Friday Night SmackDown Review - March 6, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Randy Orton Attacked Trick Williams

Orton talked about his absence from the WrestleMania main event the last several years and being back there after winning the men's Elimination Chamber, but he barely acknowledged how unfair it was for Cody Rhodes to lose the Royal Rumble and the Chamber only to get another opportunity at the Undisputed WWE Championship in the night's main event. Hopefully that will be brought up on the road to WrestleMania 42.

United States Champion Carmelo Hayes def. AAA Latin American Champion El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. (AAA Latin American Championship Was Not Defended)

Dr. Wagner Jr. feuded with Ethan Page for a while in NXT and in AAA late last year, but this crowd either wasn't familiar with him or didn't care. Either way, it was hard to blame them for sitting on their hands when he came out. The match was perfectly average, but it wasn't one of the more exciting open challenges Hayes has had so far. As I've said before, I'm ready for him to settle into a storyline with someone on the roster and not just keep beating random names.

Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss and Women's United States Champion Giulia & Kiana James Crashed The Irresistible Forces' WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Celebration; Flair and Bliss def. Giulia and James

I'm glad the women's tag team division has managed to maintain momentum for so many months and that there are still a handful of quality teams in the mix. The championship celebration was fine, as was the subsequent tag team match. I'm not a fan of Giulia continuing to rack up losses, but it's clear the company is much higher on James than they are on her.

Damian Priest & R-Truth def. Los Garza, The Wyatt Sicks (Dexter Lumis and Joe Gacy), Fraxiom, and The Motor City Machine Guns in a WWE Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Tag Team Turmoil Match

It's wild how hot the women's tag team division is at the moment compared to the men's tag team scenes on SmackDown and Raw. SmackDown's tag team scene was killing it at this time a year ago, but this was a sad reminder of how far the division has fallen. The wrestling was decent, but the crowd was quiet for a majority of it until the very end when Priest and Truth went over. Is this really the best they could come up with for Priest right now?

WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley Faced Off

There was a lot of buzz surrounding these two coming into this segment following their heated exchanges on social media earlier in the week. What we got was good, but neither of these promos never got beyond basic. I understand we still have over a month to go until WrestleMania, but they're going to need to ramp it up in order to increase interest in their 'Mania match.

Oba Femi def. Johnny Gargano

After laying on a crate (no, not the same crate Danhausen emerged from at Elimination Chamber) for several weeks, Gargano was motivated by Candice LeRae to become Johnny Wrestling again, so he went out to the ring and issued an open challenge. I was hoping we'd get babyface Gargano out of this, and that could still be the endgame, but that wasn't the case here. Instead, he was promptly squashed by Femi, which was probably for the best with how dominant Femi has been since arriving on the main roster.

Cody Rhodes def. Drew McIntyre to Win the Undisputed WWE Championship

Ugh. I was desperately hoping for some sort of an angle at the end to set up a Fatal 4-Way at WrestleMania with Rhodes, McIntyre, Orton and Jacob Fatu, but no such luck. Instead, Fatu cost McIntyre the win, so that looks to be the matchup at 'Mania while Rhodes defends against Orton one-on-one. Even from an in-ring standpoint, this was solid but far from the best bout Rhodes and McIntyre have had together. I'm happy their rivalry is (seemingly) over after so long, but McIntyre not being able to walk into WrestleMania with the title is deflating and could lead to Rhodes getting booed as soon as next week.

Overall Show

I wouldn't exactly call this a stellar SmackDown, but it also wasn't the worst ever, as I had seen some declare online (cough, Cagematch, cough). The title change at the end was newsworthy, but maybe not for the right reasons depending on who you ask. The rest of the show lacked life and was a chore to sit through. The blue brand has been better on the whole in 2026, but this wasn't one of their stronger efforts.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews