Noah Lyles secured the 200m World Championship title at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, clocking a time of 19.52 seconds. He then went on to anchor the men’s 4x100m relay, ensuring that the USA successfully defended its relay title in 37.29 seconds. His next stop? WWE. What happened on SmackDown? Randy Orton saved Cody Rhodes from Bron Breaker and “Big” Bronson Reed. Jacob Fatu is back and feuding with Drew McIntyre. Jade Cargill said she’s sick and tired of Tiffany Stratton and Nia Jax, will feel good when she’s the WWE Women’s Champion. What else? Noah Lyles was in the audience.
Sharing a clip from Friday Night SmackDown on September 26, 2025, WWE took to its X handle and tweeted, “Great to have you at SmackDown, @LylesNoah! 🙌“.The 200m World Champion was seated in the front row in the Kia Center in Orlando, Florida. He lives in Clermont, so how could he pass up the opportunity when the WWE was coming to his state? “Gainesville native Noah Lyles, an Olympic gold medalist, an eight-time world champion in track and field. Welcome to Noah Lyles,” greeted commentator Michael Cole.
As he said that, Lyles flexed all the gold medals he has won in the Olympics and World Athletics Championships. He also kissed the Paris Olympics gold medal and showed it off to the camera. WWE fans were overjoyed by his appearance. One said, “Welcome to SmackDown 👏👏“. Legendary wrestler and commentator, Booker-T who was on the mic – filling in for Corey Graves, who was absent due to an attack by Brock Lesnar the previous week – also praised Lyles.
He said, “Oh, the boy is quick. He’s real quick,” with a personal best of 19.31s in the 200m, the third fastest time ever. Indeed, he is quick. Though this is not the first time Noah Lyles and WWE have made headlines together.
At ComplexCon 2024 in Las Vegas, Lyles had the opportunity to meet WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio. In a video shared by WWE, the Olympian could be heard saying, “Hey, bro, it’s an honor to me. I know what you gotta put your body through. I know you guys do a lot of entertainment, but a lot of sports too.” The Olympic gold medalist paid his respects to the wrestling legend, which in turn, earned the fans’ respect for the Olympian.
WWE fans excited to see Noah Lyles
The wrestling world is excited to see the 100m Olympic champion on Friday Night SmackDown. One fan said, “This so hard. World Champ sh-” Well, given that he claimed the world title in 2019 (200m and 4x100m), 2022 (200m), 2023 (100m, 200m, 4x100m), and 2025 (200m, 4x100m), every epic thing he does is world champion sh–. Another fan asked, “Can we have them fight with The Miz?” That is a great idea.
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To start with, this idea could garner a lot of eyes for track and field, which needs it. Plus, The Miz is one of the best and safest wrestlers in WWE, so Lyles can be sure of not getting injured easily. What could be the occasion for this match? One fan also said, “We need him at the Royal Rumble next year.” That could be one event, or we can have it in the Rumble main event as well.
We have seen KSI in the ring, and Bad Bunny has been great in there, too. Plus, we saw IShowSpeed get RKO’ed by Randy Orton, and he was in the Royal Rumble this year as well. Maybe it’s time for Noah Lyles‘ in-ring debut soon. One comment also read, “Imagine he’s just sitting in the crowd, saying world champions of what.” Back in 2023, Lyles sparked controversy when he criticized the NBA for calling its finals winners “world champions.”
Lyles argued that the term didn’t make sense because the NBA is primarily a U.S.-based league, and players aren’t competing against teams from all over the world in the Finals. This can be true for WWE as well because in WWE, titles like the WWE Championship or Universal Championship are part of a scripted storyline, not a global competition like track and field.
Well, what’s your thought on his being there? Let us know.