[8.0] "Damn I guess I'm in the minority here (which is totally fine, you like what you like) but I was absolutely thumbs up on this episode of SmackDown! Thought the main event was a very well worked main event, the gauntlet was fun, the open challenge as always was good, and the tag match with Kiana, Giulia and Blissflair. Great all round, only critisism is the three hour show, feels like it took me a few days to get through it"

[5.0] "This episode felt really strange. Every match had something that didn't quite work. The tag team turmoil was won by a random team. And the main event feels inexplicable. I get they wanted to do Cody vs Randy but they could've leave this like a TT or a FF and leave the solo rivarly for SummerSlam. The only thing I genuinely enjoyed were all the Sami Zayn segments, other than that, this episode left me with more than a few question marks"

[1.0] "Just a terrible show. The tag team gauntlet was horrible with the actual good teams getting pushed to the wayside in favor of Los Garza who are basically irrelevant jobbers and a thrown together comedy team of Priest and R-Truth. Gargano has been reduced to a comedy jobber and while he shouldn't be beating Femi or anything it's still sad to see how unimportant he seems now. Then Cody wins the title back from Drew for some reason in a match that wasn't as good as their previous matches, making McIntyre ever winning the title seem pretty pointless."

[6.0] "A WWE-esque show to the extreme. This detestable company offers some entertainment and a few interesting moments, particularly with the opener and the main event. The midcard is too mediocre, and some wrestlers seem to be treated with contempt--I'm not talking about McIntyre, but rather Gargano and Giulia. The off-match angles were pretty good. Williams and Orton and the women's tag teams kept things basic; I preferred the exchange between Ripley and Cargill. Zayn is planting the seeds of a heel turn, while Danhausen is just being Danhausen, which could quickly become tiresome but is still acceptable for now. One flaw not to be forgotten: the forcing with that jerk Jerry Roll. Match quality: 2.75/5. Off-match angles and segments: 1.25/3. Bonus/penalty: J. Roll -0.25. Total: 5.75/10. Watched on Netflix (FR)."

[0.0] "First of all - why did Royce Keys got even signed? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE / I'm glad Randy is wrestling for the title at WrestleMania and will probably main event Night 1, BUT I could not care less about this year's WrestleMania if every wrestler fighting for the world titles is over 40. How did they fail to build even ONE star under 30? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. Why, out of all people, was Trick the one who ate the RKO? One of the few guys with real future main-event potential. Why bury HIM? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE Also, stop overusing Trick's entrance. Not every entrance needs to be epic. If it's not a big match, maybe don't do the full spin-and-lightning every time. I love it, but I don't want him turning into Mr. "I am only my entrance" Jey Uso, who is already extremely annoying. / When Carmelo was talking with Nick Aldis, why did I actually want Aldis to go to the ring instead? He is bigger and more charismatic than Melo. Why does WWE allow the audience to have that impression? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE Speaking of Melo and the US title -- why does he only have open challenges? The only time that worked was when John Cena did it, because he was elevating younger wrestlers. Melo is not Cena and he is not a veteran mentor. Nobody cares about endless open challenges. Why doesn't he have a real storyline? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE / Ilja Dragunov was one of my favorite European wrestlers. What are they doing with him? Unfortunately he has little charisma, so why not pair him with someone? Why not put him with Rusev and make them some kind of Eastern European force? That would help Ilja. Instead he gets stupid lines about his mother. Nothing against his mother, but just like with Royce Keys -- I do not give a f**k about tragic life stories. I want Ilja to be the badass. Why are they burying another great wrestler who just needs direction? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE Why did Kit Wilson -- basically a jobber for Ilja -- get a bigger reaction? Probably because he actually has a gimmick. Are writers really that stupid that they don't understand wrestlers need gimmicks, even silly ones? Why do wrestlers no longer have gimmicks? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE / Poor R-Truth cut his hair believing Triple H might give him one last good storyline, but instead he became the biggest clown in WWE, used mainly for product ads. Now without hair he even looks like he's going through chemotherapy. Does Triple H hate him or something? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE / Then Drew and Nick had that stupid conversation about Cody getting a rematch even though it was clearly established Cody cannot challenge for the title. Nick's excuse was pathetic and he should be fired for allowing a contract violation. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE / Too many good wrestlers got buried tonight, including Giulia. She was one of the few joshi in Stardom I cared about because she is fantastic, yet she is champion and still gets buried. Why didn't Kiana take the pin? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. And unless this leads to Giulia vs Charlotte for the US title at WrestleMania (which it clearly won't), then why does this title even exist? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE Sami Zayn actually said what many fans think -- that Cody sucks the d**ks of Triple H and Nick Khan. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but if heel Zayn beat Cody for the title after Cody retains against Randy, I would actually enjoy it. / The tag division could not be more shallow. I didn't care about a single team in that turmoil match. How are the final teams Berto & Garza and Truth & Priest? Where are Guerrillas of Destiny and Street Profits? Why are there barely any good tag teams anymore? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE / Then came the worst promo battle ever: "I respect you Jade." "No, I respect you Rhea." "Nice hands." What the hell is this? Why is everything so pussyfied now? Why is there no heat between wrestlers anymore? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE Jade is honestly one of the worst women's wrestlers ever. Why is she champion? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. She should be used as muscle like Chyna once was, protecting smaller wrestlers and destroying enemies. That could work. What they're doing now is horrible and I don't want to see her on TV again. Also Rhea said her body can survive anything, but when she was most over she got injured. That wasn't exactly thriving. So she is lying. / Bo Dallas should be fired. The only reason he still has a job is because his brother died and WWE feel guilty. / Another burial: Johnny Gargano. At this point I barely have the strength to watch this anymore. Johnny should just go to AEW to his best friend. / Oba Femi has Braun Strowman written all over him. Squash jobbers -> get a title shot -> lose -> drift around meaningless midcard titles -> eventually get released. That's exactly what will happen. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE Michin and Jade again? Are they serious? The writers must be insane if they think even one fan cares about this. Not a single person cares. / Danhausen doing the same repetitive nonsense again like on Monday. Danhausen and his stuff are dead. This s**t is for mentally slow people / And finally Drew and the main event burial. Everyone knew Cody would win. One of the hardest-working wrestlers in the company gets a transitional reign just so Cody can win the title back. I hate that with all my heart. I'll admit I was stupid enough to think WrestleMania match might be Drew vs LA Knight. What an idiot I was. Also Drew pulled out a table (illegal object) and it wasn't a DQ. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. Then Drew headbutts the referee -- why? What did the referee do to him? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE And if he was trying to force a DQ, why wasn't it a DQ? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE Drew should have been disqualified twice and retained the title. Instead this gives me zero sympathy for Cody and makes me hate him even more. This SmackDown had 19 "IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE" moments. Therefore absolute 0/10."

[0.0] "Wow. After a much improved Raw this was an absolute travesty of a show, genuinely one of the worst Smackdown's I've ever seen when you consider both the wrestling and the booking. It was cool to see El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., that was legit the only thing I enjoyed because even that match wasn't anything special considering the talent involved. Tag team turmoil was a joke, went on forever while feeling entirely low stakes and lifeless, couldn't care less about Truth and Priest as a team, atrocious decision to have them win and for Fraxiom to be out so early. Trick and Randy cut extremely bland promo's before Trick got made to look a long way off main event level and frankly a bit of a dork. Women's tag was absolutely crap, this stuff is doing absolutely nothing for Giulia, they clearly have no idea how to get the best out of her and now have her as the pin eater of her team. Johnny Gargano got squashed, we've seen this elsewhere this week but in this instance the comedy factor to save it or think it's going somewhere just isn't there, they've treated Gargano for a loser for so long now it just feels like that's how they see him, which is weird given it's HHH in charge. Beyond bored of these Oba squashes now too. I was relieved they didn't do the worked shoot stuff for Jade/Rhea because it went down like a lead balloon when they were bickering on Twitter...but fuck me this segment they had was absolutely shite. Rhea couldn't have seemed less interested if she tried. Ice cold start to this feud. Fuck off Jelly Roll. And then the main event, didn't enjoy it and detested the result, Cody has been champion of the main guy chasing for years now and it's so boring. Cody vs Randy sounds big on paper...but also bad on paper. It'll possibly sell some tickets but I don't imagine tbe match being much to write home about. If that's really what they're going for after they had this relatively exciting title scene where all these different guys were hunting Drew...yikes. And it goes to show they really had no great plan for Drew winning the title, just did it for the sake of unpredictability when people were calling out their booking. How many of these short runs has Drew had too, always feels like they never let the guy get going. There'll be people saying the show is simply being received poorly because Cody won the title but that undersells how poor so many of the matches were, how little they built any storylines and how many acts from Trick to Giulia to Fraxiom to MCMG to Gargano to Drew got made to look like utter shit. Just an atrocious show, 0/10."

[5.0] "Just an average episode with a good things and downfalls. The overall level is mid. We got a few good matches, the normal matches and squash by Oba Femi, what was fun and sad in the same time. Danhausen strikes another time and it's intresting. Another segments with Sami Zayn looking intresting for the future. Randy Orton's promo was good, but I can't understand the part with Trick Williams interferrance and fast RKO."

[0.0] "This is every bit as bad as people say it is. From the boring promos to the lifeless match to the horrendous booking up and down the card. I don't understand how anyone can tune into this product week after week at this point. Just the most rancid vibes I've seen for a wrestling show in my life."

[0.0] "I'd say this show was almost as bad as the AJ Styles tribute Raw, but watching the matches, it was actually WORSE. Raw was extremely filler, but this SmackDown wasn't even filler, it was downright AWFUL. They BURIED the women's midcard division, the men's tag team, and the men's main event in a single show. Giulia got pinned in her match. R-Truth and Damian Priest, who aren't even a team, will get a title shot, and Cody, who's been champion since 2024 and hasn't done a damn thing, buries Drew McIntyre. Disgusting."

[7.0] "Nah, I do not agree with the backlash for this Smackdown episode at all. I think most of the resentment here is because fans are upset that Drew McIntyre lost the WWE title to Cody Rhodes, which I honestly don't mind at all. I thought Drew McIntyre vs Cody Rhodes, the Gauntlet tag match, and Carmelo Hayes vs El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. were all good matches; but you wouldn't know that due to the social media backlash. My biggest gripes about this show though is the interminable feud regarding the Wyatt Sicks vs MFT STILL continuing 7 months later, the weird elimination of the Motor City Machine Guns, and the anti-climactic elimination of the pair of Nathan Frazer/Axiom. Otherwise, I thought Smackdown was mostly a good show here. I give Smackdown a 7 out of 10 on this site."

[5.0] "It was a typical SmackDown show. Yes, I agree that Cody winning sucks and ruined the show, but it wasn't surprising. I hope either Randy or Cody turns heel to make the story more interesting, but I doubt it."

[5.0] "I understand the people who are review bombing the show because of Cody. Believe me, I am NOT happy that Cody is having a title match in the main event for the FORTH year in a row. BUT, this show was not this bad. Yes it was mid, and a skippable episode, but putting this worst than WM 27 is crazy."

[3.0] "My issue here wasn't even Cody winning the title. There's just such baffling booking here. I will say, the first 30 minutes here was decent. I liked the opening segment and the open challenge match as per usual. Then it just falls off a cliff. Why is Giulia getting pinned? Why are Damian Priest and R-Truth a tag team? Why is Johnny Gargano getting squashed? I love Oba but maybe someone other than Johnny getting squashed? The main event is a total mess. Definitely the worst smackdown I've seen all year. Oh, I forgot to mention the Rhea and Jade segment. That was just as bad as the rest of the show."

[4.0] "the brutal reception of this week show, especially on the building of this year wrestlemania, it's the display that wrestling fans are disappointed, and it's the ultimate result of how bad is the wwe product, going back to last year. I mean in general the show was fine, but it had some bad decision and directions that turns off to watch or get less interest, mostly skiping forward to the end. The main event title match was bad as much for Johnny wrestling squashes. Maybe the only thing interesting to look at is the Sami slowing giving some heelish feeling, for a potential turn I think, going back to what Karion Kross did to him. Again, lately is an okay show with some good matches and moments then that goes off completely and gets mostly predictable. I thought that SM still was watchable than Raw, but I don't know, I got some doubts."

"I didn't bother watching this, & the waves this thing is making in the larger internet culture quite epitomizes why I'm not particularly enthusiastically lining up to watch a WWE episode on any given Monday or Friday these days. You have all sorts of lousy decisions here. You have Royce Keys confined to a dark match instead of being sent out to prove himself to be the caustic, nasty badass that everybody knows he has the capability to become. You have Giulia not only losing an important match as US Champ, but you have her EATING THE PIN when random, unimpressive NXT chick #57 is right there. You have an improvisational tag team gaining a title opportunity over the entire men's tag division (There's probably at least one toxic positivity person that is sticking their head out of the wall on Reddit going "Well you always complained about how R-Truth was underpushed waaah" like bro no, I want R-Truth pushed in a way that doesn't absolutely suck for the booking. Toxic positivity harms wrestling discourse JUST AS MUCH as toxic negativity.). You have Cody Rhodes whom, because his second reign was such an interesting, not-flat-at-all, not-lifeless-at-all, not-a-slog reign, gets a THIRD babyface reign when he should have turned heel so many days ago, many of us were learning what letters were back in those days. Back when I was a teenager, something that I noticed, even in my forming mind, was that Ryback's squash matches grew tiresome. They didn't do Ryback a world of good by saddling him with those squash matches for such a freaking long time, & it interfered with his ability to organically get over when his time to advance came; it stagnated his character & failed to provide him with depth. They're literally starting to do that with Femi now. If Femi loses to Rusev, that's it, you're done. & really, we shouldn't be living in a reality where such poor decisions are being made here that something like that could be considered possible; yet, here we are."

"This was an absolute dog of a show.I give it zero stars if I could. You should have kept road dogg cause now We know it only got worse."

