Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where appropriately multiple titles can be on the line, but Seth Rollins, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns get the main event! That's right, this episode was main-evented by a contract signing for a non-title triple threat match, during which it was revealed that a non-title triple threat match will main event (presumably the first night of) WrestleMania. And if you think the WINC staff doesn't have thoughts about that, you haven't been reading these columns very long! This style of introduction must seem so fresh and new to you!
Anyway, as always, complete coverage of the show is work being done by our "SmackDown" results page, where you can go to read about each and every individual thing that went down in objective and factual fashion. In contrast, here in the opinion part of WINC Town, we deal only in what gave us the strongest feelings, one way or the other. From the Street Profits defending their newly-won tag titles to Naomi's bad-ass new heel persona, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 3/28/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown."
I'm not sure if these matches will have, like, WrestleMania implications, but my favorite parts of Friday's "SmackDown" were the two tag team matches the Street Profits making their first defense against Pretty Deadly, followed by the officially christened Secret Hervice (Piper Niven and Alba Fyre) taking on Katana Chance and Kayden Carter, who are very good but who haven't really been a thing on WWE TV since mid-to-late 2024.
The Profits' new theme might me a downgrade, but I do enjoy their new attitudes this feels to me like what they were supposed to be after joining up with Bobby Lashley. Meanwhile, as an unabashed Pretty Deadly apologist, it was great to here them get a hometown welcome in London and come inches away from winning the tag straps. Since becoming part of the multi-team feud also involving DIY, MCMG, and Los Garza, Pretty Deadly have been rejuvenated from an in-ring standpoint, and I really enjoyed their work with the Profits here. In particular, I appreciated them digging into their bag of weird old-school British wrestling tricks toward the end of the match, after the standard "hit finisher and go for the pin" tactic failed. The British stuff was no more successful and Pretty Deadly lost, but I loved that they had a legitimately interested place to go with it after the false finish, particularly given the location.
As for the Secret Hervice, what's not to love? I would give them the women's tag belts tomorrow if I could. It seems a little senseless to put Fyre in a tag team with anotherScottish wrestler right after they fired her last tag team partner who was another Scottish wrestler, but whatever if it had to be like this, I am living for these two playing bodyguard to "the eagle" Chelsea Green, and getting Chance and Carter back on TV for a pretty good tag match. Crucially, while the gimmick is funny, it isn'tjust funny it feels legitimately fresh and interesting, and it gives them a dynamic with Green and each other that no one else on the show has.
Tag team wrestling has had its ups and downs and even more downs over the past year or two, and I don't have any particular degree of faith that WWE will continue to highlight it in a way I enjoy.Today, though? Tag team wrestling.It's the best.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
I say this with full respect for all my European friends here at WINC and beyond, and I'm happy for all the fans who are getting to see their favorite stars on the road in cities like London, Glasgow, and Barcelona, but I think WWE doing during its European Tour before WrestleMania this year instead of after is proving to be a mistake at least in regard to storylines. WWE is doing things just for the sake of getting stars in front of these crowds and isn't adding anything to the WrestleMania build. Everything with Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes is a great example. His third face-to-face with John Cena was advertised for "WWE Raw" on Monday, but they still put Rhodes out there just for a long segment where Randy Orton basically told him how proud of him he was, and that he'd be coming for the championship after WrestleMania.
I'm one of those people who are 100% convinced that Cena is winning the championship from Rhodes, so that was all for absolutely nothing other than the live crowd getting to see that interaction between the former Legacy stablemates. Now that I think about it, I wonder if WWE booked this tour (well in advance, I'm aware) because they wanted to get Rhodes in front of these crowdsbecauseCena is winning the championship and maybe Rhodes is taking some time off after WrestleMania? Entirely speculation on my part, but it all seems a bit strange.
I think Rhodes is usually wrestling dark matches unless they've pulled them from those so he's not getting injured before WrestleMania, so it all just really seemed pointless for me watching here at home, as much as I love Rhodes and Orton. It did set up a match between Orton and McIntyre for later in the night, so it accomplishedsomething, I guess, but not much in terms of WrestleMania excitement.
It also feels like, for whatever reason, the European tour is keeping Triple H from booking new matches to add to the 'Mania card. I was very confused when Jacob Fatu brought up the fact he would be, in his exact words, "the last man standing" against Braun Strowman, then he would be bringing the United States Championship back to the family. I thought we could be setting up a multi-man match for that championship, like WWE is with the Intercontinental Championship on "Raw," so things just seem really stalled, for honestly no reason, until WWE gets back to the states. Maybe I'm overthinking things because we do still have three weeks until WrestleMania, but the past few episodes of WWE TV, "SmackDown" and its three hours especially, haven't been setting up much in terms of WrestleMania. There are so many things that seemingly need to be added to WrestleMania that it honestly might seem rushed in the next few weeks.
Written by DaisyRuth
Friday's London-based episode of "SmackDown" was a drag. Maybe it's because we're over the long chants from these European crowds, or maybe it's because all of us North America viewers knew what was happening and who was winning before "SmackDown" even aired to USA Network. With matches like, uh, Charlotte Flair versus Michin, it was hard to care about this week's episode of the blue brand perhaps even more than usual.
Jacob Fatu made me care about "SmackDown," if only for a little bit.
Ever since Fatu came onto WWE programming, he has been nothing short of stunning. Sure, he's had some weak areas of booking, but even then, Fatu has shown that he can work well with whatever he is given. Even over six months after his debut appearance on the blue brand, Fatu still has the draw he's had since day one, and with "SmackDown" having the negative tick in quality it does, his absence was felt.
This is all to say: I'm glad he's back in the United States title picture, because Strowman versus Knight was not it. I've never been a passenger on the Strowman Express and I've long been disillusioned with LA Knight, so a match between them was going to be a guaranteed miss for me. The match itself wasn't objectively horrible, but let's just say that I was glad to see Fatu come around to interfere in the match, despite my own reservations about disqualification finishes (reservations that are irrelevant, considering this match was already a snoozer for me).
Fatu looked like a beast taking out Strowman, even if his matching pants/jacket set was serving camo in the worst way possible. As someone who was pleasantly surprised by their Saturday Night's Main Event match, I'm remaining cautiously optimistic about Fatu and Strowman's revisited feud if WWE is going into that direction, considering that Fatu wants to be the true "last man standing" between them. Fatu is just so intense that he can keep a feud with Strowman afloat.
Speaking of keeping a feud afloat, I genuinely think that a program with Fatu challenging Knight for the United States Championship would do Knight some favors. I guess Knight is a charismatic guy on the mic (again, this is from someone who has been over him for a while now), but I think Fatu would challenge his verbal expertise, in a good way. Fatu's strong demeanor and electrifying manner of speech, as shown in his backstage segment with Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga, would give LA Knight the incentive he needs to really push his promo capabilities. Fatu's chase for the US title would also give Sikoa's Bloodline the "oomph" they've been searching for since the beginning of the year. Fatu's always shown he's ready for a singles title push, but this week made it clear just how badly Fatu is needed in the singles midcard scene.
This year's WrestleMania is shaping up to be one of the biggest yet. Let's go all in on Fatu!
Written by Angeline Phu
It wouldn't exactly surprise me to find out that WWE intentionally kept Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton apart from one another in person this week after their satellite interview last week where Stratton came out looking not so hot on the microphone in comparison to Flair. Regardless of whether or not that's the case, there's still a WrestleMania match for the Women's Championship between them that needs to be built one way or another, but neither woman's time was spent well in order to do so.
For starters, the in-ring action in Flair's match against Michin was perfectly fine and gave Flair a win heading into WrestleMania to keep her strong, but the actual match itself was just so random. Flair and Michin have had no interaction over the course of the last few weeks, so pairing them together was a rather odd choice. It also made Michin look like something of a jobber which is never a good thing for someone WWE is trying to establish in the "SmackDown" women's scene, especially since she's coming off a Women's United States Championship feud against Chelsea Green that she looked rather good in.
