WWE brings the blue brand to Las Vegas tonight for WrestleMania SmackDown, and this show has a lot more pressure on it than a normal go-home episode. On paper, there is enough here to make the night feel important. Cody Rhodes gets one last chance to speak before facing Randy Orton, Jacob Fatu has to answer Drew McIntyre’s ugly assault from last week, the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is back, and WWE has also loaded in an eight-man street fight between The Wyatt Sicks and The MFTs. The problem is that SmackDown is arriving here with some baggage. Last week’s show moved stories forward, but it also made the Road to WrestleMania feel more uneven than it should this close to the biggest weekend of the year. The McAfee-heavy main event angle drew a lot of criticism, the blue brand still has major names sitting off the card, and the conversation around SmackDown right now is just as much about who is missing as it is about what is actually booked. That puts real pressure on tonight’s show to finally make the WrestleMania side of this brand feel focused again.
Here is everything advertised for tonight’s show
- Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
- The Wyatt Sicks vs. The MFTs (Eight-Man Tag Team Street Fight)
- Cody Rhodes addresses Randy Orton
- Jacob Fatu responds to Drew McIntyre’s attack
Last week’s show had no shortage of movement, but it did not all land the way WWE probably wanted. The opening women’s segment pushed Jade Cargill, Rhea Ripley, and IYO SKY further along, and the main event kept Jade strong heading into WrestleMania, but it also continued a pattern where IYO felt more like a supporting player than a priority. Alexa Bliss beating Bayley gave the women’s tag title match another bit of tension, though the finish leaned more on outside distraction than momentum. Royce Keys looked impressive in his debut, Danhausen got a memorable first in-ring win, and Jacob Fatu beating Tama Tonga should have been the kind of statement win that gave the show real edge before Drew McIntyre turned it into something much uglier with the handcuffs, belt shot, and spray paint. Sami Zayn, Trick Williams, Matt Cardona, Carmelo Hayes, and Lil Yachty also kept their issue moving, but even there, part of the story became Carmelo talking like someone who already knew he had been pushed to the side.
That is where the larger WrestleMania conversation starts to hit this brand. SmackDown has talent depth, star power, and multiple titleholders, but it still heads into WrestleMania weekend with Giulia off the card as Women’s United States Champion, Tiffany Stratton off the card despite how heavily she has been featured over the last year, Carmelo Hayes off the card again, and Damian Priest and R-Truth not defending the WWE Tag Team Championship at all. The World Tag Team Championship is technically represented, but even that is folded into a celebrity six-man instead of a straight title match. That has left a lot of fans asking the same question: what exactly has this WrestleMania build been prioritizing? It is hard to blame people for feeling that way when a show this big has found room for celebrity crossover while some of the brand’s most pushed full-time names are still looking in from the outside.
Carmelo is probably the clearest example of that frustration because his situation feels symbolic now. He won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal last year, held the United States Championship this year, lost that title to Sami Zayn, and now heads into WrestleMania week without a match again. Giulia’s absence feels just as strange because WWE created a Women’s United States Championship and put it on one of the brand’s most talked-about talents, only to leave her without a clear WrestleMania direction at the moment the title should matter most. Tiffany Stratton being missing adds to that because even with her title reign now behind her, she still feels like someone who should have had a meaningful WrestleMania path. When people criticize the WrestleMania card, they are not just nitpicking names for the sake of it. They are reacting to a real mismatch between who WWE has spent time building and who is actually getting the premium spots.
Tonight is why the Andre battle royal matters more than usual. In another year it could feel like a throw-in. This time, it feels like one of the few available pressure valves for a roster that has too many notable names and not enough WrestleMania room. If WWE wants to send fans into the weekend feeling better about at least one omission, this is where it can do it. A strong winner, a good closing stretch, and the right presentation could make the match feel useful instead of token. On the flip side, if it just becomes a holding pen for people WWE did not book, that criticism is only going to get louder.
The Rhodes-Orton story also badly needs a steadier final note tonight. The core feud still has weight because the history is there and the championship should carry enough gravity on its own. But the Pat McAfee layer has pulled attention in a way that has not helped the story. Too much of the conversation after last week was about Pat, Jelly Roll, ticket discounts, and whether the angle made the product itself look smaller going into WrestleMania. Cody getting the mic tonight matters because WWE needs him to bring the focus back where it belongs. He has to make this feel like a title fight between two major stars again, not a feud orbiting around outside personalities.
The same applies to Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre. Their match has one of the better pure hatred builds on the blue brand, and last week’s attack gave it the right kind of ugliness heading into WrestleMania. That story feels more locked in than some of the others because it understands what it is. It is violent, personal, and built around humiliation and revenge. Fatu’s response tonight should be one of the easiest things on the show to get right, because the crowd is already going to be waiting for him to answer Drew in kind.
The women’s side of SmackDown remains the most complicated part of the brand heading into WrestleMania. There is still obvious star power there, but not all of it has been organized cleanly. The women’s tag title match has plenty of names, but it has also felt like a place where several stories got merged together because there was nowhere else to put them. Meanwhile, Giulia and Tiffany Stratton being off the official card has turned what should be a conversation about depth into one about creative priorities. That is not nothing. It is one of the biggest talking points around the blue brand right now, and WWE would be smart to treat it like one instead of pretending fans are not noticing.
SmackDown still has a chance to leave a better taste tonight than it did last week. The ingredients are there. Las Vegas should give the show a major-event atmosphere, the battle royal can create a moment, Cody can refocus the main event, and Fatu can keep one of the better blood feuds on the card hot. But the larger test is whether this episode can make the blue brand feel like it knows exactly what WrestleMania it is selling. That is what felt shaky a week ago.
Final thoughts
Tonight’s show should be easy to enjoy as a WrestleMania week spectacle, but it also has to do repair work. The blue brand has strong stories, but it also has some clear creative misses hanging over it, especially when it comes to Giulia, Tiffany Stratton, Carmelo Hayes, and the tag title picture. A good final SmackDown can’t erase all of that, but it can tighten the focus, reward at least one overlooked name, and remind people why this brand should matter heading into WrestleMania. That needs to happen tonight.
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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?!