"[1.0] This SmackDown episode was absolutely horrid and a chore to go through, with sub-par wrestling, formulaic and generic promos & segments and just awful booking decisions. After from what I though was probably the best WWE show of the year in this week's episode of Raw, Smackdown last night was definitely the worst WWE show of the year thus far, all of this in a week. Randy Orton opened the show with a promo about his Chamber victory and about finding out who's gonna face him in the end for WrestleMania later in the show, basically nothing really that important. Expectedly, someone interrupted him, which was Trick Williams, who has become kind of stale regurgitating the same promos and catchphrases every week. He comes in the ring for no reason, only to no one's surprise, get RKO'd. He deserves much more than that repetitive presentation and his character potential is much bigger than this. This segment was largely just there and nothing more. Carmelo Hayes vs El Hijo for the US Title was decent but quite predictable from a guy never seen on the main roster before. Open challenges for the US Titles have become repetitive and Carmelo needs something substantial going forward instead of relying on open challenges, which seems they've run out of ideas for. I couldn't care less for the Women's Tag Title celebration segment, nor the expected interruptions and matchup that followed afterwards. I don't understand why the women's US champion Giulia is used in such way, in the women's tag division no less and largely underutilized. Tag Team turmoil match, just like the previous one, was a filler match, won by a last minute makeshift tag team, albeit they're both entertaining together and should've been actually build as a tag team instead of throwing them together in the last minute, in a very lackluster men's tag team division. Apart from MFTs and The Wyatt Sicks being an multi man affair on Smackdown every week, which nobody really cares, the tag team division is practically non existent and is not featured at all on Smackdown, where almost all of them are solely featured in comedic backstage segments in the show. Johnny Gargano's promo and squash against Oba Femi after week's of him being shown frustrated, in a comedic way, only to get squashed here and lead to nowhere, is nothing sort of jobber treatment. I don't know what Triple H thinks of him anymore since taking over creative, but Johnny has got to take his talents somewhere better with the treatment he's facing. Plus, Oba Femi seems to be directionless, and just like Trick Williams, they're repeating the same formula on a weekly basis with them and they're starting to become stale. The Rhea Ripley and Jade Cargill segment was one of the cringiest and most awkward promos I've seen in a while. I was definitely wrong thinking they were going to integrate in any way their actual interactions on Twitter in this feud to raise interest for their title match at WM, which a lot of people talked about when it happened, only to completely kill whatever interest was generated from that back and forth on Twitter and heat they had between them and instead have a promo comparing their freaking different muscles and who has bigger ones and whose body is for aesthetics and whose is for fighting, I swear to God. AI could write and even deliver a more humane and interesting promo than this. Just why they didn't capitalize at all on their Twitter interaction that had the internet talking is beyond me. Both women just sounded very unnatural and scripted in this promo. Jade Cargill title "reign", if it can be called one, is a complete joke with just one defense in 4 months. I don't know what WWE's overall plan with her or that title was. That segment was horrendous. The most controversial part of the show, Cody vs Drew for the WWE title, was quite the lackluster and overbooked match. I feel bad for McIntyre being the transitional champion in order for this title change to happen in this time and not have him walking to WrestleMania as champion, although as speculated he'll be going away after WM, hence the title change, and Cody is overpushed and really not that interesting in his current role, but at least it is the right decision as far as the biggest WrestleMania match possible in this situation goes. Randy vs Cody is the best match possible they can put together for the title at WM and is made better by them having some history between them, compared to if Drew vs Randy was in the plans. Would like to see Cody as a heel but it seems Randy will go this route for this feud. Hopefully, Randy will win it at WM, keep it as a heel and drop it to a new face later on. This show was literally a filler show, with nothing feeling important or urgent for the road to WrestleMania apart from the main event, I guess, solely because of the title change, which was just an overbooked, illogical and subpar match, which we've already seen 100 times in the past 6 months. The news concerning the creative shakeup on the main roster really made me feel somewhat hopeful in regards to changes in the quality of the shows during this build for WM. I guess we have to wait a bit more with Smackdown if that's the case. 6 weeks to go for WrestleMania and this is what we have. Arguably, one of the laziest and most unexciting WrestleMania builds in recent memory, and Smackdown was a huge indicator of that last night."

"[0.0] this is pathetic. I don't know what's going on internally within the company, but the product is suffering because of it. Be it Vince's meddling or tko greed. Horrible booking, what a mess. I'll continue to halfway hate watch the product at the moment but it's sad. Two years ago we had one of the greatest builds to a mania , felt like the dawn of a new era, but it looks like and end now.I know these people sacrifice for our entertainment and there's more than meets the eye. Do better WWE. Don't like the direction of this product currently. Iv watched too much wrestling in my life, this one of the worst weekly shows iv seen."

[0.0] "WWE creative has hit yet another rock bottom with decisions that genuinely piss me off. Where do we even begin? We burry the MCMG with a rope break that wasn't a rope break because the official is blind I guess? And then we have axiom lose and not get into the final. We get Los Garza in the finale and have them lose to fucking Damian priest and R-truth? Who wrote this? Oh and the MfTs and Wyatt's are still feuding. The tag division is lost so that's not good. Gargano finally gets an ounce of confidence after crying for over a month and we immediately burry him because Lol Oba Femi squash match. Johnny is an insanely talented wrestler and we just keep fucking him. Now we get to the real bullshit. Cody Hogan is not just a meme, it's real life. We have Drew a pitty title run and made Cody the center of it the entire godddamn time. Creative had no plans so they had to pivot, make chamber useless, give Cody the title immediately after losing, just so we get Cody vs Randy (again) to sell more tickets. This company refuses to take risks, refuses to put anybody in the main event scene, squanders all talent that isn't Cody, and they want us paying $30 for this huge wrestlemania event. Yeah fuck that. This show has actually made me decide to not watch smackdown at all until further notice and mania night 1 is off the table for me. 0/10. I don't care if the U.S title challenge was decent, this show has actually burried 8 different wrestlers for cheap pops and bullshit. Actually 9 because someone just reminded me of the trick segment. Maybe Road Dogg wasn't the bad guy"

"Lazy and populist. This show is the perfect example of WWE's strategy of sacrificing coherence and story interest in favor of the same bland wrestlers for the sole purpose of maximizing viewership, and Cody winning back the title in a match that was never supposed to happen in the final nail in the coffin."

