Friday Night SmackDown Review - March 21, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kevin Owens Interrupted Randy Orton

This was the first verbal exchange these two have had since Orton's return at Elimination Chamber and I liked Owens' explanation for his attack on Orton back in November as well as his plea for them to challenge for the tag titles instead. Orton had a fiery rebuttal and confirmed that they'll face each other at WrestleMania 41. This was short and sweet and the Bologna crowd sure loved singing Orton's song.

Damian Priest and Jimmy Uso def. Shinsuke Nakamura and Drew McIntyre

I truly couldn't care less about either Uso or Nakamura at the moment, but their involvement in this match was logical given their recent respective issues with McIntyre and Priest. This was well worked and the crowd was into the action despite it being fairly formulaic. McIntyre immediately got his heat back by attacking Priest afterward. I applaud their effort to make their (likely) 'Mania match more interesting.

WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair Exchanged Words in a Side-by-Side Interview

As much as I was looking forward to Flair feuding with Stratton upon returning, I must admit that the storyline has been severely lacking so far, though the brawl (that the crowd last week was quite hot for) and this interview were steps in the right direction. We've seen far better side-by-side interviews in WWE, but this was solid. Honestly, I think this program would benefit from getting more personal on screen. Similar to Gunther vs. Jey Uso, it's been borderline basic up to this point.

Braun Strowman def. Jacob Fatu in a United States Championship No. 1 Contender's Match by Disqualification

This feud has been simmering for a few months, so I expected a more explosive outing from these two. How was this worse than their Saturday Night's Main Event match in January? The lame disqualification finish due to interference from Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga didn't help, but it did create tension between them and Fatu since it cost Fatu the win and a shot at the U.S. title. Strowman will challenge Knight for the star-spangled prize on next week's show.

Piper Niven def. Zelina Vega

This marked Vega's match since returning to SmackDown in the transfer window. I'm all for her getting a renewed singles push, but I'm also in favor of not rushing into her challenging Chelsea Green for the Women's United States Champion. Very rarely is Niven made to look like a threat, so her beating Vega (especially thanks to outside interference from Green and Alba Fyre) was fine by me. The match itself was decent, but I can guarantee you any crowd in the United States would've been a lot quieter than Bologna was here.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Liv Morgan def. Jade Cargill

I completely forgot about Morgan being very Italian, hence why she received such a strong reaction here. She and Cargill had a quality contest, but given Morgan's track record in recent months, I feel like it could've been better if the focus wasn't supposed to be on Naomi attacking Cargill. Even though it wasn't clean, I was shocked to see Cargill get pinned since she was barely pinned in AEW and hadn't been pinned in WWE prior to this. It's nothing she can't recover from, but it's not like Morgan will really benefit from it being one-half of the tag champs right now.

WWE Tag Team Champions The Street Profits, Legado del Fantasma and Pretty Deadly Interrupted Each Other; Profits def. Legado (Angel and Berto)

It's worth noting that the Profits are back to using the entrance music they had when they were with Bobby Lashley (and supposed to be heels) in 2023, which I have no problem with because it suits their current tweener characters well. The promos were standard stuff, but it did set up the subsequent match and hype Profits vs. Pretty Deadly for next week in London. Profits vs. Legado was well wrestled but no different than their other encounters, though I appreciated that they received an ample amount of time.

Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and CM Punk Brawled

Wait, this was what we waited three hours for? The segment started with so little time left in the show, and a majority of that time was spent on entrances and crowd chants. Yes, the audience in attendance was having a blast, but there was very little substance to this segment if you strip all of that away. It established that we're getting a Triple Threat with these three at WrestleMania, but the brawl was nothing out of the ordinary and paled in comparison to other brawls we've gotten as of late.

Overall Show

I enjoyed last week's episode on the whole, but this felt like more of the same from SmackDown in that it was a largely lazy effort with not a ton to get excited about. Sure, stories are progressing, but most of those stories are average at best. These crowds overseas have been awesome in terms of atmosphere, but these shows need more meaningful content in order to feel worthwhile for everyone else watching from home.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews