The road to WWE Royal Rumble 2025 continues tonight, as WWE SmackDown goes down from the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon with the second three-hour episode of 2025.
Scheduled for tonight’s show is Shinsuke Nakamura vs. LA Knight for the WWE United States Championship, Chelsea Green vs. Michin for the WWE Women’s United States Championship, new WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton will address the WWE Universe and more.
The following are complete WWE SmackDown results from Friday, January 10, 2025. The following report was written by PWMania.com reporter Matt Boone (@MattBoone0709) as the show aired live from 8-11pm EST. on USA Network.
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS – JANUARY 10, 2025
“WWE Then. Now. Forever. Together.” starts us off as always. We then shoot inside a packed Moda Center in Portland, OR. where Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett are standing at ringside holding microphones.
They welcome us to the show and mention they will be the new commentary team going forward, with Michael Cole and Pat McAfee taking over on WWE Raw, and Corey Graves joining the WWE NXT commentary team.
We see arrival shots of new WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton, “The Wise Man” Paul Heyman and others. An elaborate video package recapping the historic WWE Raw on Netflix debut show from this past Monday night airs.
Chaos With Paul Heyman, Cody Rhodes & Kevin Owens, Jimmy Uso & The Bloodline
Once it wraps up, we return inside the Moda Center where we hear, “Ladies and gentlemen …” Out comes Paul Heyman to kick off this week’s show in the ring on the microphone. He talks about being proud to say now that there is one and only undisputed Tribal Chief on The Island of Relevancy. Roman Reigns.
Heyman continues and says Reigns has authorized Heyman to let us know what is next on his plate and he wants to share this news with us and one man – Cody Rhodes. Heyman invites Cody Rhodes down to the ring and Rhodes obliges and makes his way to the ring.
He settles inside the ring and Heyman goes on to tell Cody Rhodes how much of a credit he is to WWE. He then informs him, per Roman Reigns, that he intends to get back what is his, which is the Undisputed WWE Championship. He says he has also authorized to tell him Reigns has declared for the 2025 Men’s Royal Rumble.
“So, with that, respectfully. Cody Rhodes … what do you want to talk about?” Before he can answer, we hear Kevin Owens’ voice. The camera catches up with “The Prize Fighter” walking-and-talking in the crowd. He tells Cody this is his fault. He could’ve left Reigns to die when The Bloodline fell apart, but instead propped him back up, and now look what’s happening.
As he gets closer to the barricade, Cody hops it and the two begin brawling in the crowd. They fight off-camera shot and the camera focuses on the ring, where we see Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga have snuck in behind Heyman. Heyman turns around and the two slowly back him into a corner, where he cowers until the theme for Jimmy Uso hits.
He sprints down to the ring and begins brawling with Fatu and Tonga. Uso gets a hold of steel chair and starts whacking bodies. He turns and gets run over by Jacob Fatu. With Uso down, Fatu and Tonga begin to put the boots to him in the corner while a chair is wrapped around his neck. Fatu lays out a referee.
Fatu super kicks another official in a suit. Cody Rhodes comes back into the ring and beats down Tonga. He turns, as does Fatu, and the two have an intense stare down while moving slowly towards each other. They engage and the fight is on.
Cody sends Fatu sailing out of the ring. Tonga and Fatu stare Cody down from the floor while a ton of officials hold them back. Cody’s theme hits to end the chaotic opener. On that note, the show shifts into the first commercial break of the evening.
WWE Women’s United States Championship
Chelsea Green (c) vs. Michin
When the show returns, we see a brief backstage segment. Officials are yelling and arguing with Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga, when LA Knight comes by and kicks them out of the arena — literally — and leaves.
Back inside the arena, Michin makes her way to the ring for our first match of the evening. The familiar sounds of Chelsea Green’s entrance tune hits next and out comes “The Hot Mess” for the first televised defense of her newly won WWE Women’s United States Championship.
The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with this title tilt. As soon as things get started, Michin looks for her Eat DeFeat finisher out of the gate, but the champ hits the mat and rolls out to the floor to avoid it.
Michin hits a dropkick and covers for a near fall. Green slams Michin into the turnbuckles and runs into a boot by Michin. Michin gets Green caught up in the ropes in a submission hold. Green is able to throw Michin outside the ring and slams her into the barricade.
The action resumes inside the ring again, where Green punches away at Michin as the show heads into a mid-match commercial break. When we return, we see Green has Michin in a headlock in the middle of the ring. Michin hits a snapmare to get out of the hold and Green bounces back and puts Michin back in a hold.
Michin hits a back suplex and breaks the hold. Michin elbows Green and kicks her in the face and hits two head scissor take downs followed by a dropkick. Michin cannonballs into Green in the corner and covers for a two count. Green hits a cradle facebuster and covers Michin but Michin kicks out.
Green gets on the top turnbuckle and attempts a dropkick but misses. Michin nails Green with some kicks and kicks Piper Niven in the face and senton’s onto Niven outside the ring. Michin gets on the top rope and hits a crossbody but Green rolls through and pins Michin to retain her Women’s U.S. title. Once the match is over, Niven attacks Michin.