[2.0] "Multiple weeks of build for Gargano to get squashed by Oba is laughable. Melo match was solid, nothing wrong with it. Performers did a good job in the womens tag but the finish was fairly dreadful and the booking is just illogical, Giulia continues to wrestle like a completely different person to the one she was in Japan and I can't see any good reason as to why. The tag match was fairly dreadful across the board despite the talent involved. 2 babyface tag teams acting like heels to start it off, MFT interference to take out the Wyatts, and then Priest and Truth win, and all of this took 25 minutes, with multiple ad breaks, and very little else happening. Main event was laughably boring, the table collapsing was the icing on the cake. The match literally should have ended in countout or DQ like... 15 seconds in. There were multiple ref bumps, fatu interference, multiple other dq reasons that werent called, 0 logical wrestling, just move move move move move move move finish. I dont even mind Cody winning, if we've gotta do that then lets do it, but there is no reason 2 wrestlers who put on a banger 2 months ago should put on something this poor in quality. Then we just got some awful promo segments. 10 minutes before Randy's promo even starts because he takes so long to walk to the ring, then he just kills Trick for no reason. Rhea - Jade were just... bragging about Jade's arms? Rhea is literally bigger than Jade so this whole promo made no sense along with the fact it could have been an email. that MCMG segment after their match was bizarre. Ilja - legitimately one of the best wrestlers in the world - is currently knocking around with 2 comedy jobbers."

[7.0] "WWE Friday Night SmackDown episode 1385 was overall a good show for me looking at the score here people are crashing out over Drew Mcintyre losing. Carmelo Hayes vs. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.was really good (6/10), Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair vs. Giulia & Kiana James was alright (5/10), Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs. Angel & Berto vs. Axiom & Nathan Frazer vs. Damian Priest & R-Truth vs. Dexter Lumis & Joe Gacy was good with Los Garza's looking good wasn't a fan of the result though (6/10), Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre was a banger right behind Berlin on SMACKDOWN match (8/10)"

[0.0] "I was considering giving a point for the Melo match, but there was just too much about this show that symbolised the cancer of the curent WWE product. The Gargano segment was ridiculous; squashing him like that after his promo? Just inane. The tag match was awfully worked and booked even more badly, with noticeable botches. The treatment of MCMG is disgraceful. No Royce Keys despite the big rumble entrance. Giulia getting pinned because they're building Kiana as a bigger star is just awful. I really hope she can somehow build momentum outside of this. Just a terrible show overall. Thoroughly unenjoyable and at times unwatchable."

[4.0] "Randy Orton opens the show and everyone knows that at the end of the evening, Cody Rhodes will be the champion. So the Viper doesn't let Trick Williams chat him up. The AAA visitor puts up a decent fight against Hayes. Legend & Jax just want to enjoy a glass of champagne, but the challengers are lining up. There are also challengers for the men's tag teams, but it seems like they're just a bunch of leftovers. Ripley calls Cargill into the ring, and Jade has nothing better to do than evaluate herself and her opponents purely on a physical basis. Rhea speaks from my heart, because it's obvious to her that Cargill's physique is just for show and doesn't guarantee her resilience in the ring. I am acutely reminded that Cargill has defended her title exactly once since winning it on November 1. In over four fucking months! Gargano finds his spirit again! But that only lasts for exactly two minutes, then Oba Femi takes him apart piece by piece. Miz is supposed to mentor Danhausen, which will surely give us a few more anti-laughs in the coming weeks. Cody Rhodes as champion remains simply unavoidable, and I can only say that, for me, with his current gimmick he has jumped the shark. You can only feel sorry for McIntyre, as he is either a transitional challenger or a transitional champion, but he is never allowed to really shine."

[6.0] "SmackDown was rather disappointing this week, despite a few good moments, notably the United States Championship match and perhaps the return of Johnny Wrestling. However, the biggest problem remains Cody's victory; even if the match itself wasn't bad, Drew's loss is an insult, and given the rivalry, a triple threat match between Drew, Cody, and Jacob would have been preferable to a Cody-Orton match, which could have been a contender for this year's SummerSlam."

[0.0] "Garbage Episode of SmackDown, as we enjoyed with excitement of the departure of Road Dogg, we were subjected to worse writing, and horrid segments mixed in with force booking, trying to make Cody Rhodes go through so much adversity to become champion once again. The only positive of the show was Carmelo Hayes and El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. as they displayed a very fun match, but everything else was garbage as we saw a horrible women's tag team match, a non-tag team win a No. 1 Contender's Match, and Johnny Gargano gets squashed like a bug which makes me believe he'll be departing from WWE soon. The talk of the week with Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley failed to deliver as they talked about whose muscles were bigger, and the Main Event delivered an uneventful title change. All-around garbage, which is ad because SmackDown has been fun to watch this year, but last night they didn't deliver once."

"Un show malo con luchas malas y segmentos aburridos o sin sentido, lo que se rescata del show si se puede decir es el reto abierto de Carmelo Hayes vs El hijo de Dr Wagner, el segmento de Randy Orton y Trick Williams luego el show tuvo segmentos aburridos como la celebración de las Fuerzas Irresistibles, sin sentido la conformación del equipo de R Truth y Damian Priest para que les den una oportunidad por los campeonatos de pareja en vez de un equipo que ya los merece como Fraxiom, es muy predecible la aparición de Oba Femi contra Gargano y realmente un sin sentido el squash a Johnny Gargano no había necesidad en vez de contar una buena historia con Johnny Gargano nos dan un squash que realmente no necesita para seguir siendo dominante Oba Femi, la lucha de Cody vs Drew fue lenta y eso no ayuda lo predecible que fue, Wwe nos cuenta una historia donde 5 luchadores están involucrados por el campeonato pero al final nos dan una lucha 1v1 que puede ser buena en camino a WrestleMania pero en donde dejas a Drew, Fatu y Sami Zayn que si hacen una lucha entre los 3 no generaría nada en camino a WrestleMania."

