Friday Night SmackDown Review - March 14, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Braun Strowman Saved United States Champion LA Knight and Jimmy Uso from Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga; Strowman, Knight and Uso def. Tonga, Sikoa and Fatu

For the love of God, get Knight the hell away from the Bloodline scraps. It feels like he's been stuck in an endless loop with them for the last year and a half. His promo started out well enough, but the segment went downhill once Uso, Sikoa, Fatu and Tonga came out. Uso and Sikoa screwed up some of their lines, but their funny flubs were unfortunately edited out by the time it aired on USA Network (I watched earlier in the day on Netflix with a VPN when it aired live internationally). The six-man tag team match was standard stuff, but the crowd was into the action.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez Interrupted Cathy Kelley's Sit-Down Interview with Jade Cargill

This taped in the stands of the arena while it was empty before the show. Cargill explained that she knew Naomi was her attacker because she saw her fleeing the scene, and that she wasn't thrilled with Belair continuing to team with her (despite Belair obviously not knowing she was the culprit). She didn't say much else before she was interrupted, but I appreciate that the story was at least somewhat furthered. Morgan and Rodriguez interrupting her while they were walking by led to Cargill vs. Morgan being set up for next week's SmackDown.

Charlotte Flair def. B-Fab

This marked Flair's first televised singles match since December 2023 (I was actually at the show where she got injured against Asuka). Honestly, I had lower expectations for this considering B-Fab isn't all that great in the ring, but this was perfectly fine for what it was. The post-match brawl between Flair and Tiffany Stratton was much hotter. It wasn't amazing by any means, but it was better than anything else they've done so far in their feud.

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes Attacked The Miz on Miz TV

I didn't really care for this segment when it was announced a week ago, but I cared even less after we heard from Rhodes again on Monday's Raw. There's nothing left for Rhodes to say until John Cena returns on Raw in a few days, so it was the right call to keep this short and sweet with Rhodes immediately laying out Miz and quickly addressing Cena. This is what it was exactly what it needed to be.

Damian Priest def. Shinsuke Nakamura by Disqualification

At one point, I thought there was a chance we'd get this at WrestleMania 41 for the United States Championship, but that was before it was clear that McIntyre and Priest would be feuding and before Nakamura lost the U.S. title to Knight. This was a solid television match albeit nothing out of the ordinary. McIntyre's attack on Priest along with his video package where he explained his history with Priest were well done.

Randy Orton def. Carmelo Hayes

Prior to tonight, Orton hadn't wrestled a singles match on SmackDown since last October. The outcome was never in doubt, but I thoroughly enjoyed this while it lasted. Hayes once again looked credible in defeat, but he needs to start winning when it matters most. Orton attempted to punt Hayes in the head afterward, but Kevin Owens saved Hayes before fleeing from ringside.

World Heavyweight Champion Gunther def. NXT Tag Team Champion Axiom (Non-Title)

As strange as it was to see a Raw star wrestle an NXT star on SmackDown, this was fantastic and I'm glad we got it. Although he's one-half of the NXT Tag Team Champions, Axiom isn't a top talent in NXT by any means, so the fact WWE featured him in his country of Spain (against the World Heavyweight Champion, no less) was very cool. This was a blast and the best bout Gunther has had on television in months, not to mention that Axiom had a strong showing in defeat.

Paul Heyman Revealed Roman Reigns Will Return to SmackDown Next Week

Well, this was certainly a waste of an appearance/promo from Heyman. The sole reason this existed was so that Heyman could plug the release of WWE 2K25 (of which Reigns is on the cover) and announce Reigns' return to SmackDown for next week. As you'd expect, this crowd was not happy. Other than to kill time, I have no idea why this had to happen as an in-ring segment as opposed to a vignette.

The Street Profits def. #DIY to Win the WWE Tag Team Championship

Street Profits have failed in so many different championship opportunities in the last four years that this was basically a must-win situation for them, but I still thought WWE would wait until WrestleMania to give them their moment. Hey, I'm not complaining. This was a very entertaining main event with the two teams having terrific chemistry. This was an excellent way to close out the episode. Hopefully we still get some sort of multi-team match (preferably with a stipulation) for the WWE Tag Team titles at WrestleMania.

Overall Show

Needless to say, this edition of SmackDown was absolutely enhanced by the Barcelona crowd. They were lively all night, so I definitely don't think this show would've been as good otherwise. There was a lot to like from this episode, including the two cryptic vignettes that were seemingly for Rey Fenix and Aleister Back. Hopefully the next two weeks of SmackDown (also emanating from overseas) will carry this same energy.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews