On last week’s SmackDown, Pat McAfee revealed himself as Randy Orton’s mystery caller as he aligned with Orton to attack Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. McAfee claimed that he wanted to restore the Attitude Era to its former glory as the reason why he chose to help Orton.
Tonight, McAfee has promised he has a “huge surprise,’ though Rhodes will certainly be looking for a bit of revenge against him as WrestleMania 42 looms closer with only a week to goo.
Also tonight, ahead of his unsanctioned match against Jacob Fatu, Drew McIntyre has promised to reveal to the world “the real” Fatu.
Royce Keys is set to officially make his debut on SmackDown tonight after last appearing in the 2026 Royal Rumble and a few Main Event matches.
On Friday afternoon, WWE also announced that Rhea Ripley will be on tonight’s show. She is set to address Jade Cargill’s attack on IYO SKY.
Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern.
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– Joe Tessitore welcomed us to tonight’s show as he set the stage for WrestleMania 42 next week. We then got a recap of last week’s series of events featuring Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Pat McAfee. Following that, we saw Rhodes walking backstage and asking Nick Aldis where Pat McAfee is. Rhodes was told by Aldis to not go after Pat McAfee, under strict orders from above (i.e. TKO management). Jelly Roll showed up and was looking for Orton and McAfee, and was told the same thing by Aldis. Jelly then told Rhodes that this wasn’t about McAfee or himself, but twenty years of friendship between Orton and Rhodes being flushed down the toilet. Jelly encouraged Rhodes to keep his focus.
Rhea Ripley opens SmackDown
Ripley got right down to business and said that Cargill made things personal by attacking IYO SKY on Raw this past Monday. Ripley challenged Cargill to come down and fight her. Instead, IYO SKY made her way down to the ring to talk to her friend. SKY wanted to face Cargill, and said that she’d talk to Nick Aldis if she had to for this match to get made.
Mr. Aldis showed up afterwards and decided to make it official as our main event tonight.
Just a standard main event set-up segment, not really much else to say. As for the opening bits with Cody Rhodes and Jelly Roll… I get the feeling we’ll be in for a long night and road to WrestleMania soon. Stay tuned…
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Bayley (w/ Lyra Valkyria) vs. Alexa Bliss (w/ Charlotte Flair)
Hometown heroine Bayley got loud cheers from the San Jose crowd as the match got underway. Bayley got ahead on Bliss with a sliding elbow, as she reversed an early Sister Abigail DDT attempt from Bliss. Nobody had the upper hand early on. In the corner, Bayley missed with a running knee attack as Bliss dodged at the last second. Bliss tepped on Bayley and pounded on her head with her boot, much to the disdain of the crowd. Bliss got a little cocky and ate a clothesline from Bayley, followed by the sliding dropkick to the outside. This took us into the commercial break.
We returned from break as Bliss leveled Bayley with a dropkick, followed by the modified Natural Selection for a near-fall. Bayley recovered and connected with the sunset flip right into the middle turnbuckle on Bliss. One, two… not yet. Bliss had Bayley trapped in the corner in a tree-of-woe position, and made no mistake with the dropkick. As Bliss headed to the top rope, Bayley tried to intercept her, but to no avail. Bliss connected with the tornado DDT for another near-fall.
Bayley countered another Sister Abigail DDT attempt from Bliss with the Bayley-to-Belly. Both women recovered and hit each other with furious strikes before it turned into an exchange of pin attempts. Bliss tried to get a rope-assisted pinfall, but the referee saw it. Another sunset flip into the turnbuckle from Bayley to Bliss, as the hometown favorite headed to the top rope and connected with the diving elbow. One, two…. 2.99999999!!!!!!!!!
Bliss rolled out of the ring and tried to catch her breath with Charlotte Flair, but Bayley went right after Bliss. Lyra Valkyria got into Flair’s face and argued, this allowed Bliss to get the sneaky roll-up pin and win.
Alexa Bliss def. Bayley via pinfall
Well, it just wouldn’t be WWE if they didn’t have the hometown hero eat the pin, I suppose. Otherwise a good enough match to start us off.
