Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where sometimes the pipebomb promo cuts back! Oh yeah, we absolutely have a lot to say about John Cena's promo this week, which will likely be as controversial in the world at large as it was within the WINC staff. We'll also cover everything that happened in the women's division, from the Queen of the Ring semifinal to a failed Money in the Bank cash-in attempt from Naomi, as well as LA Knight getting murked by Bronson Reed and Jacob Fatu vs. Solo Sikoa making the Night of Champions card.
That is by no means the entire show it doesn't include the King of the Ring semifinal between Sami Zayn and Randy Orton, for example but for at least as long as this show remains three hours, you'll have to get your completionism on via our "SmackDown" results page. This column is only for what we felt most strongly about over the course of those three hours, be those feelings positive or negative. Which is just a typically long-winded way of saying, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 6/20/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"
While I am still indifferent to a lot on "SmackDown," as the three hours seem to drag even more when we get reports that the show is soon to be moving back to two hours (which I won't believe until WWE or the USA Network tells me, at this point), I wasn't a big fan of tonight's segment with WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton, Nia Jax, and Miss Money in the Bank Naomi. For one, I can't say I'm too excited to see Stratton and Jax go one-on-one again next week, even if it's in a Last Woman Standing Match. Though, I will say that makes sense, if WWE gives it time on whatcouldbe the final three-hour show for awhile. And, I suppose it gives them a bigger spot even if they're not on the official Night of Champions card.
The last woman Stratton defended her title against was Jax back on May 16 on another episode of "SmackDown," and that seems to be her only defense after retaining over Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 41. I'd really like to see her defend against different women on the blue brand's roster, but I guess a Last Woman Standing Match will be a pretty definitive end to their feud. Or, will it?
After the women had words that led to an altercation in the ring tonight, Naomi's music hit and she ran down with the briefcase. I was almost certain she was going to cash in tonight, as she had a referee with her and everything, but Jax prevented her from doing so. It all happened in a way where it really feels like Naomi will officially cash in next week off the Last Woman Standing Match, as that's a stipulation that absolutely lends itself to a cash-in. It almost feels like some kind of strange spoiler.
While,I hope I'm wrong, because I much rather be surprised, Iwon't be too mad if it actually leads to a successful title victory for Naomi, because she's absolutely crushing it as a heel. I rather see thatnotin Saudi Arabia, however, but if Naomi is going to get a bag of cash in addition to a title, I'm all for it. Ijust don't think that's likely to happen and I'm nervous Naomi will be the first woman to have an unsuccessful cash in of the contract, especially with Bianca Belair waiting in the wings and likely very close to a return.
Written byDaisyRuth
I don't like using my space here to hate on the women's division, but they unfortunately didn't give me much choice this week. My colleague covered Tiffany Stratton/Nia Jax/Naomi segment, so I will stick to the two women's matches, which weren't actively terrible but were also not good.
First we had Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka in a Queen of the Ring semifinal, and while I think there was theoretically a lot of love about this match, none of it was executed well enough for it to matter. Frankly, the match structure seemed a little ambitious for an Asuka vs. Alexa Bliss match in 2025, especially with both coming off lengthy hiatuses; this was just Bliss' second singles match since her return in February, and it was Asuka's first televised singles match since December 2023. So while I'd lay the blame far more on the producers than the talent here, given that the producers did not put the talent in a position to succeed, it was still pretty appropriate for Asuka to win the match on an Empress Impact that didn't come anywhere close to connecting.
The second match of the night featured Charlotte Flair taking on Chelsea Green, which was fairly uninspired even before the finish and everything that happened afterward. I thought the choice to have Piper Niven get into the ring and wait for Green to tap out to the Figure Eight before hitting immediately a splash on Flair was bizarre, but it's not as bizarre as WWE's apparent belief that somebody, somewhere, cares about the current storyline between Flair and Bliss, who came out for her second segment to save Flair from the Secret Hervice, but who continues to be denied the alliance she inexplicably wants, for no reason. It's strange because this storyline continues to feel like it was written for two characters who have history together but Flair and Bliss have little to no history together. They've wrestled a couple times, but they've never really feuded. They've never been in a tag team or a faction or ANYTHING. They just really have not been terribly involved, which makes this entire thing ring completely hollow. Given that we know WWE at one point planned to team up Flair with Becky Lynch, it makes me wonder if this is just recycled creative from that storyline, because if Bliss were Lynch, everything would immediately make way more sense.
