WrestleMania SmackDown 2026 Review
- Linus O'Howell
- 23 hours ago
- 6 min read
Randy Orton Starts the Show, MFT VS The Wyatt Sick6: 8-Man Street Fight
2026’s version of “WrestleMania SmackDown” kicked off with Randy Orton and Pat McAfee pulling up to the arena as Pat signed something whilst Randy headed down to the ring! Randy made it clear that whilst he doesn’t need Pat McAfee, he wants him as McAfee is the only person who will tell him what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear! Orton then listed a number of scenarios from the past couple of years where he has sacrificed himself for Cody Rhodes, and yet Cody’s never returned the favour! So, at WrestleMania 42, Randy Orton is going to beat Cody Rhodes to become a 15-time World Champion, and you know what, I hope he does!
Grade: C+
We then headed straight into the opening match of the night as Solo Sikoa and the MFTs took on The Wyatt Sick6 in an 8-Man Tag Team Street Fight! Whilst this feud has been pretty bad and gone on way too long, this match itself was actually alright, like it was decently entertaining! It didn’t feel like Solo Sikoa did much, though, with a lot of the focus stemming around Talla Tonga and Erick Rowan! Nikki Cross was also on the outside doing dives to Tonga Loa, whilst Tama Tonga looked set on closing out the match as the victor! However, this is when Solo got to Uncle Howdy first, nailing the leader of The Wyatt Sick6 with a Samoan Spike to get the win! This was a good ending to a pretty torrid feud!
Grade: B-
Jacob Fatu Promo, R-Truth and Damian Priest VS Kofi Kingston and Grayson Waller: WWE Tag Team Championships, Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley Come Face-to-Face
Damian Priest once again seemed fed up with R-Truth’s antics, whilst Danhausen showed up at Miz and Maryse’s (second) wedding that was being celebrated by Kit Wilson! This was good content! Royce Keys then had a video talking about his Mom (who sadly passed away a while back), before Jacob Fatu got a WrestleMania-size entrance on SmackDown as he showed up in the back of a Police Car! Jacob then decided that it would be a good idea to cut his promo on top of said Police Car, with the officers clearly not caring as Jacob went over how he’s not the same person anymore! However, with tonight’s match being Unsanctioned, nobody can stop Fatu from doing whatever he wants to McIntyre, something that Drew asked for! I’ve enjoyed the feud between Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu this year; it just sucks that it’s not for the World Title!
Grade: C+
After Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair had an obnoxiously bad backstage segment, R-Truth and Damian Priest put their WWE Tag Team Championships on the line against the duo of Kofi Kingston and Grayson Waller! Apparently, Grayson Waller still isn’t an official member of The New Day, despite the fact that he’s always hanging out with them, and most notably, came down to New Day’s entrance theme ahead of this match! That really is the only thing of note that I have to say about all of this, as this was the most throwaway match ever produced! I literally believe that the only reason that R-Truth and Damian Priest are teaming together is to allow Truth to hit John Cena’s moves, as that’s literally all he does! In fairness, Priest and Truth did debut a new Tag Team finisher to put “The Not” New Day away here, but this was so skippable it’s insane!
Grade: C-
Before Jade Cargill could say anything, Rhea Ripley’s music hit as The Eradicator interrupted for one final face-to-face confrontation! Rhea started off her problem by saying that she’s not scared of Jade, before she repeated her lines as it felt like she’d forgotten what she was saying! Jade then responded by calling Rhea jealous, stating that Ripley wishes she could be her, whilst MAMI wants anything but that! I’m starting to think that the WWE Women’s Championship got cursed after the great Iyo Sky-Bayley match, because the Cargill-Ripley feud has felt as bad as Tiffany-Charlotte from last year’s build to WrestleMania! Honestly, it’s painfully bad!
