Drew McIntyre won the Undisputed WWE Championship from Cody Rhodes on the January 9, 2026 episode of SmackDown, in a Three Stages of Hell match. The title changed hands in the third stage, a steel cage match, after Jacob Fatu returned and attacked both men.
The three stages and how each one ended
WWE announced the match as three separate stipulations, each with its own rules. The stages were a traditional singles match, a Falls Count Anywhere match, and a steel cage match. According to WWE’s official results for the show, the first two stages split between the wrestlers, so the third stage decided the championship.
| Stage | Stipulation as announced | Outcome reported by WWE |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Traditional singles match | McIntyre won the first fall after a low blow and a Claymore Kick. |
| 2 | Falls Count Anywhere | Rhodes won with a Cross Rhodes through the announce table. |
| 3 | Steel Cage | Fatu returned and attacked both men; McIntyre escaped the cage to win the Undisputed WWE Championship. |
WWE’s official preview of the match published January 7, 2026, laid out the three stipulations in that order. The SmackDown results page from January 9, 2026, describes what happened in each stage.
How the match unfolded
Stage one: traditional singles
The opening stage followed standard singles rules, with a pinfall or submission ending the fall. McIntyre took it after a low blow set up his Claymore Kick. Because this was the only fall of the stage, McIntyre entered the second stage holding the first result.
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Stage two: Falls Count Anywhere
In a Falls Count Anywhere stage, a pinfall can happen outside the ring, so the wrestlers were not limited to the ring apron. Rhodes evened the match by putting McIntyre through the announce table with a Cross Rhodes. That result gave each man one stage.
Stage three: steel cage
The cage stage decided the match. Fatu returned during it and attacked both wrestlers, which changed the finish from a contest between two men into a three-way disruption. McIntyre then escaped the cage and walked out with the championship.
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What the format changes compared with a singles match
A standard singles match has one set of rules and one winner. A Three Stages of Hell match adds three things. First, the number of separate contests increases, so one stipulation can give one wrestler an advantage that the next stipulation can reverse. Second, the stipulations change between stages, so the rules a wrestler is working under are not the same from start to finish. Third, the overall winner depends on how the stages add up, not on one pinfall or submission. In this match, the split after two stages meant the final stage carried the title.
WWE’s preview names the three stipulations for this match. It does not serve as a general rulebook for every Three Stages of Hell bout, so the points above describe how this specific match was structured rather than a standardized set of rules.
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The “first time since 2019” claim
The headline describes this as WWE’s return to Three Stages of Hell for the first time since 2019. The official WWE pages cited above confirm the January 9, 2026 match and its stipulations, but they do not name the earlier 2019 bout that the headline compares it to, or confirm that the earlier bout used the same billing. The comparison therefore rests on the headline itself. Readers who want to check it should look for WWE’s own records of that earlier event before treating the “first since 2019” claim as settled.
Three Stages of Hell in WWE 2K26
Three Stages of Hell is also a match type in WWE 2K26, which 2K announced on January 30, 2026. In that announcement, Greg Thomas, President of Visual Concepts, said the game “introduces several new community-requested match types and gameplay features.” The game lists PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam as platforms. A 2K update dated March 6, 2026 said the special editions were available and that the Standard Edition was scheduled for March 13. Those dates describe the announced release schedule at the time of each announcement, so check current availability on your platform before buying.
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The game is a separate product from the live broadcast, and the stage results above are WWE’s reporting of the televised match, not the game’s rules.
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The stage-by-stage results, the title outcome, and the format explanation are covered above.
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