Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show that aired much earlier internationally, because Australia, but that US-based fans who haven't taken Stephanie McMahon's VPN advice had to wait until the regularly scheduled time to watch! Now that the entire WINC crew has seen the show, we're here to give you our opinions on Sami Zayn's latest US title defense, the Wyatt Sicks staring down Solo Sikoa's MFTs ... actually, we're covering pretty much everything this time around, not counting backstage promo segments (because we are also refusing to wish The Miz a happy birthday).
As always, if you missed the show and just need to catch up on the nuts and bolts, check out our "SmackDown" results page. If you want to know what we thought of the Friday night/morning proceedings on the blue brand, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 10/10/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown."
There are no shortage of pointless promo segments throughout WWE's history and plenty that have happened in recent memory, but usually, I can decipher whatever goal that WWE or the wrestler is trying to accomplish after all is said and done. One rare example where I had absolutely no idea of what the goal of a promo segment was supposed to be occurred on this edition of "SmackDown" during Cody Rhodes' opening segment.
I can tell you that WWE was likely looking to create some last minute hype for Rhodes and Rollins' Men's Crown Jewel Championship at Crown Jewel, but that didn't really end up happening with how disorganized and messy everything Rhodes said was. It's rare to see Rhodes get like this, but he was all over the place with that he talked about. I know he said something about how much Perth loved WWE, something about Rollins not being the same man at WrestleMania 40, something about wanting to dismantle The Vision, and something about wrestlers on a quest for power but that was about all I really got out of everything. It's not exactly a great impression to leave before a match that WWE has touted as being a major one, and the lack of appearance from the other competitor in Rollins did nothing to aid in matters at all. On a "SmackDown" that was otherwise pretty solid, this was easily a very low point for me and felt incredibly underwhelming coming from a guy who we all know can cut a great promo.
Written byOlivia Quinlan
Since Sami Zayn has been U.S. Champion, he's been a fighting champion with weekly open challenges. They've been one of the highlights of "SmackDown" as he's faced the likes of John Cena (whom he asked permission from to bring back the open challenge), Carmelo Hayes, and Je'Von Evans.
This week's opponent was a familiar one as Shinsuke Nakamura answered the challenge in his first match since June. We got the complete Nakamura Experience with his original entrance song. He has shed his oversized robe and wore gear similar to his old style. It evoked feelings of excitement of the Nakamura of old, especially since these two have shared the ring many times over the years.
The match was good, but unfortunately ended in a DQ as a hooded man pulled Nakamura out of the ring as he was setting up for a Kinshasa. He dumped Nakamura over the barricade with a clothesline. The hooded man revealed himself to be a returning Tama Tonga. The rest of MFT joined him to beat them down. It was disappointing that a match between to familiar foes ended in a DQ, but perhaps it will lead to a rematch. It's good to have Nakamura back.
Written bySamantha Schipman
If you've been keeping up with our new Draws and Duds feature, you know that we're collectively not the most excited for Stephanie Vaquer vs.Tiffany Stratton. I'm sure everyone else has their reasons, but speaking personally, I could not care less about a wrestling "feud" in which both stars are babyfaces who are only fighting because they're the two people who happen to be champion. It's stupid, the entire Crown Jewel Championship concept is stupid, and I'm just going to keep pointing out how stupid it is until it stops.
For the record, this is not to demean the actual in-ring work in the tag match that saw Stratton and Vaquer team up against Giulia and Kiana James. The in-ring work was fine, as you'd expect from these performers. But there was zero reason to care especially because of the sheer number of times we've seen this exact thing before. Two babyfaces feuding, they team up against some heels who they inevitably beat, there's some light tension but not enough for anything interesting to happen, and then they go stand next to the CrownJewel title and hold up their titles and that's it. Check the box. I guess we shouldn't expect any more from the company that booked John Cena vs. AJ Styles entirely on social media, but this kind of paint-by-numbers tripe is why it's hard to get excited about what WWE (or any promotion, really) is doing these days. At least in AEW, they would have done a contrived promo segment to pretend they have unresolved beef from six years ago or something. WWE just expects people to cheer when the shiny belts get held up and then buy anESPN subscription; no story, no effort, no investment.And since neither of the titles that we actually see on TV every week are on the line in Australia, even from a "pure" wrestling match perspective, who actually cares?
I would legitimately be so much more interested if Vaquer had taken Chelsea Green up on her offer to become a Slaygent in the Secret Hervice.
Written byMiles Schneiderman
Over the last few weeks, I've really liked how WWE has tried to re-establish, almost like they were re-introducing, Solo Sikoa and his MFTs (though I'll admittedly never like that name) through the various video vignettes by Sikoa naming off each member of the faction and their accomplishments, with the final one mentioning the missing piece. Tonight, all of that rather unexpectedly came to a head when a returning Tama Tonga, wearing his Guerillas of Destiny face paint from his NJPW days, interfered in the United States Championship Open Challenge match where Sami Zayn was defending against Shinsuke Nakamura.
That brought the rest of the faction out, also wearing face paint, outside of Sikoa, and the crowd went mild. However, their confrontation later in the night popped the crowd big time and even got "this is awesome" chants during a simple stare down. I don't know if I would have necessarily been amongst those chants, but I did really love the fact the MFTs were establishing themself further in the tag team division when they confronted the Wyatt Sicks following their successful title defense again the Street Profits.
I think I partially liked it because before, the entire faction was centered around Sikoa. While he seemed like the ringleader for this tonight, of course, the MFTs confronting another faction, especially the one that holds the tag team championships, just felt different. Just from that, I get the sense that Sikoa is mores behind them this time around. The "new to this" feeling that I got from the promo videos flowed into this, as well. I also really liked the fact that without Uncle Howdy/Bo Dallas there tonight, it was Nikki Cross who stood up to Sikoa and tried to get in his face. But, when Howdy returns, a face-off between him and Sikoa is going to be very interesting. This was also all very effective without any physicality.
While I could be totally off base and this is all once again about Sikoa, I'm getting a good feeling about this. Ihad complained about no team on "SmackDown," or even beyond, feeling like they could defeat Joe Gacy and Dexter Lumis for the championships, but I'm thinking a combination of the MFTs certainly could.The Bloodline storyline fell off, as one would expect, following WrestleMania 40 and it almost feels like WWE's creative team finally realized they're not going to capture all of that big storyline feeling again, so they're going a different direction. I'm excited to see where this goes throughout the next few weeks, and I'm glad WWE didn't wait until they were back in the states to start this angle with Sikoa's MFTs and the Wyatt Sicks.
Written byDaisy Ruth
I thought this was one of the more solid episodes of "WWE SmackDown" in awhile, and I really didn't have much to complain about other than really expecting "WWE NXT's" Zaria and Sol Ruca to get their shot at the Women's Tag Team Championships in Perth. Zaria is a big star in Australia, where she's from originally (though I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure where Adelaide is in regards to Perth), and I thought it would have been a nice touch to today's episode.
Instead, we got a quick backstage segment between Ruca and Zaria and Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss that could have easily been a pre-taped video from back in the United States. All that happened was the match officially being set up between the two teams, with the champions telling ZaRuca they weren't sure if they were ready, with the challengers fighting back that they would prove it. Pretty standard stuff that I'm curious as to whether WWE actually had these women make the trip to Australia or not, or if thiswaspre-recorded for "SmackDown." If they all went to Australia, I hope they're doing media and at least having a good time doing other things rather than just hanging around backstage.
I also hope the fact that the "NXT" stars didn't get their title shot on tonight's "SmackDown" isn't an indication that they're not going to win the gold. While I'm not entirely sure I'm sold on them getting the victory, Flair and Bliss haven't been doing much with the titles since they established that they're actually friends and it's getting kind of stale. I would like to believe, however, that ZaRuca has a shot, though their storyline in "NXT" would also have me believing otherwise. Either way, it would have been cool to see Zaria wrestle in front of her home country crowd, and Ruca is over in front of many crowds, and I think she would have stood out here with her surfer gimmick. It's a bummer, but at least we know that title match will be happening sometime soon, at least.
Written byDaisy Ruth
This week's main event saw what one hopes is the end of the feud between Damian Priest and Aleister Black, with them meeting one another in a Last Man Standing match that put both men over in their own respect.
The action itself was fun, it was a TV stipulation match so there were no super crazy spots, no one was set on fire or anything, but the announcer's desk and ringside area sure got their fair usage as Priest grew increasingly frustrated with throwing Black and around and him still getting up before the count. There were some specifically creative spots, with Priest and Black dueling with kendo sticks while Priest was searching for Old School with the weapon-in-hand, and then Priest dumping Black onto the announcer's table in consecutive attempts to win the match, both times Black rolling his legs off the table and very limply standing up before the count while definitely leaning on said table for support.
After it was made clear to him that there was no way of winning the match in the ring or in the ringside area, Priest took Black into the wider venue, clearly looking for a big spot as they climbed the equipment with a precariously planted table below. It was then that Zelina Vega, breaking the fourth wall as Black's real-life wife despite having spent more time as rivals than friends in wrestling came between them and did the classic, "Oh no, please don't hurt my husband," only for it all to be a ruse for Black to cast a fireball having rolled a Nat 20 to send Priest crashing through the table and win the match.
I am not a fan of putting people together on-screen purely because of their nuptials, and there is naturally the question of what this means for Vega's own singles pursuits, given that so often does the wife find herself stood behind her husband, but at the same time it did provide a way of giving Black the much-needed victory while keeping Priest strong in defeat. For what it was, the Last Man Standing match was a fun main event that would really serve as a good way of closing their saga, said cognizant of the fact WWE likes to 'revisit' things when the well runs dry. Whether its consequences bode well for the future is another debate entirely, but for now it gets some love.
Written byMaxEverett
