Last night’s episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown was the kind of show that gave WWE plenty of headline moments while also leaving behind a lot of frustration once everything settled. On paper, the blue brand had a lot going for it. Sami Zayn won the United States Championship. Cody Rhodes returned. Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre had their WrestleMania match made official. Randy Orton once again looked like one of the most dangerous men in the company.
That should have been enough to make last night’s show feel like a major success on the road to WrestleMania 42. Instead, it felt like another example of WWE getting where it wanted to go while making the journey more frustrating than it needed to be. Too much of last night’s show felt rushed, too much of it felt built on shortcuts, and too many of the people who should have been protected ended up looking like collateral damage along the way.
That was the real story of last night’s show. It mattered. It moved a lot of big things forward. But it also exposed several of the biggest creative issues WWE has heading into WrestleMania: title stories being rushed instead of fully built, celebrity content taking up too much oxygen, champions not getting enough real story investment, and Cody Rhodes still feeling like he is standing in Randy Orton’s story instead of driving his own.
Here are the full results
- The Bella Twins def. Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss
- Rhea Ripley def. B-Fab by disqualification
- Jelly Roll def. Kit Wilson
- Sami Zayn def. Carmelo Hayes (c) to win the United States Championship
- WWE Women’s United States Champion Giulia def. Tiffany Stratton
- Randy Orton def. Matt Cardona
Breakdown & Reactions
Last night’s show opened with Randy Orton, and that immediately set the tone for one of SmackDown’s biggest problems right now. Orton came out, looked up at the WrestleMania sign, and continued to frame everything with Cody Rhodes as if Cody was the one responsible for bringing this version of him back out. Before the segment could settle, Matt Cardona attacked him and got some payback for last week.
It was a strong opening in the moment, but it also made the same point WWE keeps making every time this feud advances. Randy feels like the focal point. Randy feels like the one controlling the energy of the rivalry. Randy feels like the story. Cody, meanwhile, still feels like the man reacting to Randy instead of the emotional centerpiece of his own WrestleMania feud. That is the first thing that felt off about last night’s show, and it only became more obvious by the end of the night.
The Bella Twins beating Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss was there to keep adding bodies to the women’s tag picture, and that is really all it felt like. It served a purpose, but it never felt important on its own. Last night’s show needed to keep that division moving toward WrestleMania, and it did, but this was one of those matches that felt more like positioning than storytelling.
The same was true, in a different way, for the segment involving Rhea Ripley, Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab. There is real upside in that alliance. Jade lined up with Michin and B-Fab gives all three women a stronger identity, and the faction itself could do a lot for everyone involved if WWE gets the presentation right. But last night’s promo was shaky. The crowd got to them, the rhythm was uneven, and the delivery did not feel nearly as polished as it needed to. The idea was better than the execution.
That carried into the Rhea vs. B-Fab match, which barely mattered as a match because it quickly turned back into the same beatdown angle WWE wanted all along. It moved the story forward, but it did not do much to make the group feel more settled or more dangerous beyond the basic numbers-game formula.
Then came Jelly Roll versus Kit Wilson, and that was one of the places where last night’s show really started pushing people the wrong way. The problem was not simply that Jelly Roll won. WrestleMania season always brings celebrity involvement, and nobody should be shocked by that. The problem was that the match went too long, took up too much space, and made Kit Wilson look like a prop for a celebrity attraction.
That is why this match drew so much criticism. If it had been short, people probably would have rolled their eyes and moved on. But because it lingered, it became one of the loudest talking points coming out of the show. Instead of feeling like a quick novelty segment, it felt like WWE once again choosing spectacle over the roster.
That frustration only got louder once the show reached its best in-ring match and most frustrating booking decision.
Carmelo Hayes defending the United States Championship against Sami Zayn was the strongest match on last night’s show from a bell-to-bell standpoint. Earlier in the night, Nick Aldis told Sami there was no WrestleMania match for him, while Trick Williams was told he would be on the card. Sami responded by punching Trick and later answering Carmelo’s open challenge, which gave the title match a sense of urgency before it even started.
And for a while, the match delivered exactly what it needed to. Melo and Sami worked with intensity, the crowd stayed with them, and the U.S. title finally felt like it was sitting in a meaningful spot on the road to WrestleMania.
Then WWE got in its own way.
Trick got involved, tried to use the title belt, accidentally hit Carmelo instead of Sami, and Sami capitalized with the Helluva Kick to win the championship. Moments later, Sami Zayn vs. Trick Williams for the U.S. title was made official for WrestleMania 42.
That finish is exactly why so much of the reaction to last night’s show centered on Carmelo Hayes getting screwed. WWE gave Melo good matches. WWE gave him quality open challenge performances. WWE gave him enough in-ring credibility to prove he could carry the belt. What it never gave him was the level of story support that makes a title reign feel complete. There were not enough defining promos, not enough layered rivalries, and not enough character-driven storytelling around his run.
So when the title changed hands, it did not feel like the payoff to a great championship story. It felt like WWE using Melo as the fastest route possible to get to Sami and Trick.
That is why the criticism here feels so justified. Sami vs. Trick on its own still does not feel strong enough to make people forget how WWE got there. After the way Melo lost the title, he should be added to that WrestleMania match. A Triple Threat would at least acknowledge the finish and keep him central to the story instead of leaving him behind as the guy who got used to make the company’s preferred match happen faster.
