WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 26/09

Linus O'Howell
Sep 27, 2025
3 min read

Paul Heyman Starts the Show, Melo Don’t Miz VS The Street Profits: WWE Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Match

This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Paul Heyman as The Oracle wanted to address the rumours surrounding him and Brock Lesnar! This brought out Cody Rhodes, who questioned which version of Heyman he was talking to, before Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed arrived to back Heyman up! Cody then decided to start a brawl with The Vision, resulting in Randy Orton running down to even the odds! I’m guessing this will lead to a Tag Team match next week!

Grade: C+

The Street Profits claimed they were back on the same page as they faced Melo Don’t Miz in a Number 1 Contender’s match for the WWE Tag Team Championships! This match was decent, the crowd were behind Carmelo Hayes (due to this show taking place in Florida), and Miz and Melo looked pretty good for a while, up until The Miz tried to steal the spotlight (again)! This cost his team a shot at the victory, with Montez Ford delivering a Frog Splash as he pinned Miz whilst Hayes watched on! We’re getting closer to the end of Melo Don’t Miz, and that’s for the best!

Grade: B-

Giulia and Kiana James VS Michin and B-Fab, Drew McIntyre Promo, Sami Zayn VS ?: United States Championship Open Challenge

Stephanie Vaquer found Jade Cargill backstage, before Giulia and Kiana James teamed up to take on the duo of Michin and B-Fab! Amazingly, this match got a lot of time; I thought it was going to end after about 3 minutes, but it lasted through an ad break! Michin and B-Fab are fine together; they’d be better served on NXT, but thankfully, it was Giulia who scored the win with her Northern Lights Bomb!

Grade: C+

An impressed Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair watched on from the locker room as ZaRuca stated their claim for a shot at the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships! Drew McIntyre then stormed down to the ring (in a boot) as The Scottish Psychopath lost it over the fact that the referee screwed him out of beating Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship! Drew called the referees “corrupt”, bringing Nick Aldis out to quickly draw the line, before Jacob Fatu arrived to start a promo battle with McIntyre! Firstly, I agree with Drew! Secondly, McIntyre-Fatu could be amazing!

Grade: B

After Shinsuke Nakamura appeared in the background, Sami Zayn was set to host another Open Challenge for his United States Championship! This time, Sami’s challenge was answered by NXT’s Je’Von Evans, and this made a lot of sense after their interaction at NXT Homecoming last week! What we got was a really good match between two incredibly talented in-ring performers; Sami is so good at what he does whilst Je’Von is a star in the making! Zayn actually did a great job of putting Evans over, with multiple late kick outs to really sell the drama, but eventually, the US Champ was able to retain following a Helluva Kick-Blue Thunder Bomb combo! Really good stuff from both men!

Grade: B

Nia Jax quickly rejected Chelsea Green’s offer to join her Secret Hervice before Stephanie Vaquer walked up to her! Damian Priest then scared Kit Wilson into injuring himself again, and this led to Aleister Black nailing Priest with another Black Mass! Now, not only was Kit excellent in this segment, but it looks like we’re getting Priest-Black in some sort of stipulation match!

WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton VS Nia Jax VS Jade Cargill

And in the Main Event, Tiffany Stratton put her WWE Women’s Championship on the line in a Triple Threat Match against both Nia Jax and Jade Cargill! There were some moments of this match that were good; these three have wrestled each other a lot (I literally saw it in Cardiff), but there were still some sloppy moments! Jade probably would’ve won had it not been for Nia pulling the referee out of the ring, and Cargill then got busted wide open after hitting the steel steps hard! This seemed to throw everyone off as we got a weird botch where the referee stopped counting (it’s very unclear who messed up here), before Tiffany finally nailed Jax with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever to secure yet another successful Title retention!