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.

Judge James K. Bredar ordered that the plaintiffs in the Maryland lawsuit against Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon, and WWE may continue under anonymity for the time being. 

The plaintiffs sued the defendants, for their alleged role in covering up the child sexual abuse they endured as WWE ‘Ring Boys’ at the hands of senior staff like Mel Phillips and Pat Patterson, under the Child Victims Act of 2023 allowing historic child sexual abuse survivors to seek reparation that had previously been unavailable to them. 

While the case is being litigated before a decision is made to go to trial, the McMahons opposed an order granting the plaintiffs anonymity, citing that they were unduly prejudiced as public figures while they went on unknown to the public. The judge rejected those arguments and believed that the risks are not great enough to outweigh the risk to the plaintiffs if they were to have their identities known to the public. 

Per the order, the issue may be litigated if and when the case goes to trial. It was acknowledged, as the McMahons had argued, that it may be harder for the defense to find witnesses with knowledge damaging to the plaintiffs’ case. But the judge deemed that the disadvantage was less severe than they had argued. 

It was also agreed that the plaintiffs would be at risk of significant harm if their names were known to the public, and Bredar was convinced by the assertion that there would be a significant risk of re-traumatization, considering many closest to the plaintiffs have not even been informed of the trauma they alleged to have been subjected to. 

In response to Vince McMajon’s request as to a series of conditions if the court allowed anonymity to continue, Bredar directed all parties to discuss and jointly submit a protective order within 30 days accepting some of those. A request to bar the plaintiffs and their attorneys from making public statements was rejected. 

One half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, R-Truth, is reportedly not cleared to compete, and has been pulled from Friday’s edition of “WWE SmackDown.” Truth and Damian Priest were previously set to face Tama Tonga and Talla Tonga.

According to “SmackDown” General Manager Nick Aldis on X (formerly Twitter), Truth is not medically cleared to compete, so Priest will take on Tama Tonga in a singles match. Aldis did not elaborate on Truth’s injury. Priest and Truth last defended their titles on the May 1 episode against Fraxiom, and Priest was defeated by Talla Tonga last week.

As noted by PWInsider, as well as Cory Hays, formerly of BodySlam, the previous graphic for the tag match featured Priest and Truth going up against Tama Tonga and the released JC Mateo. Mateo and Tanga Loa’s departures from WWE were reported alongside Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston’s on May 2. The graphic is likely old, as Priest and Truth defeated Mateo and Tama Tonga on the April 24 edition of the show.

Also announced for “SmackDown” on Friday is a segment where GUNTHER must decide if he wants to join the brand to challenge Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. Former WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill is set to address WWE fans, and United States Champion Trick Williams is set to return to his alma mater, the University of South Carolina, for a victory celebration. Elsewhere on the show, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss will face off against Michin and B-Fab.

AEW Double or Nothing 2026 is rapidly approaching and tickets have been flying off the shelves in anticipation for the company’s annual celebration. The Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York has never held a wrestling event before, but whichever company tries to follow what AEW is producing with Double or Nothing has a high bar to surpass.

Dave Meltzer wrote in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Double or Nothing is likely to sell out, with a total of 13,848 tickets sold at the time of writing. The maximum capacity with limited or no staging, something Meltzer says is looking likely given the layout of the building, is 14,053, meaning that the company will have sold out the building before bell time. Meltzer also noted that the secondary market has become a lot stronger for the show given that there are so few tickets left to purchase, with the cheapest get-in price currently sitting at $73. Meltzer rounded off by saying that the marquee matchup of Darby Allin and MJF’s Title vs. Hair match has also helped shift tickets in the past week.

Elsewhere on the Double or Nothing card, the 2026 Owen Hart Foundation Tournaments will get underway. In the men’s tournament, Will Ospreay will face Samoa Joe and Swerve Strickland will take on Bandido, while Willow Nightingale and Alex Windsor will kick off the women’s tournament. The Stadium Stampede makes its return as Chris Jericho, The Elite, The Hurt Syndicate, and Jack Perry will take on The Demand, The Dogs, Mark Davis and Andrade El Idolo. Thekla will defend her AEW Women’s World Championship against Jamie Hayter, Hikaru Shida, and Kris Statlander. Konosuke Takeshita and Kazuchika Okada finally look to settle their score over the AEW International Championship, and if Adam Copeland and Christian Cage fail to capture the AEW World Tag Team Championships in their “I Quit” match against FTR, they will never team again.

Fans of former Women’s North American Champion, “The Glamour,” Blake Monroe may not have to wait on her “WWE SmackDown” debut much longer, according to a new report. Monroe was called up to the main roster following her casket match loss against Tatum Paxley on the April 21 edition of “WWE NXT: Revenge,” and teases for her arrival have been airing ever since on the blue brand.

According to PWInsider Elite, Monroe is expected to be on the road for “SmackDown” as early as next week, when the show takes to the Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. Monroe was amongst the slew of “NXT” callups following WWE WrestleMania 42, but she is the last to debut of those previously reported.

Monroe will join Fatal Influence’s Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Lainey Reid on the blue brand, as well as former NXT Champion Ricky Saints. Her fellow former Women’s NA Champion Sol Ruca was brought up to “WWE Raw.” Ethan Page and Joe Hendry joined Ruca on the red brand. Je’Von Evans, Oba Femi, and Trick Williams, all former “NXT” stars, have been making a splash on the main roster since before WrestleMania.

“The Glamour” made the jump from AEW, where she was known as Mariah May, to “NXT” back in June 2025, months after her highly-touted Hollywood Ending match against Toni Storm. Monroe is a former AEW Women’s World Champion, and she only held the Women’s North American Championship while competing in “NXT.” After winning the title from Zaria, defending on behalf of Ruca, at Halloween Havoc, Monroe lost the title in controversial manner in December 2026 in a botched finish against Thea Hail.