That title change also tied directly into the larger feeling around last night’s show. WWE is still very good at creating movement. It still knows how to pack a show with moments and make things happen quickly. The problem is that quick movement is not the same thing as satisfying storytelling, and last night’s show kept blurring that line.
That same issue showed up again when Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre had their WrestleMania match made official as an Unsanctioned Match. It is a stipulation that raises the stakes on paper, and it absolutely fits the idea that these two are supposed to be uncontrollable. But it also felt like WWE taking the safe route while trying to present it as something huge. The feud needed escalation, and it got it, but it still felt like a controlled kind of escalation instead of something truly defining.
Giulia beating Tiffany Stratton was perfectly fine for what it was. It kept the women’s midcard picture moving, and it did what it needed to do in the moment. But on a show with this many louder talking points, it was never going to be one of the central stories people walked away talking about.
That brought last night’s show to the main event and closing angle, which once again circled everything back to the biggest issue in Cody Rhodes’ feud with Randy Orton.
Orton beat Matt Cardona by attacking the injured wrist and finishing him with the RKO. Then Cody returned, the two brawled, security swarmed the ring area, chaos broke out, and Jelly Roll took an RKO to end the show. It was a loud closing visual. It was dramatic. It was exactly the kind of image WWE likes leaving people with during WrestleMania season.
It was also another ending where Randy Orton felt like the true star while Cody Rhodes felt like part of the scene around him.
That is why so many people keep saying Cody feels like an afterthought in his own feud. Last night’s show did not fix that. If anything, it made it even clearer. Randy keeps getting the menace, the motion, the violence, and the final image. Cody is there, but he still does not feel like the one truly steering the rivalry.
That is why the reaction to last night’s show leaned as critical as it did, even with all the obvious movement. There was praise for how much happened. There was praise for the match quality in certain spots. There was praise for Randy’s continued presence, for the upside of Jade’s new faction, and for the amount of WrestleMania progression packed into one episode.
But all of that praise kept running into the same criticisms. Carmelo Hayes was undercut. Jelly Roll got too much time. Cody still feels secondary to Randy. WWE keeps relying on shortcuts to make big moments happen instead of trusting the stories enough to build them the right way.
That is the current state of WWE creative heading into WrestleMania 42. The company still knows how to create moments. It still knows how to make a show feel important. It still knows how to leave people with something to talk about.
But too often, the shortcut is more obvious than the story.
Last night’s show felt like one of the clearest examples of that.
What was announced for next week’s SmackDown?
The quick answer is that last night’s show did not clearly lay out a full next-week SmackDown card. The bigger emphasis was on firming up WrestleMania rather than actively stacking next Friday’s television lineup.
So the takeaway here is less about what was officially announced for next week’s SmackDown and more about what last night’s show made official for WrestleMania. WWE used the episode to lock in Sami Zayn vs. Trick Williams for the United States Championship and Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre in an Unsanctioned Match, but there was not a major, clearly defined slate of new matches announced for next week’s blue-brand show.
That in itself says a lot about the way WWE structured last night’s show. It was much more about locking down WrestleMania than selling next week.
The current updated WrestleMania 42 card
As things stand right now, the updated WrestleMania 42 card includes:
- Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton (Undisputed WWE Championship)
- CM Punk (c) vs. Roman Reigns (World Heavyweight Championship)
- Sami Zayn (c) vs. Trick Williams (United States Championship)
- Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre (Unsanctioned Match)
- Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs Liv Morgan (WWE Women’s World Championship)
- Jade Cargill (c) vs Rhea Ripley (WWE Women’s Championship)
Those were the major matches I could verify directly from WWE’s current WrestleMania listings and the developments made official on last night’s show. Last night’s episode made the card feel more complete, but it also made it clear that WWE still has work to do in making the final stretch to WrestleMania feel fully cohesive.
Final Thoughts
Last night’s show mattered. There is no arguing that.
It advanced the WrestleMania card, gave SmackDown a title change, brought Cody Rhodes back into the picture, and created several major talking points in a single night. On the surface, that is exactly what WWE should want this close to WrestleMania.
But last night’s show also showed exactly why so many people are uneasy about WWE creative right now.
Carmelo Hayes should have been leaving this stretch of SmackDown feeling like a more complete champion, not like a stepping stone. Cody Rhodes should feel like the emotional center of his feud with Randy Orton, not like a supporting player in Randy’s chaos. Jelly Roll should have been treated like a brief attraction, not given enough time to become one of the most criticized parts of the episode. Even the Fatu and Drew announcement felt like WWE choosing the safe version of escalation instead of the bold one.
That is what made last night’s show so frustrating. WWE had the right ingredients. It had strong performers, meaningful developments, and enough story movement to make the episode feel important.
What it did not always have was the patience and discipline to make those developments feel fully earned.
Last night’s show pushed the road to WrestleMania forward.
It also made WWE’s creative habits impossible to ignore.
And more than anything else, it left behind the feeling that WWE got where it wanted to go, but not in the way it should have.
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I’m the quiet one until the bell rings then I’ve got takes. I live for WWE NXT and TNA, I want every promotion to succeed, and I will absolutely roast the bad decisions on sight (because someone has to). Anime taught me to respect long-term storytelling; wrestling taught me that sometimes the plan is “we panicked” and called it “unpredictable.” The Miz got me into all of this, so yeah I appreciate confidence, commitment, and the art of talking like you’re already the main event. Now I bring that same energy to the page as the main writer for Late Night Crew Wrestling because if you’re not here to be must-see and tell the truth, why are you here?!