Grade: D
Women’s United States Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match: Jordynne Grace VS Tiffany Stratton, Sami Zayn Interrupts Trick Williams, Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
After Solo Sikoa said that the night isn’t over for the MFTs (with Talla Tonga set to compete in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal), Tiffany Stratton went one-on-one with Jordynne Grace to determine the next challenger for Giulia’s Women’s United States Championship! So, before I went to bed, the match that was being advertised here was Giulia VS Tiffany for the Women’s US Title, but for the second time in about 3 weeks, those plans were cancelled! I have absolutely no idea what’s going on, but it feels crazy, especially considering that Tiffany Stratton arguably became one of the WWE’s top female stars between 2024 and 2025! However, now Stratton’s just wrestling Jordynne Grace on WrestleMania SmackDown, having come nowhere near to making the actual Mania card! In fairness, this was a good match, which isn’t surprising given the talent involved, but I’m still so baffled as to all of this! Like, why is Giulia, known for being a top-tier wrestler, not wrestling?! Anyway, Stratton eventually beat Grace here with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever, setting up a US Title match for further down the line!
Grade: B-
The crowd actually started to care a little bit for the next segment as Trick Williams arrived to address his WrestleMania debut! Trick was furious with Sami Zayn for taking out Lil Yachty last week, stating that he’s not only attacked his friend, but he’s potentially ruined his grand WrestleMania entrance (please get Booker T)! However, Trick wasn’t finished with the mind games just yet as he brought out “The Real” Gingerbread Man from Shrek, with Gingie dancing as the crowd chanted “Whoop That Trick”! This didn’t impress Sami Zayn at all, who quickly stormed down to the ring to talk about the “Ride or Die Sami Zayn fans”, a group of people that’s seemingly getting smaller with each passing week! Sami then called Trick a “Punk Rookie” whilst Williams responded by pointing out the fact that Zayn hasn’t been the same since “this Rookie” arrived on the scene 4 months ago! A brawl then broke out, with Sami nailing the Gingerbread Man in the face with a Helluva Kick, before Trick Willy delivered a Trick Shot to stand tall! Hollywood Trick has to win on Sunday, and as for this segment, it made me laugh, so we’ll take that!
Grade: B-
The next match was supposed to be Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair once again taking on Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, but we’ll quickly gloss over that as nothing happened, with Lash Legend and Nia Jax showing up before the bell even rang to wipe everyone out! Instead, after a terrific video package for the massive showdown between Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi, we got the real Main Event match of the night as a bunch of mid-to-lower card talent faced off in the annual Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal! Kit Wilson was eliminated first; something I didn’t like, whilst Johnny Gargano was also able to earn another successful elimination through Nathan Frazer! This was a totally harmless Battle Royal, with Aleister Black looking particularly strong, but it also didn’t exactly further/put an end to any storylines! La Parka, Psycho Clown, and Shiloh Hill all made guest appearances to no fanfare, whilst Joe Hendry got eliminated rather early, despite being one of only two competitors to get an entrance! Neither Ethan Page nor Danhausen were anywhere to be seen, whilst Ilja Dragunov being in this match was wrong (oh, and it was made worse by the fact that he basically did nothing)! Eventually, the final 4 came down to Aleister Black, Royce Keys, Otis, and Talla Tonga! Keys was able to eliminate Black, whilst the crowd got massively behind Otis, only for the big man to be eliminated by the other big man, who then got eliminated by the main big man as Royce Keys scored the win! Given that he got an entrance and a video package, it was pretty obvious that Keys was going to win here, but good for him!
Grade: C+
Cody Rhodes Closes the Show
The final segment of 2026’s WrestleMania SmackDown saw Cody Rhodes come down to the ring to address Randy Orton! Cody said some things, most notably that he wasn’t going to bring up Pat McAfee, before CM Punk showed up to a strong reaction! For some reason, we then got an entire segment where Punk and Cody talked about how much they love one another, and how cool it is that they both get to walk into WrestleMania Main Events this weekend as reigning World Champions! This very much felt like those interactions in movies where (at least) one of them is going to die, and I guess in this context, at least one of Punk or Rhodes is going to lose their Title come the end of the weekend! Personally, I’m not sure this segment did much to further either Punk-Reigns or Rhodes-Orton, but I suppose it was a way to go into the Hall of Fame Ceremony on a positive note!
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