WWE SmackDown 1/31/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the actual for-real go-home show for WWE Royal Rumble 2025! And hey, if you're looking to kick off Rumble weekend with a bang, might as well get two of your top guys in the ring together who have never, ever wrestled each other before. We're definitely talking about that in this column, as well as some pre-Rumble action between new entrants Damian Priest and Jacob Fatu, but we have to admit that none of the actual matches really grabbed us this week. With apologies to the women's US title contest that ended in a disqualification, a lot of the stuff that grabbed our attention this week were promo segments, video packages, and the like — though we do have some time to discuss the eight-man tag, for better or worse.

As always, you can find objective and detailed coverage of all three hours of the blue brand's Friday offering (even the commercial-free first one) by going over to our "SmackDown" results page. But if you're still here, that means to want to know the WINC staff's opinions on the show — and that's why we now present three things we hated and three things we loved about the 1/31/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown."

Before his big match at the Royal Rumble for the Undisputed WWE Championship, Kevin Owens spoke with Joe Tessitore because he felt like everyone, including the announcer, was overlooking him. Punk came to the ring and apologized for interrupting his segment and if it felt like he was overlooking him a week prior when he told Cody Rhodes he was coming for his title after he wins the Rumble.

This segment was really interesting for several reasons. Owens has been the best part of his feud with Rhodes and is often right. This was the first time that Owens and Punk have ever shared a ring. Owens has made it clear for years that he does not like Punk at all. It was palpable during their confrontation.

Punk has never been in the main event of WrestleMania, even when he was champion. It has been his goal since returning to fulfill this dream, especially after he missed it last year when he was injured in the Rumble match. Owens said "there's 29 guys in the Rumble that I like more than you", even without knowing everyone in said Rumble. He confirmed he knows how much main evening 'Mania means to Punk, but the idea of him not getting to delights him, especially if he is the reason. He roasted Punk by saying he hopes he "goes to his grave a miserable failure."

Punk got him back by reminding Owens that he has lost five title matches at the Royal Rumble and "lost to Logan Paul." Most of Punk's promos lately are repetitive. This was one that had a bit more passion than the other ones and it was nice to see him with a new verbal sparring partner. However, Owens meant every word he said about being the one to keep Punk from his dream. That's what made the exchange so effective. It is clear how much disdain Owens truly has for Punk and he delivered those lines in a way only he can. If they finally feud, it'll be fun to see how Owens continues to express his true feelings for Punk.

Written by Samantha Schipman

It's extremely rare for me to get confused by the reasoning for a match or an overall storyline with how closely I follow them on a week-to-week basis with my job here. However, WWE did the impossible and completely lost me with the Eight Man Tag Team Match that pitted Motor City Machine Guns and Los Garza against #DIY and Pretty Deadly.

The partnership between #DIY and Pretty Deadly makes sense to me given that Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano have been shown over the last few weeks to be employing the help of Elton Prince and Kit Wilson in their efforts to take down Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin one and for all. The same cannot be said for Motor City Machine Guns and Los Garza, as their partnership made absolutely no sense. Motor City Machine Guns have been positioned as babyfaces while Los Garza have clearly been heels, and prior to tonight, the two teams have not been shown to have any sort of alliance for one another. "SmackDown" may not have the most extensive tag team division out there, but a team such as The Street Profits or even just a couple of other babyfaces in the place of Los Garza would've made far, far more sense to join forces with Motor City Machine Guns. On top of that, having Los Garza just up and walk out of the match made their inclusion all the more confusing, bringing up the question of why this was an Eight Man Tag Team Match in the first place. A contract signing between Motor City Machine Guns and #DIY for their WWE Tag Team Championship 2-Out-Of-3 Falls Match at Royal Rumble could've easily taken its place, or even a match between Motor City Machine Guns and Los Garza to give the former team a win anyways.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

While it was never confirmed, it seemed that Nia Jax was to be a red brand mainstay. After all, you don't appear on Monday nights for a couple weeks and feud with the new WWE Women's World Champion (all while pushing the other brand's champion, who you have deep and vitriolic history with, aside) if you're *not* a member of "WWE Raw's" locker room. For weeks, I have assumed that Jax was Netflix-bound.

Imagine my surprise when she made her appearance to attack Tiffany Stratton on Friday's episode of "WWE SmackDown."

I thought I knew how this transfer window worked, but either I missed a memo, or WWE did not make it clear enough that Jax was still technically a "SmackDown" Superstar (the latter would mean WWE doesn't have a firm grasp of their own frivolous brand split, which is *impossible*). Why was Jax just challenging for the "Raw" womens' world title a week ago at Saturday Night's Main Event, only to reappear on the blue brand to start a feud that, honestly, should've been given priority over an Elimination Chamber 2024 rematch with Ripley? I thought I knew how this company worked.

I am all for Jax getting her paycheck — after all, she has improved so much and has found such an improved character compared to her first WWE run — but it needs to make sense. It just boggles my mind that Jax was so strongly posited to be entering "Raw's" in-ring ecosystem, what with her few matches against Bayley and a short feud with Ripley, especially if her end goal was Stratton. Why did we have to take a detour off of our blue path to a red-colored road, just to pull a U-turn back into our original blue road? Aren't there a bunch of capable women on "Raw" to challenge for Ripley's title on the notably-not-special NBC special — why must we convolute Jax's road to Stratton with this pointless detour? I just don't know why Jax's presumed "Raw" transfer felt less like a transfer, and more like a sabbatical.

