Friday Night SmackDown Review - August 22, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jade Cargill Saved WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton from Nia Jax and Women's Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch

Lynch's heel work is fantastic. She went from being wildly cheered by her home country crowd to being overwhelmingly booed once she flipped the switch. The rest of the segment was basic stuff to set up the tag team main event, but it did make sense that Cargill would come to Stratton's aid based on the respect they've established they have for each other over the last month.

Melo Don't Miz def. The Motor City Machine Guns

Last week, Carmelo Hayes was clearly favored over The Miz because they were in Hayes' hometown of Boston. This week, Miz was way more favored because, well, they were overseas? I don't know, the international crowds really seem to like cheering for Miz. The match was enjoyable with the crowd's enthusiasm making a major difference. I'm not high on Melo Don't Miz beating legitimate teams, but hopefully it's worth it for the endgame alone.

Piper Niven def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Charlotte Flair

The booking of this feud has been fairly formulaic so far, but I guess it's at least kept Flair and Alexa Bliss busy as champs. Flair and Bliss won the last two matches they had against either Chelsea Green or Niven, so this was a necessary victory for Niven. Granted, it shouldn't be enough to earn her and Alba Fyre a shot at the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, but it's better than nothing. The match was decent, but the crowd seemed to have more fun chanting for Green at ringside.

John Cena Attacked Logan Paul

Man, where has this Cena been all year? Cena gave his best in-ring performance so far in 2025 at SummerSlam against Cody Rhodes, and he delivered his best promo so far in 2025 in this segment. To his credit, Paul also played his role really well and got nuclear heat from this crowd, but Cena was especially excellent and made the match with Paul at Clash in Paris feel way more meaningful than when they made it official two weeks ago. Paul quickly getting the better of Cena backstage to close the show was a nice touch.

The Street Profits def. The MFTs (JC Mateo and Tonga Loa)

The MFTs aren't exactly the most exciting addition to SmackDown's loaded tag team division, but they're a talented tandem, nonetheless. I figured they would win here to get them closer to a WWE Tag Team Championship opportunity, but once they determined early on that the winners would face Melo Don't Miz in a number one contender's match on next week's episode, that made it obvious Street Profits were going over. It was a good match regardless with Sami Zayn and Jimmy Uso costing The MFTs the win.

Damian Priest and Aleister Black Brawled

Black was scheduled to face R-Truth in a rematch from a month or two ago, but Truth appeared on the Titantron while Black was in the ring and said he accidentally flew to Dublin, Georgia instead of Dublin, Ireland. We're actually going back to Truth being comic relief? Ugh. Anyway, this was a fine angle to reintroduce Priest and rekindle his rivalry with Black. It'd be awesome if they could have their rematch at Clash in Paris, but there's other matches I expect to be added before that one.

Randy Orton Attacked Drew McIntyre

I thought McIntyre trash-talking Rhodes would lead to Rhodes returning and announcing that they'll meet for the Undisputed WWE Championship at Clash in Paris, but Orton attacking him instead was a pleasant surprise. We haven't seen Orton since he lost that tag team match to McIntyre and Paul at SummerSlam. Maybe we'll get him against Orton at Clash in Paris instead of McIntyre vs. Rhodes? Either way, the crowd was certainly happy to see Orton.

Jade Cargill and WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton def. Nia Jax and Women's Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch

This felt like almost any other SmackDown tag team main event this year in that it was well worked yet ultimately inconsequential. It doesn't help that Jax and Stratton have been feuding on and off all year and we desperately need new blood in the WWE Women's Championship picture. The crowd was into this and I assume the idea was to build to a rematch between Stratton and Cargill, but the scene needs a serious shakeup soon.

Overall Show

This was a typical WWE international show in that they relied a lot on star power to carry the show and keep the crowd entertained as opposed to significant storyline developments. There are some highlights on SmackDown at the moment, and going back to two hours has been an improvement, but the shows very much feel phoned in most weeks. This episode gets a mild thumbs-up from me, and next week's show looks stacked on paper, but I worry about the future of the blue brand beyond that.

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