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– Carmelo Hayes was in the medical room as Trick Williams and Li’l Yachty showed up to taunt him. Hayes promised to go after Williams if he got past Sami Zayn at WrestleMania. After Hayes left, Matt Cardona had some words for Williams, and that led to a match between the two made.
– We got a video package from Drew McIntyre where he was speaking behind bars, to talk trash about Jacob Fatu’s checkered past. McIntyre insulted Fatu for “choosing” a life of crime over providing for his family. He promised to be Fatu’s judge, jury, and executioner at WrestleMania.
– Backstage, we saw Fatu watching McIntyre’s promo as he was asked about it. Fatu said that McIntyre was going to find out something, but he was interrupted by Solo Sikoa and the M.F.T.s. Sikoa mocked Fatu for being in the same place that he got his teeth knocked out all those months ago. Sikoa said that Tama Tonga was going to step up to Fatu, though Tama seemed to not be happy about it.
– We got a video package introducing us to Royce Keys, as he talked about his own past before heading to WWE. Keys stated that he wanted to be defined by where he was going rather than where he started from. Keys’ debut was said to be coming up next.
Royce Keys vs. Berto (w/ Angel)
Berto hit Keys in the back, but it wasn’t very effective. Keys responded with a fierce clothesline that crushed Berto before he lifted him from the ground with a powerslam. With Berto stunned in the corner, Keys tried to run, but Berto made a quick escape. Outside the ring, Angel provided a distraction for Berto to push Keys into the ringpost. Back in the ring, Berto landed a nice dropkick to Keys. Berto attempted a diving crossbody, but he was caught by Keys for the fallaway slam. Keys hoisted Berto on his shoulders for the running powerslam. Angel tried to run at Keys, but got hit with a clothesline. Straps were down and Keys hit his spinebuster for the win on his SmackDown debut.
Royce Keys def. Berto via pinfall
How they’ve not really used Royce Keys (fka Powerhouse Hobbs) since his Royal Rumble debut has been baffling, to say the least. Hopefully with this official debut, they use him more moving forward because Keys is too good of a talent to be just left on the sidelines the way he’s been so far.
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– Pat McAfee arrived at the arena and was told by Nick Aldis about the directives of not being touched. Jelly Roll confronted McAfee and demanded to know if he told Randy Orton to RKO him. Jelly got into McAfee’s face but was told to back off by Aldis as McAfee was off to address the crowd.
– Backstage, Royce Keys was interviewed about his successful debut. Keys said he was glad to do it in front of his people. Before he could continue, Solo Sikoa confronted Keys, and said that his door was always open.
Pat McAfee addresses his actions
McAfee headed to the ring as the crowd booed him. Once McAfee entered the ring, he called San Jose a “shithole”, as he stated that he was the “hero” in this entire thing. McAfee called CM Punk a “spineless bum” that the crowd cheer for. Did we like it when Punk called McAfee “Pat MAGAFee” on Raw, he asked?
McAfee said that it was hard for him to get past that Punk was wearing WWE-licensed merchandise under his shirt, and it made him wonder that when the TKO cheque comes through, to the needy wrestling families, or the bank account titled “I’m sorry, Saudi Arabia”. McAfee called Punk a fraud, someone who was all talk, no action. McAfee put himself over as an agent of change, a man of action, someone who decided to be everyone’s hero.
McAfee said that he decided to call Ram Trucks to help fans get to WrestleMania, with 25% tickets off the Saturday show tickets from now until Monday’s Raw. This was supposedly because for us to see a once-in-a-lifetime event of Randy Orton saving this business by winning his 15th World Title. Before McAfee’s tirade could continue, the music of Cody Rhodes interrupted him, and out came the Undisputed WWE Champion.
Rhodes entered the ring and stood face-to-face with McAfee as he took a microphone to address the situation. Rhodes started by stating that he was going to go out on a limb and say that McAfee doesn’t belong here. He knows that he couldnt’ touch him, but they can get a Fanatics WWE Title and live out his WWE experience before McAfee got sent back to whoever put him here to say “thank yo, daddy.”
