Three Things We Hate and Three Things We Loved

With only one night before entering the ring with Rome Reign and CM Punk at the main event at WrestleMania on Saturday, Seth Rollins sat in the ring for a “pipe bomb” repetition and outlined the stakes.

He started with Punk’s first net and started a promotion that fused reality outside of the WWE Canon without compromising its core focus. He hinted at Punk’s unlucky time in AEW, questioning whether he was back because fans wanted him, or someone wrote him fat checks on him, without directly mentioning non-Punk entities. He then asked if Punk really returned to WWE for his fans, or if WWE wrote him fat checks as he burned the first company and bridge, like all other companies.

Rollins positions himself as a WWE defender who flourished in his absence from the start, and is a good person to blur the lines associated with Punk, considering he only streamlines his placement in the match. But of course, Rollins lay on his earlier shield brother of reign, but he sought a small new basis. He called Reigns selfish and ribed on his part-time schedule, but heavily on the beat of many promotions so far. However, it was important that he looked into the issues of governance in this promotion in the next part and closed the circle of why the match was so important.

In his words 12 years ago, Paul Heyman brought Rollins, Reign and Dean Ambrose to WWE to shield punk. And from that point onwards he worked with Punk every night, governing only to get the spotlight and admiration. This was a great way to start tonight’s show and pre-lead the main event tomorrow night. What called third wheels in the ring alone with this feud was made clear why he felt he was the main character of the story. Depending on the middle of tomorrow, he may be.

Written by Max Everett

Do you know of surreal moments that make you wonder if you are dreaming or awake in the real world? Well, Carmelo Hayes won the 2025 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale and personally felt like one of them to me.

Hayes has been on the main roster for quite some time, but with the exception of the Best of Seven Series with Andrade, he hasn’t actually done anything remarkable or important, except for teaming up with MIZ. Given that WWE has chosen several of the winners of the giant Memorial Battle Royal in the past, based on people who are looking at bright futures like Baron Corbin in 2016, Jey USO in 2021, and Bronson Reed in 2024, it’s likely that the tide will change for Hayes, and he will be able to see the main Roster running through hay after the main Roster running through hay. It was refreshing to see him actually get the opportunity to shine tonight and win a rather big victory under his belt.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

One of my favorites on tonight’s “Smackdown” was that I hadn’t even considered the possibility that it would have happened. WWE didn’t let Naomi get away from Bianca Bel Air when the former appeared on the Blue Brand tonight and spoke to WrestleMania opponents before clashing at the event on Sunday. As Bel Air was in the ring facing Rare Ripley and women’s world champion Iyo Sky, Naomi’s music hit, and she spoke to her ex-friend.

First of all, I love Naomi as a heel. I hadn’t seen her short-lived heels running in TNA wrestling, so I’m now blown away by her job. The way she speaks and carries stands out from her “glow” character, which is welcomed with something new to the women’s roster.

The pair started going to it again as they did during the emotional public segment after the elimination chamber, but Cargill stopped it, so this time the dramatic became short-lived. The rest of the segments were also excellent, Ripley enters Cargill’s face and tells her that it wasn’t her now before Naomi returns to the ring for a brawl. After all this, Skye, just got back on his feet and saw it all happen until he saw the opening ascended to the top rope and was hit hard beyond Moonsaw to the challenger (and officials) below. Skye was the last woman standing outside Cargill leaning against a ring barricade, but heading to the side. I think this whole segment has accomplished a lot in a short time.

While I would recommend WWE compete for the women who will appear in “Smackdown” for the “WWE Raw” women’s championship, it makes perfect sense to continue the “Smackdown” storyline with Naomi and Belair. Often, WWE sees fans pretending not to remember things. Like last week, we could have seen more video packages for the Naomi and Cargill feud. It doesn’t seem like you need to praise WWE, but I’m happy to be here and do it tonight.

