[9.0] "Great show! You have great tag wrestling on this show, a fun opener, a GREAT world title match and a fantastic cash in. Apart from the women's US title match I enjoyed everything on this show. An excellent start to 2025."

[7.0] "Not a fan of SD going 3 hrs because it can get tiring very soon. I loved the last 3 matches and especially Tiffany cashing in her contract to become champion. Easily best moment of the night. Other notable segments that I loved were Heyman/Solo and Nick/Cody as well as the opening segment with Drew/Cody/KO. The cash-in was perfectly executed and I loved it, should've ended the show imo"

[9.0] "It was a great start of 3-hour SmackDown. I think the tag team division really benefited from the extra hour. Some solid matches were on the show. Tiffany's cash-in was the greatest moment on the show. Some people including me didn't see it coming and Tiffy really deserved it. Sadly the main event was very regular although it went for 20+ minutes."

[8.0] "I thought this was a very good show and a great way to kick off SmackDown as a 3 hour show. The matches I enjoyed the most was DIY Vs MCMG, Nia Vs Tiffany and Nakamura Vs Andrade. There was a good combination of good in ring action and storyline progression with Cody & KO, tag team title scene & LA Knight & Nakamura. But the overall moment of the night was Tiffany finally cashing in her MITB briefcase and I loved the swerve they did to make people think she wasn't gonna cash in. Overall very good show of SmackDown."

[8.0] "good smackdown that delivered on all cylinders and progressed many storylines. the debut of the first ever 3 hour smackdown definitely was noticed; women had more time and angles, wrestlers who didn't get much time to tell their story before were able to (theory, waller, pretty deadly, LDF). tiffany stratton cash in, great matches."

"I thought this was a great way to start off the year I think WWE has two main shows actually equal to one another"

[8.0] "Really fun show to kick off the year, the 3 hour time length was actually structured quite well although i figure that wont typically be the case going forward. Still a fun show, every match was solid. Tiffany cash in was the highlight of the night as well as the match with naomi and nia jax that preceded it."

[8.0] "I thought this was a great first Friday Night SmackDown of 2025. Some really solid matches and of course the cash-in which will be remembered for a very long time."

[8.0] "Great start to the year for WWE with this 3 hour show. Cody & Drew's segment was good but kind of weird I guess, just unexpected to have Drew come out. Shinsuke vs Andrade was good, but just filler for Shinsuke to move on to LA Knight. Michin vs Piper was fine I guess. Paul & Solo's segment was pretty good as well. The two title matches were pretty fun to watch. Tiffany's cash in was very frustrating for me because they were always teasing and faking cash ins and they did another one but the swerve saved the moment with her turning on Candice & Nia, although it took her kind of long to get it going and it was kind of frustrating to just see her watching what was happening, but when she did cash in, it felt like a grand moment. Then the main event was fine, felt very draggy, but that's about it. Overall, great start for WWE in 2025."

[7.0] "Solid start for WWE and SmackDown on the new year. The 3 hour show didn't felt exhaustive, and I felt it more like the regular 2 hour show but with some longer matches, specifically the two main ones in the show, as it didn't feature a lot of different stories that we don't normally see in the show. They just had more time to tell each story and it was rightfully executed. The opening segment with Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre was weird, but not in a bad way, it just felt strange but intriguing at the same time and I love what they were teasing with it and the posterior Kevin Owens tense encounter with the Usos. A stable of three top men who are right but everyone else blames them and calls them delusionals can be the top story of the year. Drew McIntyre is such a great character, what a beast in every sense of the word. The fact that a Shinsuke Nakamura vs Andrade match is not the best match of the show is plain unbelievable. And no, I don't buy that crap of Nakamura being washed or not wanting to do the work. Just give those two the time, the importance and the structure you gave to Nia vs Naomi and the main event and they will pull off some Tokyo Dome crazy shit. They just were given the lower midcard treatment, exact same with the Tag Titles match right after, but at least that one featured a better storyline and keeps developing a growing tag division the right way. The only thing they need is to be allowed to have a great match. Paul Heyman may have not delivered the best promo of his life, but dude's average mic skills are nothing short of perfect. With all due respect to Bobby Heenan, he is the best manager of all time, period. What a great ability to sell a story and a match, then Solo Sikoa comes in and he tries to do his best as a mean villain, but the guy just don't have it. He doesn't do a bad job, but he doesn't possess the same Roman Reigns charisma and it just feel like a cheap imitation. I get Mia Yim has to beat Piper Niven to keep her feud with Chelsea Green open, but I don't like seeing such a big woman and a great wrestler like Piper just being the sidekick jobber to Chelsea's rivals. She loses way too much. Then, about the best part of the show. It makes me not knowing how to properly describe how I feel watching Nia Jax and Naomi of all people delivering a really good match. The flaws are still there, but hell, them girls really put the work here. Nia's selling was amazing and Naomi pulled off some creative and great looking offense. Tiffany Stratton's cash-in was really predictable, but they managed to deliver a great swerve to make us believe it wouldn't happen again, but my concern is it came a bit out of nowhere. It's true that Tiff has been belittled by Candice and Nia these past weeks, but I don't feel like I saw that breaking point in Tiff to ultimately go for the betrayal. At least I love she looks like she won't turn face and she would rather be the new top heel of the brand. She works much better that way. The main event was far too long for what it needed to be. For most part it was a very ABC match, typical and basic heel vs face tag match structure up until the last 5 minutes with Jacob Fatu carrying things and more crazy stuff happening. Solo Sikoa sneak his way to earn an out of nowhere victory that give him some momentum towards Tribal Combat, but I feel it's just not enough. I feel like he wins most of his matches that way instead of looking dominant and a real credible pretender to the Tribal Chief status. He is not a credible threat to Roman Reigns at all and that, combined with the fact it's a Bloodline-Roman Reigns match takes me out of watching it so much. Solid show, good use of time and well paced to not be exhaustive, a very surprising good women's match, a well executed cash-in, but not a fully great show either."

