WWE SmackDown - 3/7/2025: 3 Things We Loved And Hated

Another "WWE SmackDown" has come and gone, with WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas drawing ever nearer. The Friday night tradition had plenty of highlights and lowlights, as some feuds boiled over to dramatic revelations, while others were kept simmering with middling promos and endless recaps.

It was a mixed bag, as are all wrestling events. This will not be a recap of what happened, as that's what the results page is for. Instead, the Wrestling Inc. Staff will be breaking down what worked and what didn't work for the first "SmackDown" of May. From a convoluted tag division to Bianca Belair and Naomi's shocking confrontation, here's the best and the worst of the show.

While the reign of Chelsea Green has largely served as the badge to commemorate her work in getting over with hilarity and entertainment in and out of the ring, it cannot be understated how much of a revelation Piper Niven has been in her role as Green's "Secret Her-Vice" bodyguard. The dynamic between them, with both more than committing to the bit, has been nothing short of refreshing among the slog of three-hour "SmackDown" shows mostly passing the time for the moments to shine through. But Niven had herself quite the night this week, first getting in the ring with the WWE Women's Champion, Tiffany Stratton, only to then be dragged out for Green's US title Street Fight later on while clearly sporting the effects from before. That left her with limited involvement, and even when she did get involved it was only for a short time before B-Fab fought her out of the equation. So the question was how Green was going to retain the title, whether she would manage to beat Michin clean or find another trick up her sleeve.

Of course it turned out to be the latter, with Alba Fyre making her return seemingly as a new addition to the champion's outfit. If you have grown well-acquainted with Fyre since her days in "WWE NXT UK" then you'll know the level of competitor she is, but that is a potential that has yet to be truly tapped on the main roster, and one that had been left uncertain when her championship-winning partner Isla Dawn was released. Pairing her with Green and Niven's quirky stable feels like the most obvious decision now it has happened, yet it was a genuine surprise to see that it was her who came to help, and it looks to be entirely different to anything she has done before. So it's cool to see her return to the fold with something new to get into, something that explores the facets of her character that have yet to be seen, and something that will at the very least get another supremely talented wrestler on TV.

Written by Max Everett

WrestleMania is the time of year when legends are born, stars are made, and tag teams are crammed into multi-tag clusterf***s where no one has enough time to get over and the finish is usually some kind of rollup or bit of chaos that keeps the winning team from looking definitive. In short, it sucks to be a tag team during WrestleMania season.

Friday's "SmackDown" made it clear that this year will be no exception. General Manager Nick Aldis drew a complicated map of the tag team division and announced a triple threat tag match to determine the team who will face whichever team wins next week's tag title match. Likely contender's MCMG were screwed out of the title scene by a rollup as the goofy Pretty Deadly advance to take on either The Street Profits or DIY. This big, convoluted knot of teams are sure to collide in a four-way tag or maybe even a tag team turmoil match at WrestleMania, it's almost too obvious at this point.

It always seems like tag teams are an afterthought around WrestleMania season, and then somehow end up an afterthought the rest of the year too. I would like to be wrong, and see some kind of definitive ending to this kerfuffle. The division is completely rudderless and WrestleMania is the only time of year things are truly allowed to happen. It would be nice if this year that happened, but Friday's mess leaves me pessimistic.

Written by Ross Berman

In modern day WWE, it feels incredibly rare to see a segment entirely driven by emotion especially in the case of two former friends who are slowly becoming bitter rivals of one another. The confrontation between Bianca Belair and Naomi was a rare example of such in the beginning stages of a WrestleMania 41 storyline that more than warranted it, and one that was played to perfection by both women.

Belair and Naomi didn't come to play in this segment, both bringing their acting A Games. Given their shared and extensive history with one another, you could see every minuscule emotion from both women whether it was Belair asking the question of whether Naomi had been the one to attack Jade Cargill already knowing an answer she didn't want to hear or the guilt that Naomi showed in regards to what the attack did to her friendship with Belair. It felt like a real conversation between two women whose friendship was falling apart quickly, and was rather immersive, especially on a show like "SmackDown" that generally doesn't have tons of content like that.

It was also a rare example of plot twists being used correctly in WWE, working to take a storyline in a different direction than it had been going. Using Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez as a red herring for Cargill's attacker made the moment that Naomi revealed herself as the attacker feel even more emotional and heartbreaking for both women. Naomi also showed a new side to her character tonight that hadn't been seen until now, berating Belair for not understanding where she was coming from as she headed to the back. Having Cargill obliterate Naomi was the perfect final touch to end the segment, proving that she will stop at nothing to get her vengeance all the while Belair remains in shock and conflicted when it comes to the matter.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

While I have my reservations about the insane amount of recap video packages we've been subjected to this week (that's putting things politely), I don't find myself sick and tired of this feud from the jump, and that's in part thanks to Cody Rhodes' promo on the most recent episode of "SmackDown." Rhodes took to Friday's edition of the blue brand, armed with nothing but his title, the gnarliest-looking black eye known to man, and a microphone to issue his first statements after John Cena's brutal Elimination Chamber betrayal.

Rhodes was received well by the adoring Philadelphia crowd, which helped create an air of solidarity and awe as Rhodes cataloged the significance of the city to him, from his former Money in the Bank dreams to the completion of his WrestleMania 40 ambitions. I know people make a lot of comparisons between Rhodes and Homelander, but Rhodes really is the closest thing WWE has to a superhero, to their very own Big, Blue Boy Scout. We already knew Rhodes was going to be a strong babyface to counterbalance the rancid, evil energy emanating from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Corporate Cena, and Travis Scott, but he was in his element as he endeared himself to Philadelphia. Nothing groundbreaking, but cool to see a master in his craft perform his art.

