Last night’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown had enough story progression to matter, but it also exposed the exact problem fans have been pointing out with WWE’s current three-hour TV rhythm: too much time, too many recaps, too many talking segments, and not enough urgency to get talent in the ring. This was the go-home SmackDown before Saturday Night’s Main Event and the second-to-last blue brand stop before Clash In Italy, so the show needed to tighten the direction for Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther, Rhea Ripley vs. Jade Cargill, the messy Charlotte Flair/Alexa Bliss dynamic, the Samoan Dynasty drama around Royce Keys, and the United States Championship picture. It did some of that well. It also took way too long to get moving. When you have three hours, a deep roster, and a tag division that already feels almost nonexistent, it should not take nearly 20 minutes to get to the first match. That is not “premium TV pacing.” That is stretching. WWE’s own results list six matches for the night, with Cody Rhodes defeating Sami Zayn in the main event before Gunther stood tall to close the show.
Here are the full results
- Talla Tonga def. Shinsuke Nakamura
- Tiffany Stratton (c) def. Lash Legend w/Nia Jax (WWE Women’s United States Championship Open Challenge)
- WWE United States Champion Trick Williams def. Carmelo Hayes
- WWE Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley & Charlotte Flair def. Fatal Influence
- Solo Sikoa def. WWE Tag Team Champion Damian Priest
- Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes def. Sami Zayn
Breakdowns & Reactions
The opening segment was built around Rhea Ripley returning to accept Jade Cargill’s challenge for Clash In Italy, but the real tension was still Rhea, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. The history between Rhea and Charlotte is not complicated, but it is layered. Charlotte beat Rhea for the NXT Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 36, which was one of the first major moments where Rhea felt like she was being forced to prove she belonged on Charlotte’s level. Rhea finally got her redemption at WrestleMania 39, beating Charlotte for the SmackDown Women’s Championship in one of the best women’s matches in WrestleMania history. Since then, their issue has never felt like simple hate. It is pride, ego, territory, and two women who both think they should be the final boss of WWE’s women’s division.
That is why the Alexa Bliss part works. Alexa is not just a random third wheel. She is being positioned as the person stuck between two women who do not trust each other, and Rhea taking another shot at Charlotte not having Alexa’s back last week keeps teasing that Bliss and Charlotte could be headed for a breakup. Charlotte keeps acting like Rhea is trying to manipulate Alexa. Rhea keeps acting like Charlotte only cares when she is not the one being blamed. Alexa looks tired of playing referee. That is the actual story.
WWE also clearly listened to the wrestling community by having Fatal Influence interrupt the opening segment. Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid should have been used more directly in this story last week, so having them step in here was the right call. Jacy walking out and basically saying the SmackDown women’s division started unraveling when Fatal Influence arrived was exactly what that group needed. They did not feel like side characters. They felt like opportunists, which is what they should be.
Talla Tonga vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was the first match, and it was easily the best Talla has looked since coming to WWE. Nakamura worked smart, chopping down the bigger man’s base, using movement, kicks and timing to make Talla sell without making him look weak. Talla, to his credit, looked more comfortable, more physical and less like a project being hidden behind chaos. The finish protected Nakamura because Solo Sikoa’s interference created the opening, but Talla still winning with the Chokeslam mattered. WWE needed to show he can win a real TV match, not just stand behind Solo and look tall.
For the record, Nakamura’s last singles match on SmackDown before last night appears to have been Feb. 6, 2026, when he lost to Tama Tonga thanks to The MFTs. That makes his return to a singles match on the blue brand feel even more frustrating because Nakamura is still valuable when WWE actually lets him wrestle.
The post-match angle with Tama Tonga was important because it continued the Samoan Dynasty/MFT family drama. Tama looked like he might stop Solo from destroying Nakamura, but instead he attacked Nakamura himself and chose the family. That tied directly into the Royce Keys story. Royce’s issue with the Samoan Dynasty goes back to him stepping into the Bloodline-adjacent world after winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, getting pulled into Gunther’s No. 1 contender path, and then refusing to be used by Solo. Last week, Solo tried to guide Royce during the Gunther match, gave him a chair, and Royce threw it back at Solo instead. That cost him the match and made him a problem for the family.
