WWE Friday Night SmackDown April 3rd, 2026 Results & Recap: Pat McAfee Revealed as Randy Orton’s Mystery Caller, Sami Zayn Retains Over Carmelo Hayes

Two weeks before WrestleMania 42, last night’s SmackDown should have been about tightening the blue brand’s biggest stories, raising the stakes, and making the road to WrestleMania feel urgent. Instead, it often felt like a show working against itself. The headline angle gave Randy Orton’s mystery caller reveal to Pat McAfee, who low-blowed Cody Rhodes and then launched into a promo tearing into the modern product, Cody’s title reign, and the state of WWE in a way that created more confusion than real heat. Sami Zayn then retained the United States Championship over Carmelo Hayes to lock in Sami vs. Trick Williams at WrestleMania, but the finish only added to the growing frustration around Hayes being pushed out of the biggest show of the year. Add in an anticlimactic payoff to the Wyatt Sicks and MFT lantern feud, another strange tag title setup, and a night full of choices that felt cold, random, or poorly timed, and last night’s SmackDown became the kind of WrestleMania build show that left fans talking more about what did not work than what did.

Here are the full results

• Rhea Ripley def. Michin

• Uncle Howdy def. Tama Tonga

• Aleister Black def. Matt Cardona

• Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss def. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria

• Damian Priest & R-Truth (c) def. The Miz & Kit Wilson (WWE Tag Team Championship)

• Sami Zayn (c) def. Carmelo Hayes (United States Championship)

Breakdown & Reactions

Last night lived and died with its opening segment, and that is exactly where the show lost a lot of people. Randy Orton came home to St. Louis chasing world title number 15, Cody Rhodes entered the scene, and WWE finally paid off the mystery caller angle by revealing Pat McAfee as the man in Orton’s corner. McAfee attacked Cody, stood beside Randy, and delivered a promo about WWE losing its edge and needing to be saved. On paper, the company was trying to inject controversy into one of its biggest WrestleMania programs. On television, it felt like an overcomplicated swerve that took focus away from Cody and Orton and handed it to someone who is not even an active wrestler.

That was the core problem with the segment. WWE built up the mystery as if it was going to be some meaningful game-changing reveal, only for it to end with Pat McAfee of all people. That left a lot of fans feeling like the company had overpromised and underdelivered. Worse, the explanation did not make the feud any stronger. Instead of adding depth to Cody vs. Randy, it made the story feel drier and more forced. The crowd response only made that disconnect louder. Cody was not embraced the way WWE likely wanted, and there was visible enthusiasm for both Randy and Pat despite the company clearly wanting the segment to generate heat in a different direction.

That crowd dynamic carried through the rest of last night’s show. Sami Zayn heard boos. Carmelo Hayes had a lot of the audience with him. Trick Williams continues to feel like a star every time he is attached to this United States Championship story. That is what made the main event so frustrating. Hayes had every reason to be angry after last week, when Sami came in, took the title, and shifted his attention straight to Trick without giving Melo a meaningful chance to reclaim what he lost. WWE had an easy story right there. Carmelo was fighting for his spot, his title picture relevance, and arguably his WrestleMania future. Instead of leaning into that and protecting him with a dirty finish or some kind of chaos, WWE simply had Sami beat him clean and move on.

That decision is going to sit badly with a lot of people, and not just because Hayes lost. The bigger issue is that Carmelo has been one of the more consistent weekly performers on SmackDown, and last night made it feel like that work did not matter. Fans have already been voicing concern that too many wrestlers are being squeezed off WrestleMania, and this did not help that conversation at all. It made it feel like WWE had already decided who mattered and who did not, even when the crowd was showing them otherwise. The reaction online reflected that, too. There was real frustration that Hayes appears to be missing WrestleMania while celebrity names and outside attractions keep getting inserted into high-profile spots.

That same criticism hung over the opening angle as well. The more WWE leans into celebrity crossover and outside personalities, the more glaring it becomes when actual roster talent gets boxed out. Pat McAfee being elevated into Cody and Randy’s business only reinforced that concern. Even if there are corporate reasons behind it, the segment still had to work on television, and it did not. It felt like WWE was trying to manufacture a major moment instead of trusting the feud it already had. For a WrestleMania title program, that is not a good sign.

The Wyatt Sicks and MFT feud was another example of WWE dropping the ball on something that had stronger potential than its payoff. There was real intrigue when the issue around Bray Wyatt’s lantern started to build, especially because it seemed like the tension between the Wyatts and MFT could lead to something bigger. Instead, last night gave fans the most anticlimactic version of the payoff possible. Uncle Howdy beat Tama Tonga, Solo Sikoa’s involvement caused the distraction, and Tama simply handed the lantern back after the match. That was it. For a feud that was teased like it had emotional and symbolic importance, the ending landed flat.

