WWE: WWE U.S. Title Open Challenge Match Set for 1/16 WWE SmackDown Show, CM Punk Reportedly To Be Focus for WWE 2K26 Showcase Mode, Drew McIntyre on His Initial Goals for Pursing His Dream Careers

Jan 15, 2026

WWE U.S. Open Challenge Match Announced for Jan. 16th WWE SmackDown Show

WWE announced one new match for the card of this Friday’s WWE SmackDown show at the OVO Arena Wembly in London, England.

This upcoming show will be airing live starting at 3PM EST on Netflix for international viewers due to the show taking place in London.

This new match announced was a WWE United States Championship Open Challenge match of mystery opponent vs. Carmelo Hayes (c).

Current card for January 16th WWE SmackDown show:

WWE United States Championship Open Challenge match – mystery opponent vs. Carmelo Hayes (c)
Undisputed WWE Championship #1 Contender Tournament Qualifying match – Randy Orton vs. The Miz
Undisputed WWE Championship #1 Contender Tournament Qualifying match – Matt Cardona vs. Trick Williams
Undisputed WWE Championship #1 Contender Tournament Qualifying match – Damian Priest vs. Solo Sikoa
Undisputed WWE Championship #1 Contender Tournament Qualifying match – Sami Zayn vs. Ilja Dragunov
Undisputed WWE Champion Drew McIntyre to appear

CM Punk Reportedly To Be Focus for WWE 2K26 Showcase Mode

Insider Gaming reported that their sources stated that this year’s WWE 2K video game, WWE 2K26, is currently scheduled for a March release.

It was reported that CM Punk is set to be the focus star for the Showcase mode in this year’s game.

It was reported that part of this year’s Showcase will feature a “what if?” scenario of potential matches that could have happened had Punk never walked out of WWE in 2014.

This year’s Showcase mode reportedly will be broken down into three sections with the first section being some of Punk’s favorite matches throughout his WWE career, the second second being “what if?” matches, and the third being dream matches he was never able to have for various reasons.

Drew McIntyre on His Initial Goals for Pursing His Dream Careers

BBC Scotland held a recent interview with Undisputed WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. One of the topics discussed included McIntyre’s thoughts about his initial goals for pursing his dream careers were to play for the Rangers football club or wrestle for WWE.

“I’m Drew McIntyre, WWE superstar, more specifically the WWE Champion. I’m from Scotland as well. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. Ever since I was a kid and I saw WWE for the first time, I was captivated and had two goals. I was gonna play for Rangers or I was gonna wrestle for WWE. When I first started wrestling in Scotland, Scottish wrestling scene was dead and we had to start our own scene basically, and we were very lucky to get a farmer and a dog in attendance. Never lose that perspective of that young Drew dreaming and pushing, everyone telling me, ‘come on man that’s an American thing, you’re not going to do that,’ and achieving it, so every single day I feel so grateful to do what I’m doing because eventually it’s all going to be memories, given a couple of history making moments so when I first won the WWE title, I was the first ever Scot to win it. First person from Scotland or England. So I guess I’m the currently best in the world and what are the chances? What are the chances? I keep saying over and over because I don’t believe it quite yet, that the first match I’m going to have is back home in Scotland, where it all began.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com