Stratton having a backstage interview with Jackie Redmond immediately following the match was also pretty pointless. If WWE was even going to have her on the show at all, then it would've been far more effective and interesting to have her come out after the match and hold up her title belt. It accomplishes virtually the same thing as the backstage interview in that it sends the message to Flair that Stratton is still Women's Champion despite her thoughts on her without requiring either woman to say a word and taking up far less time on the show. It may be simple, but it's still at least somewhat more engaging than the backstage segment.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
WWE gave me exactly what I wanted to see from Naomi post-heel turn, a really good video promo where she explained herself more without the crying hysterics that she had in the reveal that it was her that attacked Jade Cargill in the in-ring segment with Bianca Belair from a few weeks ago. Her acting skills in this were just flawless, and it was shot and edited so well it had her looking like she was on the edge of deranged heel, but hadn't fully gone over. The single tear sliding down her face was an excellent little touch.
Naomi made a great point about how you teach people how to treat you, and she's done being treated like a third wheel. She even made mention toward her new heel gear, which is covered in caution tape, telling Cargill that if she continues to be in her way, she best "proceed with caution." I like her new, darker look and this makes me think she's going to keep going with the whole caution tape thing, and it's different for her. It's a nice break from her glow persona.
Naomi also attacked B-Fab after B-Fab told Cargill that what Naomi did to her was messed up, ahead of her going out to the ring alongside Michin for her match against Charlotte Flair. I loved that Naomi was attacking someone other than Cargill, even though the segment ended with her brawling with Cargill who came out to make the save, as it probably should have. This annoyingly hasn't been added to the WrestleMania card yet, but it's going to make for an excellent women's singles match that isn't for a championship. While I initially was Team Cargill, this video moved me over to Naomi's side a bit more. I've never seen her portray a character like this, and I honestly like it a lot better than her as a glow-y babyface.
Written by DaisyRuth
The main event of "WWE SmackDown" was always going to be somewhat exciting, promising the three of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and CM Punk will be in the ring at the same time for a contract signing. But what wasn't quite expected was the announcement that their upcoming WrestleMania triple threat will be the main event of WrestleMania 41 Saturday, confirming that despite losing both the Elimination Chamber and the Royal Rumble, Punk would be getting his much-awaited main event at the "Show of Shows" to tick off the life-long goal. For Reigns and Rollins, it's yet another main event in a line of them.
Admittedly, it was cool to see Punk finally get the moment after all this time, when he arguably should have already got the main event over a decade ago. But the issue I have with it is the fact that this is a match without the stakes of a world title, three of which now won't be in the main event slot, and ensures that once again the winner of the Royal Rumble will not in fact main event WrestleMania as is continually billed. The idea that Jey Uso was supposed to be getting his moment after years of hanging in the shadow of his cousin the "Tribal Chief," winning the Royal Rumble and challenging Gunther for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, only to then be bumped from the main event for Reigns once again without any larger stakes is frankly disrespectful to someone who maintains the energy the audience has for him.
The other bout that made a significant argument for the main event would have been Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, and Iyo Sky's triple threat match for the WWE Women's World title, and of course Charlotte Flair did win the Women's Royal Rumble to challenge Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women's Championship, and neither of those will be getting the main event as a result of this announcement. And before that is misconstrued as a "All women's wrestling should be in the main event" argument as rhetoric would have it said, that's to say that I completely understand that Reigns, Punk, and Rollins are all big names and it is the closest we're probably ever going to get to a Shield triple threat at 'Mania. But what does it say about the state of booking in WWE that three out of four of the world titles are not considered to be worthy of the main event? It's indicative of the lack of care and genuine belief in those holding the titles and working week in and week out, and it's the reason why energy levels flounder in spots throughout the year.
Written by Max Everett