Rhodes pointed out that McAfee was a play wrestler because of how he didn’t know Orton wasn’t part of the Attitude Era, before talking about an old promoter by the name of Paul Boesch, who said that wrestling fans were “customers”, not marks. Rhodes talked about how the fans weren’t customers to him, but they were family. Rhodes said that McAfee had a gift, and that it was getting the entire wrestling fandom to agree on one thing: they wanted to see Randy Orton, and not Pat McAfee. “Go home, Pat,” said Rhodes.
McAfee said that he was home, as he was born to be in this business, and that Rhodes was the fakest dude on Earth. McAfee called Rhodes a cosplay champion, one that he was going to get rid of at WrestleMania, alongside with Randy Orton. He had a message for Rhodes: if Randy Orton didn’t walk out of WrestleMania as champion, we’d never see Pat McAfee ever again.
Rhodes called out McAfee for being too tired as he said that maybe we should get Gunther to put McAfee’s ass to sleep once again. As Rhodes tried to leave, McAfee talked trash to him, but before Rhodes could come to him, Randy Orton appeared on the TitanTron and said that Rhodes should come get his “boy” (i.e. Jelly Roll).
Orton dragged out Jelly Roll to the stage, as McAfee attempted a sneak attack. Rhodes turned to face McAfee, but got hit by Orton attacked him from behind. McAfee and Rhodes laid a two-on-one attack on Rhodes, but Jelly recovered and had McAfee by the throat. Orton punched Jelly Roll, as McAfee gave Orton the WWE Title. Orton struck Rhodes with the title. McAfee stole Rhodes WWE Title and had it on his shoulder.
I cannot list the many ways how much I hate this entire thing. From McAfee yelling about ticket prices and the fact that he doesn’t belong anywhere near this major main event angle being incorporated into the story, and all the worked shoot nonsense that I honestly despise. It’s getting ridiculous, and dragging Jelly Roll into this mess has turned what should’ve been a sure-fire angle with Orton and Rhodes’ sharewd history into celebrity-filled nonsense led by some schmuck on ESPN just because TKO executives are dead set on making WrestleMania 42 a must-miss event.
Then there’s the rumored direction where this is all going with a tag match with the featured players from this segment we just saw presumably happening at Backlash. It’s just leading into a ridiculous mess and I can’t think that this is going to draw new viewers to WWE as TKO might hope. Just nothing short of terrible and increasingly more embarrassing with each passing week.
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– Nick Aldis was chatting with a referee before The Miz and Kit Wilson showed up to complain about what happened with Dan Engler last week. There needed to be consequences for what happened with Engler. Aldis said that Kit Wilson will face Dan…. hausen in action tonight.
Jacob Fatu vs. Tama Tonga
Tama and Fatu locked up in the middle of the ring before the former was backed into a corner. Fatu withstood a shoulder block from Tama before he hit him with a throat strike. Tama tried to get ahead, but he was hit with more strikes from Fatu, as a headbutt punctuated that barrage. Fatu connected with a handstand moonsault on a downed Tama, before he launched himself through the middle ropes for a suicide dive, which took us to the commercial break.
Our match returned from commercial as Fatu and Tama traded strikes. Tama struck Fatu with two pump-up punches, but that only fired up Fatu. Tama was hit with the running splash in the corner by Fatu, followed by 10 headbutts. With Tama stunned, Fatu hit him with a running hip attack. A second hip attack was intercepted by a forearm from Tama. Underhook powerbomb by Tama got a near-fall. Pop-up Samoan Drop attempt by Fatu was countered into a sort-of rolling cutter by Tama for another near-fall.
Tama looked for the Cutthroat, but a kick from Fatu met him instead. Pop-up Samoan Drop, followed by the moonsault from the top, and Fatu got the win here.
After the match, Fatu got on the microphone until Drew McIntyre attacked him from behind. Fatu recovered with a superkick, but a Claymore Kick left him down and out. McIntyre threw Fatu out of the ring, as he then sent him head first into the steel steps. McIntyre grabbed a chair from the timekeeper as he hit Fatu across the back with it. McIntyre hoisted Fatu and planted him with the Future Shock DDT. McIntyre had handcuffs as he put them on Fatu’s left arm. He threw him into the ring post twice. McIntyre then locked had Fatu cuffed against the ring post, as he hit him with a boot against the post.
McIntyre again cuffed Fatu against the ringpost, as he pummeled him some more. Back in the ring, one final Claymore Kick from McIntyre was it.