This is another case of WWE trying to heat up a lukewarm feud when they should have enjoyed their meal hot. Like, why didn't we run Stratton and Jax right away? That would've been the most logical sequence of events. It feels like WWE opted for the more immediately profitable route (Jax versus Ripley) instead of one that would make more sense, but see less upfront reward, as get that WWE, understandably, would want to postpone a Jax versus Stratton one-on-one until a larger even. Still, I really wish that they didn't have Jax running all over the internal roster, because now the moment to capitalize seems to have passed. Honestly, I'm having trouble articulating my argument, just because of how convoluted this whole Jax thing is.

Given Stratton's immense talent and Jax's rapid improvement, I'm not concerned about the actual feud itself. I'm just perplexed and frustrated by the winding road it took us to get here.

Written by Angeline Phu

While I'm all for Royal Rumble entrant surprises, if there was going to be one return announced, of course it was going to be Charlotte Flair. As if we didn't know or suspect it already, as she's been out for over a year and was seemingly already ahead of the game on her recovery, according her social media. So, I guess if you're going to spoil a surprise... Do it with Flair? The videos for her return are super well done and really seem to show her new "Top Girl" character a bit before her return to the ring, and I've found myself really liking them after initially wondering why WWE would spoil the surprise – albeit an obvious one.

Tonight's video was like last weeks, with Flair explaining herself, and her mindset change, a bit more. She said she's worked her ass off the last year to get where she is, and she's not going to let her last year define her. One thing I did notice tonight, and if the rumors are to be believe, she's going to be leaning into her Flair legacy once again, was that she almost had a catch phrase like her father. She mentioned being fortunate and blessed, but started with a Ric-like cadence at the end with a "never scared, always prepared, self-made, always paid," or something closely along those lines. Whatever it was, it was catchy and it sounded great and really matched her new look and character. She looks super glamorous, which is forever how I picture Flair, so it's working for me. I'm interested to see if she's going to change up her in-ring style, though I doubt we see too much of it right off the bat in a match as chaotic as the Rumble.

I'm one of those people who think Flair is absolutely going to win the Rumble match to go on to WrestleMania to take on Tiffany Stratton. That's a match I really want to see, especially with Flair's new character, as fans are likely to cheer Stratton as a babyface more than they would Flair. I've always been tolerant (for lack of a better word, maybe neutral is better?) of Flair, but if championship gold really is in her near future, it will be interesting to see her break her father's record with this new "Top Girl" attitude. I'm interested to see where she goes with it, and I thought I do wish the break from her in the ring wasn't because of a horrible injury, but it's been nice to let things play out on the roster without her for awhile.

Written by Daisy Ruth

If you were to ask me most of what happened on this "SmackDown", I probably couldn't name most of the show but the one thing I would definitely be able to name is the video package hyping up the Undisputed WWE Championship Ladder Match between Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes.

For a feud that I've become uninterested in due to the repetitive nature of the brawls between Rhodes and Owens on a weekly basis, this video definitely did a good job of renewing my interest in the match itself. Rather than just throwing together a video at the last second in a last ditch effort to get fans invested, there was thought and care put into the making of the video. Between actually working to summarize the storyline between Owens and Rhodes to its high production value and great music, it was a shining and memorable moment on a show that otherwise felt very lackluster, underwhelming and boring (especially considering that it was the go home show before WWE Royal Rumble).

Written by Olivia Quinlan

I know I've been a recent subscriber to the LA Knight hate train. I know that I have recently been meeting every crowd-pleasing "Yeah!" with a firm and unwavering "nope!" Unfortunately, as long as LA Knight continues to be overrated and overhyped, I will continue to do so.

Maybe he's just not in the right situation overall. Ever since he lost the United States title, LA Knight has felt aimless (and that's generous; I feel like a claim that he was aimless during his United States title reign would be defensible). Knight has felt so aimless, in fact, that he walked his way into a segment between Jacob Fatu and Damian Priest. Perhaps it can be argued that Knight's sense of misdirection is contagious, as his presence in Fatu and Priest's altercation caused me to redirect what would have been an easy-to-write Love piece into one of exasperated Hate.

"The Samoan Werewolf" met "The Archer of Infamy" on Friday's episode of "WWE SmackDown," and quickly pointed out the similarities between them. For someone who hasn't frequented the microphone since his arrival to WWE, Fatu's promo style is incredibly characteristic and engaging. He spits out his words with a primal excitement to them, with emotions overriding any sophistication (and I mean this with the utmost praise, for any eloquence from Fatu in his current "Samoan Werewolf" gimmick would feel unbecoming of his aggressive nature). Regardless of their roughed edges, Fatu's words were ruthlessly effective, and he succinctly made his points against Priest's grittiness clear. This isn't to say that Priest took the promo lying down; he matched Fatu's energy. If the two of them were true street rats, Priest argued, then they should be settling things with their fists. I'm a fan of Priest, so I absolutely loved that concise counterargument from the former "El Campeon." Priest and Fatu were about to engage in a brawl (and, presumably, begin a feud), before Knight's music hit.

I groaned. I legitimately groaned. Sure, Knight is not the most polished guy on the roster, and, admittedly, I'm not aware if Knight had a similar come-up story compared to Fatu and Priest. If he does, however, he does not make it a part of his persona nearly enough to hold a candle to the scrappiness that Fatu and Priest were forwarding in his promo. Knight felt lost in their scuffle, only there because he was briefly relevant in a United States title picture that Fatu was coincidentally involved in. Knight is not feuding with Fatu because it makes sense; Knight is feuding with Fatu over a title that neither of them hold.

I just wish Knight would find his footing again. I remember when he was so hot, with everybody screaming "LA Knight!" Now, he just feels like he is wedging himself into every angle, even if said angles are better without his presence. Knight thinks he's part of the team, but if I were the coach, he wouldn't have even made it past try-outs.

Written by Angeline Phu