Rhodes' ending monologue was where it was at for me. As Rhodes began to speak about his past interactions with Cena, you could see the emotional hurt blend with the physical pain on his bruised face, and you could hear the deep amount of sorrow and betrayal in his voice — a voice that did not speak during Elimination Chamber, a voice that communicates Rhodes' hurt in a way his facial expressions and blood couldn't detail. Rhodes recalls Cena telling him of the heaviness of a championship, that a titleholder's burdens get stronger every day.

Rhodes subsequently picked up the belt with one hand, and dramatic effect oozed from the visual. If the symbolism of Rhodes so easily picking up a title over 300 days in his possession isn't clear, then perhaps the way Rhodes' tone turned from somber to enraged will elucidate things for you.

"You are convinced that you are the last of kind — you are not!" Rhodes barked. "I am standing here, and I am holding this above my head as if it weighs nothing!"

Chills. Rhodes' willingness to do anything for a storyline is a running joke with my friends, but Friday's monologue showed that Rhodes really *is* willing to do anything — go anywhere, emotionally and dramatically — for a storyline. Passion dripped from his voice, and his anger was infectious. Rhodes made himself to be a *strong* hero, whose resilience taps into every soul's desire to be strong, to be great.

This is a Cody Rhodes in overdrive, and I'm living for it. If we can have more of this, paced tastefully over the next 43 days until WrestleMania, then I'll definitely "come and get some" every Friday.

Written by Angeline Phu

If I see one more video package from WWE featuring a child sobbing at John Cena's heel turn, I don't know what I'll do.

It has been nearly a week since Cena turned heel and changed the course of WWE history, and WWE is chomping at the bit to remind you of it! The most recent episode of "WWE Raw" showed a video package for the moment five times in a three-ish hour show (we counted), and Friday's episode of "WWE SmackDown" reached similar numbers in their three-hour broadcast. If we're lowballing, that means WWE has aired at least six to eight recap videos of Cena's historic heel turn in the last six hours of main roster programming (the number could feasibly be closer to ten, but I was so tired of the Elimination Chamber recap videos that I stopped watching them).

Let me be the first to say: I am not mad at all by the heel turn itself. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't enjoy Cena's betrayal of Cody Rhodes and the WWE Universe because it was legitimately that good. What I'm mad about is the amount of useless recap that we've received, spliced multiple times into every hour of main roster broadcasting WWE has put out in the past week. The moment was amazingly performed — I'd be willing to classify it as high, theatrical art — but the constant, literally round-the-clock coverage has me bored at best, and irate at worst.

Let's put this into a practical scenario. Imagine you have a friend, and they've received the best (or the worst, depending on how you view the heel turn) news of their life. They come to you initially, and you offer your congratulations or condolences. Maybe they're really excited (or distraught) with their situation, so they bring it up again. You offer them your support yet again. Your friend comes to you with the same story, and nothing's changed except for the hour of the day — almost as if they're telling you this information for the first time. Your friend is on a story loop, with no new content or added commentary. Do you see where this is going?

These video packages are quickly becoming nonsense filler. I'll admit: to extend this feud and keep it as hot as it currently is for the next 43 days is a tough task. However, airing recap after recap — especially when absolutely nothing has changed — is not the answer to this problem, especially for WWE, of all promotions. WWE is at the forefront of professional wrestling broadcasting, with an unimaginable amount of resources at their fingertips; they shouldn't have to resort to a bunch of video packages that are screaming "you can copy my homework, but change the answers a bit so the teacher doesn't notice." It's lazy!

The video packages were acceptable on Monday, but quickly became indefensible on Friday. There's beating a dead horse, and then there's whatever WWE's video package department is doing this week.

Written by Angeline Phu

This might have been one of the more tolerable three-hour "SmackDown" shows in awhile for me, but once again, I'm back writing about the endless loop that is the United States Championship and Shinsuke Nakamura and LA Knight. It looked like Nakamura was going to retain for a few minutes there, with near-disqualifications with the champion threatening chair shots, but that surprisingly wasn't the case and Knight took back the title he initially lost to Nakamura. While a title change in the main event of "SmackDown" isn't a bad thing, especially with the extra hour, I just hate this for how long it's been going on, to the point I barely care who has the US Championship anymore.

The ending of this match left a lot to be desired. Knight didn't win clean, with the BFT to the chair after Nakamura hit the mist to referee Charles Robinson accidentally, so, does Nakamura get a rematch automatically? Does he immediately jump back into the very same storyline where he's fighting to get a rematch, facing the likes of Andrade and Carmelo Hayes over and over again? Also, why didn't the referee who ran down to the ring call the match since Knight used the chair and Nakamura obviously used the mist? I would imagine that ref was watching backstage, but I guess I can suspend my disbelief there, because that's low on my list of reasons why I disliked this.

For some reason, the ending of tonight made me think that we're getting Nakamura and Knight possibly one more time at WrestleMania, but that's just a hunch and probably how "SmackDown" has me trained anymore: to expect what I want to see the least from the United States Championship picture. If that's not the case, I'm worried about poor Nakamura. He wasn't booked well even when he had the championship, so I can only imagine he's going to fall back by the wayside now that Knight has the belt once again. Nakamura only ever defended the championship against Knight during his almost 100-day reign, so that leads me to believe that WWE had no clue what to do with him, which sadly seems to be a very common thing for Nakamura.

Overall, this just highlights how weak the mid-card championship scene on "SmackDown" really is. It's disappointing because there are a ton of really great talents (like Hayes and Andrade, all jokes about their rematches aside) who can hold the belt, or at least just challenge for it. At this point, even if it's hot potatoed around, at least it would be a little more interesting and the rub would be given to someone new. I'm interested to see the plans for the belt going in to WrestleMania, but I doubt they're going to be good.

Written by Daisy Ruth