[6.0] "Okay, we have to be realistic here. This wasn't the worst show, but I can see people review bombing it because they disagree with a booking decision. There were some entertaining segments, particular Randy and Trick and the Melo match was fine as well. Cody vs. Drew was silly and overbooked and quite frankly slow but it wasn't the worst match on earth. Overall, it's a 6. I've seen far worse from this brand literally this year."

"Decent start to the show, good promo from Randy with interruption from Trick. Love their interactions so far, can't wait for that 1 v 1 match. Open challenge continues to be a bright spot for the night with another solid match from Melo, but the surprise opponent of Dr Wagner Jr didn't seem to go over so well. Sami making excellent points to Cody about things being handed to him. Ready to see Sami snap. Good match for the women's tag contenders. The men's tag division is just a joke at this point, why even bother. They killed it with ridiculous booking and just failing to book them at all. Now just throwing Damien & Truth in to win vs an actual tag team that's probably been patiently twiddling their thumbs while waiting to be booked to do something other than watch Gargano lay around. Couldn't even get into the match ups in the gauntlet. Always love seeing The Ruler Oba on my tv. I laughed that Johnny finally got up just to be put back down, but seriously what are they doing with him at this point besides making him look like a joke? Anyway Danhausen's appearance was by far the most enjoyable part of the show. Good match for women's tag #1 contenders with a nice win for Charlexa. This pairing has done wonders for Charlotte. The rest was just there. Watched the main event but tuned out and turned it off well before the finish. Wasn't at all interested in seeing Cody get the title back. None of what they've done with that scene has made any real sense or made me feel any kind of invested/interested. All I've taken away from the WWE title booking for the past 2 months is there seems to be some desperation and uncertainty going on over there. I'm sure along the way to Wrestlemania I'll get sucked into the Randy/Cody match at least a bit, mostly hoping to see Randy win. Oh and the face off for the ladies was so FLAT I almost forgot it happened..Jade and Rhea need to get to work here cuz that was not a good start. Rhea by far had the better points and may have hit them real life insecurities a bit when referring to how her body is made for fighting and Jade's isn't. Mid show."

"Thought it was a pretty fine show. Just cause if something is predictable doesn't and shouldn't dictate ratings imo"

[1.0] "Smackdown's creative direction issues are much deeper than forcing The Road Dogg to quit as evidenced by this show. Just bringing out Wagner 3G cold with no build to lose does a disservice to somebody who's positioned near the top of yet another sub brand in AAA. Women's tag match was horrible. Rhea and Jade can't hide the fact they want nothing to do with each other and will do the bare minimum for WrestleMania. Looks like Gargano is gettin sent out of the territory with the way he's been booked.and now we have the desperation heave to sell WM tickets by putting the title right back on Cody for yet another Cody/Randy deal. Can't forget R Truth/Damien Priest and The Miz & Danhausen which was totally predictable, they can't help themselves."

[6.0] "This episode was not that bad at all. The show started with a pretty good Randy/Trick segment, followed up by another awesome US Title open challenge. The women's tag title segment was alright, nothing too special and the men's tag turmoil was alright but in my opinion should have just been a triple threat with Fraxiom/MCMG/Los Garza, The Wyatt Sicks and MFT are getting very stale and Damian/Truth is a very random thrown together team. The Rhea/Jade segment was good, I can't really tell if the twos beef is real or not but I think their WrestleMania match will deliver. Oba squashing Johnny Wrestling after that passionate promo was by far my least favorite part of the show. I can't tell if he's being punished for something, but the main event was pretty good, even if you didn't like the winner the match was still great and Cody/Randy is bound to be great."

[2.0] "Cody vs Drew was actually decent for a non PPV show, too bad I had to sit through mind numbing amounts of advertising and non-matches to get to it. I don't care about the bad booking decisions because when your pacing, writing, execution and delivery are all complete uninspired trash who really cares who wins or loses? Actually I do feel for Drew as a two month temporary reign is an insult for how much he's done for WWE the last half decade. He should go somewhere where he will be genuinely appreciated instead of carrying this disaster of a show on his back."

[0.0] "Pathetic, insufferable, terrible, horrendous booking and terrible storytelling combined together contributed to this mess. WWE's booking in the modern day is so terrible that I do not have words to explain it. Cody Rhodes, who was Stardust, has now transformed into the modern Hulk Hogan. Talent buried left and right for no reason at all. I guess the strategy of Triple H is to essentially bury everybody else but Cody and Samoans (exl. Solo and his Tongan crew)."

[7.0] "This was a perfectly decent show with a great main event. Not everything is the best or the worst thing ever, and I had a decent enough time watching it, even though I didn't agree with some of the decisions (tag team turmoil in particular) but I still can live with it. The US title match was cool, even though the crowd barely cared about El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jr. Overall, enjoyable without being groundbreaking, a safe but entertaining SmackDown."

[6.0] "While I feel Smackdown has generally been more entertaining since the 3 hour move, there are still issues where it feels like it can be sluggish to get through. The tag division has not been handled effecticely and the tag team turmoil taking up as much time as it did with the way it was laid out did not really do any favors for the show. Otherwise it was an effective show with some continued direction towards Wrestlemania. The result of the main event is divisive but I do not dislike it. The match itself was pretty enjoyable and Orton/Cody is a bigger match than Orton/Drew but I would not mind if it becomes a four way with Drew and Jacob as well if they go in that direction."