Last night, Solo tried to twist that same tension against Damian Priest. Royce came out to help Priest after Solo beat him with MFT interference, but Priest grabbed Royce by the throat before realizing who it was. That one moment did more for Royce than a long promo would have. Solo is trying to recruit him. Priest does not trust him. Royce is trying to prove he is not anybody’s pawn. That is a clean three-way character conflict, and WWE should not overcomplicate it.
Tiffany Stratton’s Women’s United States Championship Open Challenge against Lash Legend had the most questionable booking of the night. The match itself had some rough spots, but the closing stretch worked: Nia Jax interfered, Chelsea Green stopped Nia, Lash grabbed Chelsea, and Tiffany rolled Lash up to retain. The problem is not the finish by itself. The problem is why Lash Legend was the one answering the challenge when she and Nia are heading into a Women’s Tag Team Championship rematch against Paige and Brie Bella at Saturday Night’s Main Event. You do not put a challenger in a title match the next night, have her lose a singles title match the night before, and expect that team to feel hotter. It makes Lash look like a warm body for Tiffany instead of one-half of a serious tag title threat.
Chelsea Green helping Tiffany is interesting, though. Chelsea is still Chelsea, but she is sliding into this strange babyface-adjacent role where the crowd likes her too much for WWE to ignore it. Tiffany not fully trusting her was the right beat. Let Chelsea annoy her way into Tiffany’s orbit. That can work.
The Danhausen and Nick Aldis segment was funny. Danhausen doing weird science experiments, causing power issues, and dragging Aldis into the nonsense fits his character. The issue is that WWE needs to be careful. Danhausen is the kind of act that can feel special in small doses and exhausting if he becomes a weekly backstage sketch machine. The Knicks curse/Miz material has been fun, but overexposure is real. A little Danhausen goes a long way.
Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes gave the show its strongest in-ring energy. It really does look like WWE is setting up the summer of TrickMeloGang, but not in a clean reunion way. Melo wants the United States Championship back. Trick is carrying himself like a star. Lil Yachty gives Trick a different type of presentation, even if that segment had too many people stumbling over words and stepping on lines. The idea was better than the execution.
Once the bell rang, Trick and Melo delivered. Melo looked motivated, Trick looked like a champion, and Ricky Saints getting involved gives WWE a pretty obvious path to a Triple Threat. The finish protected Melo because Saints distracted him and the referee missed the pin, but Trick still got the win with the Trick Shot. That is the kind of messy finish that works because it actually advances three people at once instead of just feeling like a cheap way out.
Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair vs. Fatal Influence was good, but it also showed why this story has more life when the women are actually wrestling instead of standing around repeating tension points. Rhea and Charlotte worked like two elite stars who hate needing each other. Charlotte tagging herself in after Rhea hit Riptide so she could steal the win with Natural Selection was perfect character work. It was selfish, petty and exactly what Charlotte would do.
The post-match brawl was the bigger story. Jade Cargill, Michin and B-Fab attacked, the fight spilled everywhere, and Jade laid out Rhea with Jaded. That was the right visual heading into Clash In Italy. Rhea is the champion, but Jade needed to look like a real threat after losing at WrestleMania 42. WWE accomplished that. The only downside is that Saturday Night’s Main Event now feels like a bridge match instead of a major destination for this six-woman issue.
Solo Sikoa vs. Damian Priest was fine, but again, the interference-heavy finish was the story. Solo needed the win after Tama told him to prove the family was not weak, but the constant MFT involvement made the match feel more like an angle than a fight. Priest is still protected enough because it took distractions and Talla’s presence to beat him. Royce Keys coming out afterward gave the segment purpose, especially with Solo yelling “don’t trust him” to poison the relationship between Priest and Keys. That is classic family manipulation.