[7.0] "Really solid episode of Smackdown. The highlight being the Tiffany Stratton fake cash in, followed by the real one! Two very good matches with Nakamura/Andrade and the Tag Team Match, as well as a strong Women's Championship. Promo of the night with Heyman and Solo. Cody and Kevin continues to build up."

[3.0] "This was the first show of the new 3 hour era of Smackdown and it was really hard for me to get through. I don't know if this shift to 3 hours is going to be good for the quality of the show long term. Not alot on this show really appealed to me, the one match I wanted to see DIY vs MCMG ended up letting me down."

[9.0] "Thought this was a strong showing to start the new year. Rhodes and McIntyre had a good exchange. Andrade and Shinsuke being the first televised match of 2025 being a good match. Solo and Paul Heyman had a good exchange. Wasn't the biggest fan of Michin vs Niven. MOTN was the MCMG and DIY, which was a great match with the no contest ending. Naomi vs Nia was decent but immediately overshadowed by Tiffany's cash in! OG Bloodline vs New Bloodline was another good match."

[7.0] "The first SD show of 2025, with a three-hour runtime, was better than most of the shows I've seen lately, though there is always room for improvement. The show started slowly with another Cody-KO promo/scuffle. I liked the interaction between Cody & Drew. McIntyre has done some of his best work in the past few months. As for the Cody/KO feud, I think WWE made the mistake of pulling the gun too early with this title match. There are still four more SD shows between now and the Royal Rumble PLE. How will they handle it with Cody "not cleared" to wrestle? The opener between Nakamura and Andrade was okay. I don't like Shinsuke's character, no matter what WWE does with him. I think Andrade, on the other hand, is impressive. He's big, but his athleticism and speed make him an enjoyable in-ring competitor. Michin vs. Piper Niven was decent, too, but there was nothing new here. Chelsea Green is a big personality, but Niven should get her time in the spotlight. I like Michin a lot, but, to be honest, this feud is getting old. For me, the Tag Team match was the best of the night. These four superstars are great. I wish it didn't end in a no-contest. Seeing how this plays out with Los Garza, Pretty Deadly, and The Street Profits will be interesting. I'm happy to see Pretty Deadly and Legado Del Fantasma back in the fold. They've been missing for a while. Naomi's clip before the Women's Championship match was a nice one. The match was one the best for both superstars in a while now. WWE built it spectacularly. I was sure that there would be no cash-in once Tiffany hit Naomi with the briefcase. For me, It was cinema. As for the main event, I think that The Bloodline story has gotten long enough. Hopefully, Monday will be the end of it. Paul Heyman's promo and interaction with Solo were good, and the match hit all the right spots, but we've seen these superstars so many times that the level of excitement is dwindling every time they get in the ring."

[5.0] "Honistly I thought this wasnt a good episode but it did have one good match (that being Shin/Andrade) and arguably one of the better cash in's I've seen in recent memory. But other then that the rest of it is kinda bad. Wasn't a fan of the promos, wasn't a fan of the fact this was 3 hours long and wasnt a fan of most of the matches. Idk if I can say it's terrible, but it's certainly not good in my opinion."