[7.0] "Not surprised that everyone's crying over booking decisions but it is people on the internet so who's surprised. Staying off social media, I enjoyed this show unironically, sure there were some interesting decisions made but that doesn't completely ruin the show. Randy & Trick starting off was pretty cool (loving how they're using Trick this year, he's doing wonders and getting over very quickly. Carmelo vs Wagner III was good, so was the women's tag match. The tag team turmoil was interesting, had that unfortunate mistake of MCMG being pinned, but the match was still very fun regardless. Rhea & Jade's segment was just mid, Jade's promo game just doesn't work and the entire conversation these two had was just about muscles? what? just take us to the match already haha. Gargano getting up just to get obliterated by Oba was funny but at the same time for someone like Gargano, he should've had at least at 5 minute match. The main event was a fun match, methodical at first, and shenanigan filled at the end with the two ref bumps and Jacob coming in, at least we're getting Cody vs Randy at Mania though, that's a positive result we can take out of this match."

[8.0] "Sorry gang, but this episode actually worked for me. Playing booker - I'd say it'd be cool if all the guys Oba squashed formed up to do a 3-on-1 or 4-on-1. Like have Wilde, Johnny, Kit and the Miz try to gang up on him. HUNTER - IF YOU SEE THIS - STEAL THIS IDEA. The open challenege is still a bonafide opener and I love SD for it. Kiana is my girl so the more she gets to grow, the better. Her and Guilia are starting to thrive. LOVED the Turmoil match. Thank you for the Fraxiom showcase. Also gotta say thanks for giving Los Garza some love. Trick can't be beat - that spasm killed me - dude can do it all. (Randy's spin had me dying, too). Cody vs. Drew - it is what it is... I just wish I had more confidence in creative. Oh yeah, I do gotta give creative props - IS ALL NOT WELL WITH THE MCMG? SAY IT AIN'T SO (I'm so here for this story)."

[6.0] "I liked this episode of Smackdown except for the women's tag team segment and match. Even though it wasn't even bad, im just tired of Charlotte and Alexa beating everyone. I'm okay with Cody and Drew trading championship reigns to buff up their numbers. I feel like this is what this era is missing. Crazy number of title reigns in a few years for guys, even if it means shorter reigns. Just like that Cody and Drew are 4 and 3 time world champions"

[2.0] "This was not good unfortunately with most matches not being good, the only two I relatively enjoyed was the opener and the main event, the segments were not that good either. Carmelo Hayes vs El Hijo del Dr Wagner Jr: Wagner Jr answering the challenge was interesting, the match was enjoyable with both showcasing good chemistry, the match was structured in a well way and could have gone longer [***]. Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair vs Giulia & Kiana James: A match that could have been better than what it was, it was underwhelming, the action felt like it was off day for the wrestlers involved [*3/4]. Tag Team Turmoil: A house show standard generic feeling turmoil match, the only good thing about this was the first part with Fraxiom vs Motor City Machine Guns, I dont get Damian Priest and R-Truth winning and becoming Tag Team Title #1 contenders [*3/4]. Oba Femi vs Johnny Gargano: A over minute squash match that wad just there as a mini filler [DUD]. Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre: I actually I enjoyed this with the psychology being there as it needed to be, Rhodes winning the title made sense [***3/4]"

"WWE Creative Team are just Lazy or ragebaiting... Love to Oba but why would you squash Johnny? You could've literally pulled a banger with these two + why is this the development of Oba? I'm sorry but him having squash matches is just boring and it'll people lose interest on him , WrestleMania is weeks away and yet we still don't have any rivalry for Oba and with Seth potentially going against Brock I don't see Oba having any opponent on Mania and that's a huge fumble Triple Nose.. Drew and Cody was on of the most horrendous decisions and matches I've ever seen , , Drew was okay but Cody was just dull + I just don't get that 4-way storyline I really don't . It's boring and full of nonsense + people wanted Randy V Cody for decades but they decided to book it DREW WON THE BELT?"

[0.0] "This show was an absolute misunderstanding. The only good thing was US Championship Match, nothing more. Tag Team Turmoil was a banger until the ref counted to 3 in a first match-up, then all fell down. Charlexa vs Giulia and Kiana was a really mid match. Oba is a beast but it doesn't mean he should destroy any jobber available on main roster. Cody vs Drew... ehhh i want to forget about this show ASAP."

"It was the worst SmackDown I've ever seen. Cody as a Champion is a terrible joke. It can has any sense only if Randy turn heel on Cody and win the title on Wrestlemania"