Cody Rhodes vs. Sami Zayn was the main event and the best overall story of the night. Sami came in feeling disrespected because Cody did not want his help against Gunther. Cody came in annoyed because Sami’s passive-aggressive frustration finally boiled over. The match had the right energy: not a blood feud, but two proud top guys testing each other while Gunther waited to ruin everything.
The finish was smart. Gunther interfered, Sami knocked him off the apron, and Cody immediately took advantage with Cross Rhodes. That put Sami in the perfect emotional gray area. He did the right thing, and Cody still beat him for it. Then Gunther attacked Cody after the match, and Sami just stood there. He did not help. He did not attack Cody. He simply let it happen. That was more interesting than a full heel turn because it felt human. Sami is tired of being the moral center of everyone else’s story.
Gunther standing tall with the Undisputed WWE Championship gave Clash In Italy the hard sell it needed. WWE has dragged the contract signing drama out, but the visual worked: Cody down, Gunther cold, Sami conflicted, and the title hanging over everything. That is the kind of closing angle SmackDown needed.
As for the crowd, it was not just you. The building felt flat at points, and some of that is on the pacing. When a three-hour show takes too long to get to wrestling, runs through recaps, and leans on a lot of backstage talking, the crowd energy dips. Attendance context also matters: WrestleTix had the building set for 9,795 seats with 9,035 tickets distributed roughly an hour before the show, well below the 12,270 distributed the last time WWE ran the venue for SmackDown in June 2025.
The bigger issue is WWE’s post-TKO TV structure. A lot of fans and wrestling sites have been calling out the newer format: fewer matches, more segments, more recap packages, and a slower sports-entertainment layout. Sometimes that works when the stories are hot. Last night, it was hit-or-miss. The Cody/Sami/Gunther material worked. Trick/Melo worked. Rhea/Charlotte/Jade worked once it got physical. But a three-hour SmackDown should not still feel like a show fighting for ring time.
Best match and segment of the night
Best match: Trick Williams vs. Carmelo Hayes. Cody vs. Sami had the bigger story, but Trick and Melo had the best mix of pace, crowd connection, character tension and future direction. Even with the Ricky Saints finish, it felt like a U.S. Title scene WWE can actually build around this summer.
Best segment: Gunther attacking Cody Rhodes while Sami Zayn chose not to help. That was the strongest piece of character work on the show. It made Gunther look dangerous, made Cody look vulnerable, and made Sami look more complicated than he has in weeks.
Current Saturday Night’s Main Event card
- Penta (c) vs. Ethan Page (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
- The Vision (Logan Paul & Austin Theory) (c) vs. The Street Profits (WWE World Tag Team Championship)
- WWE Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss vs. Jade Cargill, Michin & B-Fab
- Paige & Brie Bella (c) vs. The Irresistible Forces (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship)
- WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch vs. Sol Ruca
Current Clash In Italy card
- Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Gunther (Undisputed WWE Championship)
- Roman Reigns (c) vs. Jacob Fatu (WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Tribal Combat)
- Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Jade Cargill (WWE Women’s Championship)
Final thoughts
Last night’s SmackDown was not a bad show. It actually had several strong story beats. Gunther closing the night over Cody worked. Sami Zayn’s moral collapse is getting interesting. Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes gave the U.S. Title picture life. Talla Tonga had his best showing yet. Rhea, Charlotte and Alexa’s trust issues finally feel like they are moving somewhere, especially with Jade Cargill standing tall.
But the pacing is still a problem. Three hours should create opportunity, not dead space. WWE has too much talent for the tag division to feel invisible, too many good wrestlers for matches to feel secondary, and too many major shows coming up for SmackDown to spend long stretches feeling like it is waiting on itself. Last night advanced the road to Saturday Night’s Main Event and Clash In Italy, but it also proved WWE needs to stop confusing “longer TV” with “better TV.”
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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?!