Winner and STILL WWE Women’s United States Champion: Chelsea Green
Los Garza vs. Pretty Deadly
We shoot backstage, where we see Los Garza, Pretty Deadly and The Motor City Machine Guns talking with SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis. A-Town Down Under comes by and says they deserve a title shot and maybe they’ll go to Raw.
Aldis says MCMG can face A-Town Down Under and Pretty Deadly can battle Los Garza in separate tag-team matches tonight. Inside the arena, Santos Escobar leads Los Garza to the ring for the first of these two bouts.
As they finish their entrance, we head to a pre-match commercial break. When we return, Pretty Deadly are finishing up their ring walks. The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with this tag-team tilt.
Los Garza dominate the early action. Pretty Deadly finally make the tag and hit a dastardly heel spot behind the referee’s back to shift the offensive momentum in their favor for the first time in the match.
On that note, the show heads into a mid-match commercial break as the action continues. When we return, we see Los Garza starting to come back, when another hair pull from behind from the non-legal Pretty Deadly member on the ring apron cuts off their momentum.
Moments later, Elektra Lopez hops on the ring apron to provide a distraction. While the referee is dealing with her, Santos Escobar crotches one-half of Pretty Deadly on the top-rope. This leads to a double-team finisher from Los Garza for the pinfall.
Winners: Los Garza
WWE United States Championship
Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. LA Knight
Wasting no time, we hear the radio sound effects into the familiar sounds of LA Knight’s theme music. Out comes “The Mega Star” for our second U.S. title of the evening. This time it’s a rematch for the men’s U.S. title. We head to a quick pre-match commercial break.
When we return, Knight is in the ring and his music dies down. The lights in the Moda Center go out and the ominous sounding intro to Shinsuke Nakamura’s new entrance tune plays. Out comes the reigning and defending WWE United States Champion.
The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with our second title tilt of the evening. Nakamura goes for a kick and lands in a headlock. They lock up again and end up in at the turnbuckle and the ref breaks it up. Knight starts with punches on Nakamura and hits a neckbreaker on Nakamura.
Nakamura is stomped on in the corner and Nakamura rolls out onto the apron. Nakamura kicks Knight and pulls him out on the apron. Nakamura knees Knight in the face and they get back in the ring. Nakamura stomps on Knight and Knight and Nakamura trade punches and kicks. Nakamura lays Knight on the top turnbuckle and slams into Knight’s torso sending Knight out for the ring.
Knight clotheslines Nakamura and throws him over the ropes outside the ring. Knight baseball slides into Nakamura and slams Nakamura’s head into the announce desk. Knight attempts to slam Nakamura into the ring post but Nakamura slides out of the hold and slams Knight into the ring post twice. On that note, we shift gears and head into a mid-match commercial break.
This time when we return we see both men are laid out and they get back on their feet and trade right hands in the center of the ring. Knight takes out Nakamura with a clothesline and mounts Nakamura and punches him. Knight slams down Nakamura and hits an elbow on Nakamura and covers but Nakamura kicks out.
Knight gets Nakamura on his shoulders and Nakamura slinks out off and Knight starts punching Nakamura. Knight is sent into the turnbuckles and we see on of the pads on the turnbuckles has been removed. Nakamura kicks Knight who is propped on the second rope and Nakamura then kicks Knight in the face.
Knight hits a superplex off the top rope and covers for a near fall. Knight slaps Nakamura in an inverted crab and Nakamura gets to the ropes to break the hold. Nakamura kicks Knight down and Knight rolls up Nakamura for a one count.
Nakamura hits an elbow on Knight and hits the Kinshasa and Knight gets his foot on the ropes. Nakamura sets Knight’s head against the exposed turnbuckle and tries to ram his head into it but Knight moves and hits the BFT. Tama Tonga and Jacob Fatu run in attack Knight.
Tonga and Fatu destroy Knight in the ring. Cody Rhodes and Jimmy Uso run out to make the save. They attack Tonga and Fatu. Officials come out and Rhodes gets on the mic and tells Aldis to not send Fatu and Tonga home and to set up a match between Fatu and Tonga against Rhodes and Uso. Aldis says, off-mic, that it’s official. We head to another commercial break.
Winner via Disqualification: LA Knight
Motor City Machine Guns vs. A-Town Down Under
When we return from the break, Tessitore and Barrett bring up Tiffany Stratton finally capturing the WWE Women’s Championship on last week’s show after cashing in her Money In The Bank briefcase. We see an extensive video package recapping this sequence of events.
After the video package wraps up, Tessitore and Barrett mention that we will hear from the new Women’s Champion later in the show. The theme for former tag-team champions Motor City Machine Guns hits. Out comes Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley for our next match of the evening.
As the MCMG duo settle inside the squared circle, we shift gears and head into another quick pre-match commercial break. We return from the break to Tessitore talking about 10,000+ fans being packed inside the Moda Center tonight.
The theme for A-Town Down Under hits and out comes the heel duo of Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. The arrogant tandem head to the ring and settle inside the squared circle for our next tag-team tilt of the evening. The bell sounds and off we go.