[3.0] "The post-Road Dogg era gets off to an inauspicious start. I really hope this was just some transitional awkwardness with creative rather than a sign of how it's going to be from now on. Overall this show was not good, but I'm going to have to disagree with the consensus in a couple of ways - I couldn't quite justify a 2, 1 or 0 rating because there were a few things I liked on it. Let's discuss them first. Firstly, as ever, Carmelo Hayes put on a good match with the open challenge, despite a couple of moments of awkwardness from Dr Wagner 3, so the Men's US Title continues to mean something at least. Secondly, the story of Sami Zayn's potential heel turn is genuinely interesting and I look forward to seeing how it unfolds and where they go with it. Thirdly, I have no issue with Johnny Gargano being "fed" to Oba Femi - that's exactly what you should do to continue building an unstoppable monster, and it also neatly continues Johnny's "depression" story, which is the most interesting he's been in quite a while. I liked the Danhausen segment, and I also didn't think the Rhea-Jade face-off was *that* bad and it told the story well. Now, to the problems: the pacing on this show was a nightmare and the crowd was dead for large parts of it. The "Tag Team Turmoil" match was lacklustre considering the level of talent in it, and while the Damian Priest/R-Truth odd couple team could have something to it, it's very early days and it might have been better won by one of the more established teams they've been misusing. I get why Drew had to lose because he's going to be taking time off for filming anyway, so the alternative was having him lose at Mania which would have caused just as many complaints and maybe more, but the way they got there was meh. No Ilja match on this show was disappointing, especially since they seemed to be setting one up with Kit but maybe that'll happen next week or something. Royce Keys continues to be MIA. And the biggest persisting problem, the thing I hate the most about this show and what I thought might be fixed by Road Dogg finally going - the booking of Giulia and the Women's US Title is unforgivably bad. There was no reason why she had to be eating the pin here and they need to let her actually start defending that damn thing in singles competition. Have her start off squashing B-Fab or Candice, I don't care, but eventually they need to establish that the way they have the Women's IC Title as actually meaning something in the midcard of the show and giving her some real challengers and opportunities to get over. At least she got to speak a bit this time, I guess. But if she's just going to end up being Kiana's Jannetty, if they have no intention of ever elevating her (give us the Iyo match FFS) then they should probably release her and stop wasting her time and talent. Poor show overall, let's hope they get their act together with the booking very soon."

[6.0] "I know these ratings are because of the bad booking of the show, especially on Cody. But, it wasnt a bad show. Carmelo match was good, DanHausen and Miz segment was gold. Drew x Cody was a good match with a bad result. But the show was good, a solid 6/10. I really enjoy to watch this show, it was funny and entertainmented. We already had wortes SmackDowns on this past years. The hate in here its not so fair. It wasnt good, but wasnt that bad."

"Rhea's promo with Jade was weak for a WrestleMania feud. The tag team title match was completely no sense, with several tag teams relegated to the background because of R-Truth in 2025.....And the main event is simply the cherry on the cake in this show with bookings that seem to have been written by AI."

"It was the worst SmackDown I've ever seen. Cody as a Champion is a terrible joke. It can has any sense only if Randy turn heel on Cody and win the title on Wrestlemania"

[1.0] "Except for the first match, I'd rather forget I watched this episode. While others are having strong negative reactions to the segment between Trick Williams and Randy Orton, I didn't think it was awful -- just ineffective. There simply wasn't enough there to create any real interest. The highlight of the night was the Open Challenge: Carmelo Hayes vs. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.. A decent match and easily the best part of the show. Then we had another segment where Sami is, once again, gaslighted by Cody, followed, again, by Sami reacting impulsively. At this point, I honestly don't know what to expect from this story, except that my expectations are quite low. The Tag Team Turmoil match was nothing more than a mockery of the WWE tag division. The first part was fast paced and actually decent, despite the strange ending between MCMG and Fraxiom. After that, everything completely fell apart. Having teams like MCMG and Fraxiom involved only for the whole thing to end with Damian Priest & R-Truth winning makes the entire division feel pointless. The segment between Rhea Ripley and Jade Cargill was rough. If the promo from Ricky Starks earlier in the week was already questionable, this one wasn't any better. Honestly, what was I even listening to? It felt like a good example to show trainees what not to do in a promo. Not even Rhea could save that dreadful promo. Oh, and I almost forgot the segment between Danhausen and The Miz. Personally, I would have preferred some comedic skits between Danhausen and R-Truth first, but it seems we're heading toward "AwesomeHausen" before "HausenTruth." Overall, the lack of consistency in the past year continues to show. We had a terrible WWE Elimination Chamber, followed by a rather enjoyable WWE Raw, and now an awful WWE SmackDown. Triple H really needs to improve the creative direction, otherwise we might end up with another disappointing WrestleMania season. Finally, the fifth match in the saga between Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. By far the worst match between the two since the start of the rivalry. More of the same with the usual shenanigans. And seriously... where is Powerhouse Hobbs? !"

[0.0] "Triple H is getting to Vince levels bad booking. NOTHING makes sense and it's just stuff thrown out there that is terrible. Melo vs Wagner Jr was at least fine. R-Truth and Priest being a team and #1 contenders like what! ? Gargano now being treated like a jobber. Rhea clearly doesn't want the Jade feud and Jade stinks in ring so it was doomed for disaster anyways. Cody Hogan back at it as well. Awful awful awful"

[0.0] "I don't even want to hear it. This was one of the worst booked shows I have ever been subjected to. Almost everything was bad and I hold nothing but derision for the people that put this show together. After the triumph that was this weeks Raw, to be thrust back into the SmackDown was always going to be jarring, but this exceeded all expectations. I'll never be able to take Drew seriously again as a main event talent and I hope he is fine with that because if they have inflicted this on him Against his will, it's a disgrace. I'm offering zero because I can't rate this less. If I had invested only one second of my life in this show, HHH would have owed me change. I gave you three hours."