Jacob Fatu def. Tama Tonga via pinfall
Pretty much a standard match, but the McIntyre beatdown segment afterwards was a decent way to get heat on him before next week, so there’s that.
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– We got another segment of R-Truth explaining how to work with the ESPN App to watch WrestleMania next week. Truth was telling this to Kit Wilson. Rhea Ripley threw B-Fab against a cargo case while this was happening, stating that she only had one more to take care of.
Sami Zayn addresses the crowd
The U.S. Champion made his way to the ring amidst a sea boos, which he stated was an “interesting reaction”. He said that maybe it was time to nip this in the bud. Zayn said that he had talked to close friends like Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, who wanted to see some change from Zayn.
Zayn said that throughout his career, he had tried to give himself something more than just a catchphrase or a viral mment. Zayn said that the fans who cried for him, who bought his stuff, or had his back since day one, that’s who he cared about. Zayn declared that he’d never betray those people. As far as the people booing him, Zayn didn’t know why they were booing him, but he didn’t care. Zayn praised the ride or die fans who have been with him since day one, and that he’d walk out of WrestleMania as champion for them.
Trick Williams interrupted him to huge cheers from the San Jose crowd, as he was accompanied by hypeman Li’l Yachty. Once they got in the ring, Williams said that the people were tired of hearing Sami Zayn talk. Someone who was “whining like a donkey” and couldn’t get it done. Williams said that the truth was, Zayn just hated him. Williams said that whether Zayn liked it or hate it, he was going to whoop Zayn’s ass at WrestleMania, because everyone loves Trick Williams.
Zayn responded by saying that the crowd didn’t love Williams, but they did like him and had a crush on him. Here’s the thing, however, Williams could make all the jokes he could want, but he was going to be in the ring with a WrestleMania main eventer who would drag him in to deep waters. Zayn said that we’d find out at WrestleMania if Williams could walk the walk or just be nothing but talk.
Li’l Yachty hyped up Williams a bit more before Matt Cardona interrupted, as he was set to face Williams in singles action coming up next.
I think Zayn’s slow-burn heel turn is actually one of the better things of an otherwise dire SmackDown scene as of late, so his promo was good in that regard. On the other hand, I think Trick Williams can stand on his own, and that Li’l Yachty’s addition doesn’t really add to him.
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Trick Williams (w/ Li’l Yachty) vs. Matt Cardona
This match resumed from commercial as Williams avoided Cardona’s strikes in the corner and taunted him. Cardona got slammed on his back by Williams. With the ref’s back turned, Li’l Yachty grabbed at Cardona’s head.
Cardona avoided Williams’s jumping kick, as he then hit him with a clothesline. Cardona followed that with a missile dropkick to the jaw of Williams. With his foe out of the ring, Cardona hit the rope-assisted dropkick on Williams. Back in the ring, Cardona got tripped up by Williams while he was on the top rope, which took us to the break.
Our match continued from the break as Williams knocked Cardona down with a kick. Cardona recovered with a jawbreaker, followed by the back suplex. This gave Cardona the opportunity to mount a comeback, at least until he was floored by a punch from Williams. Cardona got back into it with a running facebuster as he lined Williams up for the Broski Boot. Cardona pulled from Chelsea Green’s playbook with an Unprettier for the two-count. Williams responded by sending Cardona’s face into the top turnbuckle, followed by a neckbreaker for the two.
Williams missed with a running splash, but Cardona failed to capitalize as he was sent over the top rope when he went for a running attack. At ringside, after he clotheslined Cardona, Zayn stared down Williams and got a shove for his troubles. As Williams got back in the ring, he challenged Zayn to fight him. When Zayn got on the apron, Li’l Yachty tripped him up. This led to Yachty eating a Helluva Kick from Zayn. In the ring, Williams avoided a roll-up pin from Cardona, as he then finished him off with the Trick Shot.
Trick Williams def. Matt Cardona via pinfall
Another match that just felt like it just happened without much purpose. I honestly couldn’t get into it much at all. Also, it’s hard to take Matt Cardona as much of a serious threat if he’s mostly just lost his matches since returning.
