Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show that occasionally decides to let it ride and run four King/Queen of the Ring tournament four-way matches on a single show. Also, John Cena and Ron Killings showed up not just once but twice, much to the delight of the Lexington crowd, who continued to get good promos in form of the one cut by Naomi. They even got a tag team match between the Wyatt Sicks and the Motor CityMachine Guns.
We'll talk about all this stuff and more here in the column, though admittedly we are not going to go through every individual tournament match. If complete results is what you're after, check out our "SmackDown" results page.If you want to know what the WINC staff thought about the show, however, these are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 6/13/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown."
I have loved absolutely everything about Naomi's heel turn, from her change in attitude to her overall vibe and look, and her winning the Money in the Bank briefcase was the right choice this year, as it only adds to the threatening aspect of her character. The recent social media video of her revealing what she's toting around in the case was also brilliant, and from the switchblade to the Taser, I certainly wouldn't want to be a woman holding gold in WWE right now. However, tonight, Naomi made it know that she's focusing on one champion when it comes to her guaranteed title shot, WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton.
In her promo tonight, Naomi laid out the reasons why she's going after Stratton and as usual, it made perfect, clear, heelish sense, and I completely agree with her decision. She explained that it was Stratton carrying the Money in the Bank briefcase and looming over her and her matches with then-champion Nia Jax during their feud and "Tiffy Time" was the reason Naomi didn't win the title at the time. She said the nice Naomi took it in stride, even when Stratton was bashing her head in with the briefcase, but now, it's her time to go after Stratton and the title. Of course, that brought out Stratton and they had words, with Naomi telling the champion that she plans to cash in when Stratton least expects it. I wasn't a huge fan of Jax attacking Stratton and Naomi then threatening to cash in while Jax was still on her feet and ready to fight, but Ican look past that with how good and believable Naomi's reasoning in her promo was. It would have looked even more ridiculous had she not made a motion to at least get in the ring with her briefcase when the champion was down.
And, while Naomi's reasoning for wanting to cash in on Stratton is extremely valid, I could also see her heelishly using this as a distraction to cash in on IYO SKY or whoever is the Women's World Champion on "WWE Raw" at the time Naomi wants to make a move. That would be a good swerve, which wouldalsomake sense for Naomi's character. There's also, of course, the chance and the fear that Naomi will be the first woman to unsuccessfully cash in her MITB contract, due to interference from Jade Cargill or Bianca Belair, but especially after this fire promo from Naomi tonight, I'm not entertaining that thought any more just yet.
Written byDaisyRuth
More often than not, I usually have an idea of which advertised segments I'll like on any given weekly wrestling show and which one's I won't even though I still like to keep an open mind. Going into tonight's episode of "SmackDown", I knew I was going to despise there being four separate Fatal Four-Way First Round King and Queen Of The Ring Tournament matches and it would be very hard to change my mind about that which turned out to be exactly the case.
It was overkill to put four Fatal Four-Way matches all on the same night, especially considering that WWE still has time before Night of Champions to spread them out across this Friday and next Friday. Even if they had put a couple of them on next Friday, they still would've had time to do them and put the semi finals of either tournament on the same night and/or the following Monday on "Raw" since members of the roster from both brands are involved in them. After the second Fatal Four-Way of the night, it became really tedious to watch, especially having back to back first round matches as the final two segments of the show with nothing in between (not even a video) to break them up whatsoever.
It didn't help that each of the first round matches also had pretty predictable winners and individuals who would be taking the pinfalls. Several spots across the four matches also felt incredibly repetitive, such as numerous competitors using the announce desk to send their opponent's heads bouncing off or Nia Jax getting speared through the barricade near the timekeeper's area only for Priest to be sent crashing over it later in the show. All in all, it was not a smart decision on WWE's part to try and cram all the "SmackDown" first round matches into one night and was absolutely a terrible booking decision.
Written byOlivia Quinlan
For the last six months, the "SmackDown" tag team division has been one of the best things on the Blue brand (okay, they've been the best thing about the tag team division on both brands, including the women). They've had excellent matches with compelling stories. While the title was hot potatoed between Motor City Machine Guns and #DIY, it has stuck with the Street Profits. Although they've had supplemental stories with Los Garza, Pretty Deadly, and Axiom, the division runs the risk of getting stale when focusing on the same three teams (who are some of the best in wrestling).
Enter the Wyatt Sicks. They had been out of action since last year before returning on the late Bray Wyatt's birthday. When they returned, it was during a tag team match in which they laid out nearly the entire division. Was it an attack of convenience in which they could do the most damage? Or were they interested in the tag team titles? We got the answer when Joe Gacy and Dexter Lumis faced MCMG tonight. Being the veterans they are, The Guns volunteered to be the first team to face them.
While the match was a bit off on the Wyatts end, they were able to beat the former champs when Gacy interfered when MCMG went for Skull and Bones. Lumis won with a leg drop, which was an interesting way to finish. But a win is a win in the record book. The Wyatts face the task of picking off the tag teams one by one before making their way to the champions. It'll be a good way to break up any monotony by keeping things fresh with new matchups.
Written bySamantha Schipman
There were reports all throughout the afternoon ahead of "SmackDown" thatHikuleo was finally backstage and presumably ready to make his debut in front of the blue brand's crowd after signing with WWE awhile ago, but an injury had kept him on the shelf. That didn't happen tonight, and what made it even worse, was the fact he debuted in front of the "WWE Main Event" crowd during the taping of the show ahead of "SmackDown." I can honestly say the booking decisions in WWE are well beyond my compression at this point, and I don't mean that as a good thing.