Anyway, this is all just a long way of saying that it's legitimately insane to have Bliss wrestle the biggest women's match on the show and then go participate in the biggest women's angle on the show even though, really, I promise, nobody cares instead of just putting her with the Wyatt Sicks and having her cut spooky promos. What are we doing?
Written byMiles Schneiderman
For me a consistent highlight over a fairly inconsistent past few months on "SmackDown" has been the split between Jacob Fatu and Solo Sikoa, with Fatu almost entirely eclipsing Sikoa to become the United States Champion and prove he doesn't need The Bloodline as much as it needs him. Fatu was brought in by Sikoa to be his enforcer, becoming a prominent threat in months to bring the tag titles to the faction and then also stand toe-to-toe with Roman Reigns. And after Sikoa failed in his bid to dethrone Reigns as the "Tribal Chief," he spent time away and Fatu came into his own leading up until WrestleMania where he eventually won the title.
Even still, Sikoa tried to maintain that control despite it not exactly being merited, trying to steer the new champion despite the fact he had failed in his own pursuit of a singles title. That in itself reached breaking point at Money in the Bank, after Sikoa outright called Fatu stupid, when the "Samoan Werewolf" cost him the match. Even still, Sikoa said he wanted him to remain by his side coming into this week, with the pair meeting in the ring for an exchange.
Sikoa called Fatu out, and offered to work out their differences so he could fall back in line, but he wanted to hear "I love you Solo" once more. It was obvious to anyone with a set of eyes and ears that there was something Sikoa was dancing around, and Fatu cut right through to call it out immediately. He said that there was something else going on, and believed that it had something to do with the title he was holding, before putting it on the line against him to fight for. It was just a character-affirming, simple delivery mechanism for the logical next step in this New Bloodline saga, with Sikoa always playing a game and trying to maneuver his way to getting what he wants and Fatu being the guy to simply cut to the chase. Just strong stuff overall, a promising match as a result, and personally a really compelling story.
Written by Max Everett
LA Knight may have been laid out with a Tsunami by Bronson Reed after their surprise match on "SmackDown," but he seems to have found some footing in a fresher storyline in something that feels a bit different for him other than chasing the United States Championship. There have been reports this last week of Knight moving to "Raw," and tonight he called out Seth Rollins, a red brand star, but even if he's not officially moving shows and will just appear on both brands, it's something that works well for his character. "The Megastar" is still over as hell, and getting him on both Netflix and the USA Network can't hurt.
Tonight, he opened the show in a promo battle with Paul Heyman, and getting to rub shoulders with Heyman on the mic is always a good thing. It was also a nice break from John Cena opening up the show and ranting at the fans, so I really liked that aspect. Knight challenging Heyman to a match was a little silly, but I was honestly just glad it was something different. It may have still be a talking segment to open the show, but at least it was some different talent doing the talking.
Knight is obviously getting into a program with Rollins, which is the level where he needs to be. He may have to go through Rollins' goonies first, tonight being Reed, and I'd imagine he'll have Breakker soon, but it's still something different and something on a higher level for Knight. WWE didn't pull the trigger when Knight was super hot, but thankfully, he's still incredibly over, and his character will work really well in an ongoing feud with Rollins. It's a feud he's justified in following Money in the Bank and getting knocked out of the King of the Ring tournament, so I'm interested to see where it goes from here.
