{"id":151451,"date":"2026-01-23T21:12:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=151451"},"modified":"2026-01-25T09:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T14:36:07","slug":"two-huge-stars-declare-for-2026-wwe-royal-rumble-on-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/01\/23\/two-huge-stars-declare-for-2026-wwe-royal-rumble-on-smackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Massive Stars Declare for 2026 WWE Royal Rumble on SmackDown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the January 23rd, 2026 edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/01\/23\/wwe-smackdown-results-1-23-26-live-updates-from-montreal-canada\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">WWE SmackDown<\/a>, one of the best to ever do it in the promotion&#8217;s history makes his intentions clear as he declares for the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/01\/23\/report-powerhouse-hobbs-signs-with-wwe-ending-6-year-aew-tenure\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> 2026 WWE Royal Rumble men&#8217;s match<\/a>. That superstar is none other than the &#8220;Tribal Chief,&#8221; OTC, none other than Roman Reigns. Reigns&#8217; entry into the match was announced by Michael Cole on commentary, further bolstering the already impressive field for the Men&#8217;s Rumble match.<\/p>\n<p>The last time we saw Roman Reigns was at WWE Survivor Series: WarGames last November, as he was on the receiving end of a loss courtesy of The Vision and their cohorts. Since then, the OTC was M.I.A. But now, Reigns is on a warpath again, looking to reclaim his throne atop WWE by winning the Royal Rumble. Reigns has won one before in 2015, leading to the start of his illustrious career; can he win another one 11 years later?<\/p>\n<p>Also on SmackDown, Jordynne Grace was fed up with Jade Cargill only wrestling when the title was on the line. As such, Grace talked to SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis, and now Jordynne Grace is officially an entrant into the Women&#8217;s 2026 Royal Rumble Match, and it seems like we already know who Grace is going to challenge if she wins the match.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_150919\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-150919\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/11-23-1024x569.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic of WWE Royal Rumble 2026, featuring Cody Rhodes.\" width=\"640\" height=\"356\" class=\"wp-image-150919 size-large\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/11-23-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/11-23-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/11-23-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/01\/11-23.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-150919\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Both Men&#8217;s and Women&#8217;s Rumble matches are shaping up to be the best with the inclusion of Roman Reigns and Jordynne Grace.<\/p>\n<p><strong><b>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/b><\/strong><amp-ad data-block-on-consent=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"600\" layout=\"fixed\" data-multi-size=\"300x250,300x600\" data-multi-size-validation=\"false\" type=\"doubleclick\" data-slot=\"\/15188745,22512265771\/FS-lastwordonsports-AMP\/AMP-2\" data-enable-refresh=\"30\" data-lazy-fetch=\"true\" data-loading-strategy=\"1.25\" rtc-config=\"{ &quot;vendors&quot;: { &quot;t13&quot;: { &quot;TAG_ID&quot;: &quot;4f799893-5665-4629-b0fc-8b97d3569fd6&quot;, &quot;ACCOUNT_ID&quot;: &quot;9a3c6c23-453a-4cba-b419-30b908f39a50&quot; }, &quot;aps&quot;: { &quot;PUB_ID&quot;: &quot;600&quot;, &quot;PUB_UUID&quot;: &quot;16268e26-dabe-4bf4-a28f-b8f4ee192ed3&quot;, &quot;PARAMS&quot;: { &quot;amp&quot;: &quot;1&quot; } }, &quot;criteo&quot;: { &quot;NETWORK_ID&quot;: &quot;4905&quot;, &quot;ZONE_ID&quot;: &quot;1382491&quot;, &quot;PUBLISHER_SUB_ID&quot;: &quot;FS-lastwordonsports-AMP-2&quot; }, &quot;medianet&quot;: { &quot;CID&quot;: &quot;8CU8ZT2C4&quot; } } }\"><\/amp-ad><\/p>\n<p><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/span><u><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/span><\/a><\/u><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> for more on the WWE SmackDown, Royal Rumble, Roman Reigns, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/span><\/em><amp-fx-flying-carpet height=\"600px\"><amp-ad data-block-on-consent=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"600\" layout=\"fixed\" type=\"doubleclick\" data-slot=\"\/15188745,22512265771\/FS-lastwordonsports-AMP\/AMP-FlyingCarpet\" data-lazy-fetch=\"true\" data-loading-strategy=\"1.25\" rtc-config=\"{ &quot;vendors&quot;: { &quot;t13&quot;: { &quot;TAG_ID&quot;: &quot;f502adbd-5c9b-4d6f-9ec5-b0cdc0f4827c&quot;, &quot;ACCOUNT_ID&quot;: &quot;9a3c6c23-453a-4cba-b419-30b908f39a50&quot; }, &quot;aps&quot;: { &quot;PUB_ID&quot;: &quot;600&quot;, &quot;PUB_UUID&quot;: &quot;16268e26-dabe-4bf4-a28f-b8f4ee192ed3&quot;, &quot;PARAMS&quot;: { &quot;amp&quot;: &quot;1&quot; } }, &quot;criteo&quot;: { &quot;NETWORK_ID&quot;: &quot;4905&quot;, &quot;ZONE_ID&quot;: &quot;1382491&quot;, &quot;PUBLISHER_SUB_ID&quot;: &quot;FS-lastwordonsports-AMP-FlyingCarpet&quot; }, &quot;medianet&quot;: { &quot;CID&quot;: &quot;8CU8ZT2C4&quot; } } }\"><\/amp-ad><\/amp-fx-flying-carpet><\/p>\n<p><em>You can check out WWE programming on<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81788927\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Netflix<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>(Raw, WWE archives, WWE Unreal, and other specials),<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">USA Network<\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cwtv.com\/shows\/wwe-nxt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The CW<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>(NXT),<span>\u00a0<\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wwe\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ESPN<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/a>(WWE PLEs),<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/tubitv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tubi<\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aetv.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A&amp;E<\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments) and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peacock<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>(Saturday Night\u2019s Main Event). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">YouTube.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the January 23rd, 2026 edition of WWE SmackDown, one of the best to ever do it in the promotion&#8217;s history makes his intentions clear as he declares for the 2026 WWE Royal Rumble men&#8217;s match. That superstar is none other than the &#8220;Tribal Chief,&#8221; OTC, none other than Roman Reigns. Reigns&#8217; entry into the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":151452,"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":[9119,2422,77],"class_list":["post-151451","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-2026-royal-rumble","tag-jordynne-grace","tag-roman-reigns"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151451","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=151451"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151604,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151451\/revisions\/151604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}