6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (28 Mar - Results & Review)
CM Punk finally gets his WrestleMania main event, but Drew McIntyre is SmackDown's MVP.
Elephant in the room time for WWE.
Friday's announcement that a three way pitting CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns will headline night one at WrestleMania 41 means neither Royal Rumble 2025 winner is in the main event. Jey Uso vs. Gunther will presumably open one of the cards, whereas Charlotte Flair challenging Tiffany Stratton has midcard "main event" written all over it. That spits in the face of those who crave Rumble credibility.
Jey Uso won the Rumble and announcers screamed about him going to "the main event" of 'Mania. His nickname is also literally 'Main Event', but he...isn't in the actual main event? Sorry, enough mentions of main event before somebody thinks this guy is just having a moan event for the sake of it. Honestly, it's hard to complain too much other than that, because Punk has waited an age to headline one of these shows.
This week's SmackDown over in London, England had some heavyweight promos, but far too much of the wrestling was place-holding stuff that'll be easily forgotten by the time WWE rolls into Raw on Monday. Several acts tank because Triple H's creative team hasn't given fans any reason at all to care about them. That must be addressed, and fast.
On the plus side, the company did sow some seeds for things to come once they're out of Las Vegas in April, and there's the tantalising lure of Punk's favour from Paul Heyman not being sated by going on last at 'Mania.
Here's all the good and bad from a show that was sometimes excellent but might force many to check calendars to see what time of the year it is.
Downs...
4. Triple H Has A Fatu Problem To Solve
Eek! Something is going fundamentally wrong with some of these United States Title-centric encounters.
Last week, Jacob Fatu and Braun Strowman failed to live up to the hype generated by their hot Saturday Night's Main Event scrap earlier in the year. Here, both Braun and reigning champ LA Knight worked a match that was nothing special before Jacob popped up out of nowhere like the walking, talking embodiment of an RKO to cause the disqualification result.
Being brutally honest, there's a chance this could all go off the rails for Knight. He's still immensely popular, yes, but Fatu is getting bigger cheers than he is right now. WWE has a major decision to make. They seem keen to slow burn Fatu's babyface turn away from Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga, but his involvement in LA's title business isn't doing much for the actual champion.
Fingers crossed Triple H has a solid plan for all of this, but yours truly is choosing to give the segment a 'Down' overall for the rather lifeless match Knight and Braun were working pre-Jacob interference. Even Fatu's chaos couldn't save things after that. Don't get it wrong - there's time yet for this story to get really interesting, especially after Jacob teased a 'Last Man Standing' blowoff with Strowman post-match, but WWE just have to be super careful with the players involved.
Fatu's budding WWE megastar popularity may well be coming at the wrong time for Trips and pals. They probably want fans to hold off a little while longer on his peak babyface reactions.