Written by DaisyRuth
After putting Punk through the Slim Jim table, Cena grabbed a mic in an attempt to recreate Punk's infamous pipe bomb as we near its 14th anniversary (Cena had also been put through a table when Punk delivered his pipe bomb). At the time when Punk cut that promo, WWE was in a different place. Punk was fighting against them and Cena. A promo like that hadn't been delivered on WWE programming in recent memory. He called out Vince McMahon, "his daughter and doofus son-in-law." He also said the only thing that Cena was better than him was "kissing Vince McMahon's a**." Earlier in tonight's episode, that line was scrubbed from the vignette recapping Punk and Cena's feud. Cena would callback that line by saying the only thing Punk is better than him at is "being the Best Bulls****** in the World."
Cena claimed he didn't hate Punk and was his only friend in the locker room. He blathered on about being better than Punk and when he dropped a curse word, he mockingly told kids the show was off the rails. He also looked into the mic to recreate when Punk said hi to Colt Cabana by namedropping Claudio Castagnoli, Nic Nemeth, and Matt Cardona. One line that I thought was interesting is when Cena called Punk "Mr. TKO" like he didn't sayhe loves McMahonas he's facing a lawsuit where he's alleged to have sex trafficked a former employee, among other things. He took another shot at Punk by saying "you change your values as much as I change my t-shirts." This is likely in reference to the infamous tweet Punk posted about The Miz going to Saudi Arabia since Punk will face Cena there next week. The line comes six days after Punk was photographed attending a "No Kings" protest when just a few days earlier various superstars attended a military event with the man the march protested.
The promo came off as inauthentic which was the whole reason Punk's pipe bomb worked. It also came off like another petty act against Punk (WWE will always find ways to be petty against people who left their company or defied them in any way) and sounded like the "doofus son-in-law" helped write it. On "Raw," they had Cena cut a promo against the fans when Killings returned, which also sounded like Paul Levesque wrote it. Cena's heel promos have not worked for me at all and this one also missed the mark because it felt uninspired and like Cena was being used solely as a mouthpiece to air grievances, not further their storyline. For the last couple of segments with Cena, it has felt like Punk has to win, but he's not going to. So if he's not going to, what's the point other than mocking Punk?
Written by Samantha Schipman
I have not been a fan of John Cena's heel run so far, and I did not think that was going to change when he launched into his "reverse pipe bomb promo," which initially struck me as pretty cringe. I think that started to change around the time Cena said he liked Punk better than "most people you've shared a locker room with," and I got more into it the more Cena used the promo as a vessel for exploring Punk's hypocrisy. I'm not well-versed enough in historic wrestling rumors to know if there are specific reasons Cena chose to reference Claudio Castagnoli, Nic Nemeth, and Matt Cardona, but the fact of the matter is that the specifics didn't matter. Cena naming names outside WWE was good for the promo because it helped Cena mirror the audacity of the original pipe bomb, but it was really more of a general message that was being delivered. And it wasn't Drew McIntyre's disturbingly personal brand of hatred or Seth Rollins' obsession with Punk leaving WWE, but something simpler. In his promo, Cena directly undermined the mythology of CM Punk, stripping him of his rebellious exterior and presenting him as just another normal guy who does normal guy stuff, like not being as good as John Cena, or taking a huge check to wrestle in Saudi Arabia.
If nothing else, it was probably about time somebody did this specific thing to Punk. Adapting the pipe bomb promo and making it about Punk himself being a sellout is kind of a layup in 2025, and Cena was probably the right person to deliver it. It certainly felt like the most authentic thing he's done on the microphone since turning heel, but despite the worked shoot nature of it all (also just like the original pipe bomb) he kept things focused on storyline, with some really interesting line deliveries and facial expressions as he realized the crowd was legitimately getting on his side. I thought the closing line about it being a small world after all was weak maybe I'm missing something about the line? but everything surrounding it was done with so much actual conviction that I didn't care. Authenticity, conviction these are the things the Cena character has profoundly lacked as a heel, and they were things he never, ever struggled with as a babyface. It was refreshing to see some spark of them return.
Written byMiles Schneiderman
