last WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event, wherein we saw the retirement of the “Never Seen 17” John Cena, Slater was handpicked to represent the future of this business by Cena himself, as he and newest WWE Raw signee Je’Von Evans took on Dragon Lee and AJ Styles.<\/p>\n

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

While they were unsuccessful in winning that match, they impressed the Washington, D.C. crowd, and Leon Slater was in London tonight to impress some more and hopefully become WWE United States Champion. Leon Slater is already the youngest X-Division Champion of all time. Is he poised to win the U.S. Title, too, and bring it back to the iMPACT Zone?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Slater pulled out all the steps, hitting his signature up-and-over the ring post, as well as an impressive Spanish Fly. Leon would be outgunned by the reigning champion, with Melo hitting the First 48, then an Avalanche Cutter to put away a defiant Leon Slater.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the result, the Brit impressed each and every one, pushing WWE’s United States Champion to the absolute limit. Kudos to the TNA X-Division Champion, Leon Slater, for a job well done.<\/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, Carmelo Hayes, Leon Slater, 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 was packed with a ton of action and a lot of news surrounding WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event XLIII, as well as the 2026 Royal Rumble. However, the surprises did not stop there as Carmelo Hayes defended the United States Championship in a “U.S. Open Challenge.” On social media, Melo tweeted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":147667,"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":[6,2192,26,8959,4,3],"tags":[7740,9187],"class_list":["post-150941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-america","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-tna-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-carmelo-hayes","tag-leon-slater"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150941","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=150941"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150946,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150941\/revisions\/150946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}