Matt Cardona RETURNS! Trick Williams & Jordynne Grace Move To Friday Night! Was The Return To 3 Hours A Flop? WWE SmackDown Review (1/2/26)
Off The Script w/JDfromNY
JDfromNY
4.6 • 964 Ratings
🗓️ 3 January 2026
⏱️ 139 minutes
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Summary
Matt Cardona RETURNS to the blue brand! In this WWE SmackDown Review for 1/2/26, @JDfromNY answers the big question. Was the return to a 3-hour format a FLOP or a total success? The first SmackDown of 2026 was absolutely stacked. We saw the massive debuts of Matt Cardona, Trick Williams, and Jordynne Grace. Plus, Drew McIntyre sets the rules for 3 Stages of Hell next week with Cody Rhodes.
Also In This Episode:
Matt Cardona returns full time to WWE, and what this means for Friday nights. The SmackDown 3-Hour format for 2026. Did WWE show fans enough change is coming to make SmackDown a great show once again? Trick Williams & Jordynne Grace as WWE continues to focus on the youth movement heading into 2026, and Carmelo Hayes' first United States Title defense against Johnny Gargano.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What is going on, guys? |
| 0:01.1 | Thank you so very much for joining me right here on Off the Script. |
| 0:04.0 | This is your Friday Night SmackDown Post Show, |
| 0:06.5 | and I got the TNT transition still live. |
| 0:09.4 | But you know what? |
| 0:10.5 | Fuck it. |
| 0:11.0 | It's still great. |
| 0:12.2 | Thank you guys very much for joining me on this Friday evening. |
| 0:15.8 | Wherever you may be, it's the first stream in the new year. |
| 0:18.8 | Friday, January 2nd, 2006. |
| 0:25.5 | I hope you guys had a great new year. |
| 0:28.2 | Hope you guys enjoyed yourself on Wednesday evening. |
| 0:32.7 | It's nice to get back to business. |
| 0:35.1 | It's nice to get back to business. |
| 0:36.8 | It's nice to sit in the chair. It's nice to talk pro wrestling. It's nice that the holidays are behind us and we can get back to work. Very much looking forward to that. Hopefully you guys had a great new year. Thank you for all the support. Thank you for all the kind words. Thank you for being here. For what I promise, we'll be the best year ever. And I will damn sure make it that way. |
| 0:59.9 | We got a lot of dreams. We got a lot of aspirations. We got a lot of hope. |
| 1:04.4 | So let's carry that on into 2006. Yes, it's Friday Night Titans. yes. Friday Night Titans. If Tuesday Night Titans could be |
| 1:13.5 | every week, man, there'd be no stopping us, honestly. You know, the one thing that |
| 1:20.3 | WWE needed to do this year, the one thing WWE needed to do tonight was start off right. |
| 1:33.9 | It needed to start the year off right. |
| 1:38.1 | They could not go and do what they did last year, which was safe, predictable booking. |
| 1:47.8 | They could not let Smackdown ride into the new year, the same way that it ended |
... |
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