Maybe WWE was nervous thatthe member of the Bloodline had some ring rust after not wrestling for a little over a year at this point. His last match came at NJPW Dominion in June 2024. That's understandable, butHikuleo had a bit of hype around him, since he's part of the Bloodline and people had already known he was signed, and there was a perfect slot to fit him into tonight with the rift now official between Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu after Fatu took out his cousin and cost him big at Money in the Bank. Fatu is the "Samoan Werewolf," not the "Samoan Lone Wolf," so havingHikuleo by his side against Sikoa, who is now backed up by JC Mateo, makes complete sense. Fatu might not need a bodyguard, per say, but evening out the numbers would only do him good.
DebutingHikuleo to the "Main Event" crowd rather than beside Fatu is a bad choice. While I'm sure many wrestling fans didn't see the social media posts about it and likely won't watch "Main Event" when it actually airs, I still don't like it at all. It makes me wonder if they're actually going to bring him in with Fatu at this point, ahead of what I assume is Fatu's match with Sikoa at SummerSlam, or even maybe as early as Saturday Night's Main Event. It feels strange and was definitely a bad call. If WWE thought he was rusty, he could easily have worked alongside Fatu in a tag match or two to work out any kinks, rather than just showing up on a program no one really watches, and sadly, I don't think his debut is going to draw anymore eyes to it.
"Raw" felt like the much bigger show this week. WhileHikuleo debuting to back up Fatu wouldn't have been anything necessarily earth shattering, it would have added a bit more spice to a show that was centered a lot around John Cena saying and doing absolutely nothing. Maybe all my complaining will be for nothing, and he'll make his main roster debut next week, but with the way WWE is booking things these days, I won't hold my breath.
Written byDaisyRuth
As disappointing as it was to have a last-minute replacement made to the Queen of the Ring qualifier between Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Candice Lerae, and Chelsea Green Green being replaced by Alba Fyre for currently undisclosed reasons an undoubted bright spark came at the end of the bout. Multi-person matches are everywhere in wrestling and WWE, whether it be for the title, for a shot at the title, or a shot at a shot at the title. They are plentiful and oftentimes they play out very similar to one another (just tonight there four of them, for example). Both of the men's matches ended with a singular winner Randy Orton hitting the RKO onto Carmelo Hayes as he hit a splash onto LA Knight and Cody Rhodes just spamming his finisher until he could finally make the cover on someone and Jade Cargill secured her win in a dominant victory, but again nothing that we haven't really seen before.
There are only so many ways a match can end and that is understandable, but on a night with four of the same match format, it pays to play about with the ruleset a little and see what can be done to stand out from the rest. And that is where it feels like the second women's qualifier excelled, building a story between two competitors within the same match that played into the finish, neither of them really losing but only winning technically. Flair had the Figure Eight leglock cinched in, almost certainly a winning play had this been a singles match. But at the exact same time, Bliss delivered Twisted Bliss to Lerae and made the cover, allowing her to get the victory via a three-count as Fyre tapped out after the match had concluded. In any other format, or had Bliss delivered the move just a second later, the result could very well have been different. It was a clever way to conclude the match in a way that advanced Bliss and kept Flair strong even as a fair loser, as well as continuing the gradual tease for Bliss and Flair to lock up in singles action which very much seems to be the plan.
Written by Max Everett
I know that John Cena only has a limited number of dates left before he permanently hangs up his boots, and I can certainly respect WWE for wanting to maximize those appearances by having him appear more than once on the same show as he did on "SmackDown" tonight. If WWE is going to continue to optimize all of Cena's appearances by having him appear more than once on any given show, then they need to actually start to have him building up at least one storyline since that cannot be said for this particular edition of "SmackDown".
Cena should currently be focused on preparing to defend his Undisputed WWE Championship against CM Punk at Night of Champions whilst keeping an eye out for Ron Killings after being blindsided by him at Money In The Bank. Because of this, it felt utterly pointless to have him get into a verbal confrontation with his old rivals Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton only to be interrupted by LA Knight (who has no recent history with Cena) for what was basically the sake of giving Cena, Rhodes, Orton, and Knight extra television time. Literally nothing was said during this entire segment that would've worked to build a future match between Cena, Rhodes and/or Orton and/or Knight, rendering the first 20 or so minutes of "SmackDown" as a complete waste of time.
This trend extended to Cena's confrontation with Punk later that night. Yes, Cena and Punk are technically building to a match on June 28, but there was nothing that was said within the verbal exchange between both men that worked to actually do so. It felt like WWE is relying on the fans to fill in the gaps and have some prior knowledge of the 2011 feud between Cena and Punk, meaning therefore they don't need to do too much build to create a rivalry between the two men. There's certainly truth to that, but WWE still needs to build at least a little something, especially for newer fans who may not be as familiar when it comes to the storied history the two men share. While it was nice to see that Killings get the better of Cena after both segments by blindsiding him with two separate attacks in order to emphasize the new side of his character, it would've felt more cohesive if WWE has just had Cena appear once, get into a verbal confrontation with Punk that accomplished something within the build to their Night Of Champions match, and then had Killings blindside Cena with a cue from Punk. Everything felt messy, and nothing worked to build much of anything when that should always be the goal in professional wrestling.
Written byOlivia Quinlan