Written by Daisy Ruth

It was the “Wrestlemania” weekend, and the WWE Tag Team champions were unable to make cards. Never mind the fact that they will win a big victory 35 days ago and become the champions of monster pop. Their number one contender, the Motor City Machine Gun, has been a major part of the title image for the “Smackdown” tag since it arrived in October. They were shocked that the world of wrestling won the title in their third match on their second night at the company. Since losing the title, they have been ruined from rematches. #diy is pretty fatal, and Los Garza has also been featured in the tag title photo since October. Nick Aldis is famous for using white boards to explain the tag division of Blue Brand. They have been telling stories for months, which will naturally lead to the biggest show of the year.

Instead, the match was relegated to “Smackdown” before “Show of Show.” We couldn’t even reach the pre-show. The Go Home show was a lot of filler and not important. Even the two best tag team matches felt unimportant. Thanks to #diy, emotions were erupted when the match ended with disqualification. They’ve been crying the plot for weeks, but the real plot is that tonight’s match didn’t reach “mania”, but WWE hates me as there’s a match worthy of “SmackDown” next week. Following tonight’s DQ, Nick Aldis announced the TLC match Next week. These teams are enough to take part in the match that has been made famous by Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian, but not enough to play the match in “The Show of the Immortals.” Plus, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin are one of the greatest tag teams of this generation – they’re being taken away from the mania moment.

WWE hasn’t bothered tag team wrestling for a long time. Yes, New Day is facing the Warraiders this weekend, but we have two nights. It’s a shame, but not surprising, that there’s room for both male and female tag titles to be defended, and instead of pay-per-view, the “SmackDown” title will be relegated to a TV show. The title will be hot potatoes and I am totally hoping for a title change next week. Street profits, guns, #diy are better worth it, so are Tag Team Wrestling fans.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Trust me, saying I’m totally aware that it’s piling up in the WWE Women’s Championship match between Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair, and that WWE was reportedly the most enthusiastic about the segments the two women had with each other. So, I can understand that they might want to leave them as much as possible in terms of verbal interaction, but Stratton and Flair are still one of the more notable matches across the WrestleMania 41 card.

Tonight’s “SmackDown” was WWE’s last chance from a weekly programming perspective. But instead, they barely feature either woman on the show, putting them in interviews that fans will soon forget about on the show, where fans have had other more notable moments, for better or worse. It felt like a huge opportunity missed and disappointed (this comes from someone who barely hated the storyline between the two).

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Tonight’s “Smackdown” felt like a regular go-home show where WWE writes to match everyone involved in matches at premium live events in tag team matches and matches with different members of fact. In this example, if the Knight doesn’t feel like he’s still going to keep it tomorrow, I wouldn’t have bothered me that much if I wasn’t setting up a fat-sicor feud that would have probably already happened. Maybe it’s my fault not to assume that Fatu will interfere in this match when it’s booked first. After Sikor was defeated by the champion, he thought that Sikor would help him beat the Knight following the match.

For me, he was clearly trying to reach the Knight to soften him before the championship match tomorrow night, as he doesn’t feel like Fatto’s move to help Sicoa. However, with Fatu’s involvement, it meant that the match was awarded to Knight. From tonight onwards, it seems more likely than ever that the former tribe chief will take part in a cousin’s championship match and sacrifice his shot in gold.

There is a risk of dislikeing things that haven’t happened yet. I really hate how this was set up to allow me to further predict the outcomes tomorrow. WWE could have easily stepped away from booking Sikoa against Tonight’s Night and made potential retaliatory interventions that were at least a bit shocking for the audience. Tonight may have been booked for Fatu and Night’s face-to-face. It’s probably redundant, but it would have at least won the Fatu Mic Time, like he did that at Women’s World Championships and Cody Rhodes and John Cena. This is always a good thing.

I think I’ll praise them for trying to be a little more interesting and redundant at least tonight, but this wasn’t led to a US championship match at Wrestlemania.

Written by Daisy Ruth