It did not help that Howdy did not even get a proper televised entrance while Tama Tonga did. Those details matter. They shape how important a segment feels, and last night’s presentation made the whole thing feel smaller than it should have. The bigger issue is that this feud still raises the same question it has raised for weeks: why are the Wyatts still wrapped up in a lantern story instead of pursuing titles or finding a meaningful way onto the WrestleMania card? At this stage of the calendar, that criticism feels impossible to avoid. The one useful development is that Tama appears closer than ever to breaking away from MFT. That tension with Solo was one of the few things in the segment that actually felt like it could lead somewhere interesting.

The Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu build was not as messy as some of the other major pieces of last night’s show, but it still felt repetitive. WWE clearly knows the basic story it wants to tell. Fatu cost Drew in the title picture, Drew retaliated, the violence escalated, and now the feud has spun far enough out of control to justify an Unsanctioned Match at WrestleMania. The structure works. The issue is the language WWE keeps using to sell it. Jacob’s promos keep circling back to the same rough past, the same prison references, and the same idea that he should not even be in WWE. At some point, the message stops sounding dangerous and starts sounding stale.

There is a much stronger version of this feud that focuses on two violent, unstable men trying to destroy each other because the hatred between them has gone past the limits of a normal match. That part makes sense. Where WWE loses people is by reducing Jacob to the same talking points over and over. Last night’s promo did little to freshen him up as a character. It only made the build feel more repetitive, even if the match itself still has a clear enough path heading into WrestleMania.

The tag division did not come out of last night looking much better. The Miz and Kit Wilson, a team with no real momentum and no meaningful track record together, just getting a tag title shot was another reminder that WWE’s open-challenge style booking has lost whatever novelty it once had. When John Cena was doing the United States Championship open challenge in 2015, it felt special because it showcased hungry challengers and elevated the title. WWE now uses these setups so often that they no longer feel important. They just feel convenient.

That was the issue with Damian Priest and R-Truth defending against Miz and Wilson. The match existed, the champions retained, and the division moved nowhere. It felt like another example of WWE filling television time without actually strengthening the tag title picture. That is especially frustrating when the WrestleMania card still does not make those belts feel like a priority.

To be fair, not everything last night was a complete miss. Rhea Ripley still feels like a major star, and her win over Michin at least kept her side of the women’s title scene moving. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss picking up a tag win gave their WrestleMania path some momentum. Aleister Black beating Matt Cardona was efficient and did exactly what it needed to do. Those parts of the show were clean, direct, and easy to understand. The problem is that they were surrounded by bigger stories that either felt overbooked, underwhelming, or creatively backwards.

That is why the overall reaction to last night’s show skewed so negative. It was not that every single segment failed. It was that the most important angles on the show drew the loudest criticism. The McAfee reveal felt like a poor use of the Cody-Orton feud. The Wyatt lantern payoff felt cold and pointless. Carmelo Hayes losing clean only strengthened the belief that WWE is leaving too many deserving names without a WrestleMania role. Even the crowd reactions reflected a fanbase that was not fully buying what WWE was trying to sell.

SmackDown should feel locked in right now. Instead, last night felt like a show still second-guessing itself two weeks before WrestleMania.

Current and updated WrestleMania 42 card

• CM Punk (c) vs. Roman Reigns (World Heavyweight Championship)

• Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton (Undisputed WWE Championship)

• Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan (Women’s World Championship)

• Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley (WWE Women’s Championship)

• AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch (Women’s Intercontinental Championship)

• Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre (Unsanctioned Match)

• Sami Zayn (c) vs. Trick Williams (United States Championship)

• Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar

• Penta (c) vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Dragon Lee vs. JD McDonagh vs. Rusev (Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match)

• Finn Bálor vs. Dominik Mysterio

• Nia Jax & Lash Legend (c) vs. Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs. The Bella Twins (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal 4-Way)

• John Cena will be the host of WrestleMania 42

Final Thoughts

Last night’s SmackDown should have made the road to WrestleMania 42 feel sharper and more exciting. Instead, it left behind more confusion than momentum. Pat McAfee being revealed as Randy Orton’s mystery caller overshadowed Cody Rhodes and made a major title feud feel stranger, not stronger. Sami Zayn beating Carmelo Hayes clean may have finalized the WrestleMania direction for the United States Championship, but it also reinforced the idea that one of SmackDown’s best weekly performers is being left behind. The Wyatts finally got Bray Wyatt’s lantern back, but the payoff was so flat that it only made the feud feel more pointless in hindsight.

There were flashes of solid wrestling television last night, but not enough of them. At this stage of the WrestleMania build, SmackDown needed urgency, clarity, and confidence. What it gave fans instead was a show full of odd creative calls, weak payoffs, and booking decisions that felt more frustrating than exciting. Two weeks out from WrestleMania, that is not where the blue brand should be.

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