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Danhausen vs. Kit Wilson
Danhausen sized himself up to Wilson’s face, and got shoved. In response, Danhausen hit a dropkick, followed by a bridging suplex for a two-count. Wilson recovered with a kick to the gut, followed by a kick. Miz was playing to the crowd, as Danhausen slid out of the ring and posed beside him. This left Danhausen open to the flying elbow attack from Wilson. Back in the ring, Wilson battered Danhausen with repeated running elbows to the corner.
As Wilson got bounced with a jawbreaker, he rebounded and hit Danhausen with a lariat. Wilson headed up top for the elbow drop. Danhausen perked up and did the “You Are Cursed” poiint. This caused pyro to shoot out from the ringpost, which sent Wilson crashing to the ground. Miz got punched from the apron by Danhausen, who then finished Wilson off with a running kick.
After the match, Miz tried to sneak attack Danhausen, but the lights turned off. Once the lights turned back on, Danhausen ran away to the stage to escape Miz.
Danhausen def. Kit Wilson via pinfall
Well, Danhausen is probably a gimmick that isn’t to everyone’s tastes, but I kinda find him inoffensive and even entertaining at times. In this match, we did get to see some moves from Danhausen that showed that he’s more than just a meme character, so that was nice to see(hausen).
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– Backstage, Jade Cargill was looking for Michin to back her up against IYO SKY in her match coming up next. However, Michin was found laid out with a broken kendo stick over her. Rhea Ripley had gotten to Michin.
Next Week on SmackDown
- Andre The Giant Battle Royal
- Wyatt Sicks vs. M.F.T.s in a Street Fight
– IYO SKY requested that Rhea Ripley stay behind for her match with Jade Cargill now that the odds have been made even after B-Fab and Michin got taken out.
Jade Cargill vs. IYO SKY
SKY was hot to start with a dropkick to Cargill. She avoided a running splash from Cargill and hit her with a forearm. However, the WWE Women’s Champion quickly recovered with a shoulder block, as she then slammed SKY down to the ground. SKY answered with a pop-up dropkick on Cargill, but got hit with a right hand from her foe as she headed for a dive, as we took a commercial break with about seven minutes of show left.
We returned to our main event as both women were down following an armbreaker counter from SKY during the break. The former Womens’ World Heavyweight Champion connected with the dropkick from the top rope as Cargill suddenly found herself on the backfoot. SKY struck with the Bullet Train attack into the corner on Cargill. SKY tried to go up the top rope, but was caught by Cargill in an overhead press position. SKY reversed that into a sleeper that got broken out of. SKY avoided the pump kick from Cargill and turned it into a roll-up pin for the two. Blue Thunder Bomb by Cargill, but taht wasn’t enough for the win. Cargill had SKY in a chokeslam position, but that turned into a double stomp.
As Cargill rolled out of the ring, she was hit with a moonsault from the apron by SKY. With both women out of the ring, Cargill dropped SKY onto the steel steps with a wheelbarrow face slam. That was followed with the pump kick. One Jaded later, and that’s it, over.
After the match, Cargill got a chair, but Rhea Ripley ran in immediately before her WrestleMania opponent could do any damage.
Jade Cargill def. IYO SKY via pinfall
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An okay main event that ended a really baffling SmackDown overshadowed by the sad saga of Pat McAfee hijacking the WrestleMania main event. If Ari Emanuel, Nick Khan, and/or Paul Levesque’s idea of selling people to their biggest show of the year is having Pat McAfee trash one of the nights for being mediocre, other wrestler call McAfee’s involvement terrible, and things of that nature, then God help this company. It’s a lousy and pointless exercise and you don’t even have to be a “hater” of WWE to admit that they kinda screwed up here.
As far as the rest of the show is concerned outside of the McAfee/Rhodes/Orton/Jelly Roll stuff, everything just felt like they kinda happened. Nothing important, no big hook to get us to tune into next week. And when next week is literally the final go-home before WrestleMania 42, it’s really kind of sad. By the time April 18th and 19th roll around, it’ll be like that time The Simpsons took the “shortcut” to get to Itchy and Scratchy Land. That’s an apt descriptor for this Road to WrestleMania, at least from my view of it over these last few months.
