Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s live coverage for “WWE SmackDown” on May 15, 2026, coming to you live from the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina!

WWE Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley joined forces with Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair in an effort to score a win against Fatal Influence during last Friday’s episode of “SmackDown”. They were ultimately unsuccessful in doing so when Jade Cargill (who had been dethroned by Ripley as titleholder at WrestleMania 42) blindsided Ripley during the match and her allies Michin and B-Fab joined Cargill in the ring to continue beating down Ripley, Flair, and Bliss. Not only will Cargill be making an appearance on tonight’s show with something on her mind to share, but Michin and B-Fab will be squaring off against Bliss and Flair in a women’s tag team match.

United States Champion Trick Williams will be appearing in his hometown with something on his mind to share. As Williams said goodbye to his good friend The Gingerbread Man last Friday, Sami Zayn crashed the funeral to voice how ridiculous he thought the whole thing was. To Zayn’s surprise, The Gingerbread Man rose out of his casket to reveal himself as Williams’ Lil Yachty and cracked a candy cane kendo stick across Zayn’s spine repeatedly.

Ricky Saints will be going one-on-one with former United States Champion Carmelo Hayes. Although Saints came up short to Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes on the May 1 episode of “SmackDown”, he emerged victorious against Matt Cardona last Friday. Meanwhile, this will mark Hayes’ first match since unsuccessfully challenging the aforementioned Zayn for this then-United States Championship on the April 3 episode of “SmackDown”.

After scoring a win against MFT’s Talla Tonga in singles competition last Friday, one half of the World Tag Team Champions Damian Priest will be going head-to-head with Talla’s stablemate Tama Tonga. While Priest and the other half of the World Tag Team Champions R-Truth were supposed to originally take on Tama and Talla, “SmackDown” General Manager Nick Aldis announced on his X account that Truth “is not medically cleared to compete tonight”.

Additionally, GUNTHER will be making an appearance on tonight’s show after setting his sights on the aforementioned Rhodes’ Undisputed WWE Championship.