WWE SmackDown 3/29/2024: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved
Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where sometimes, when the Anoa'i family is away, the women and tag teams come out to play! That's right — apart from a brief backstage appearance from Bloodline members Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa, neither Roman Reigns nor any of his family members appeared on this week's "SmackDown" to make everything about them. Instead, the focus was on wrapping up the tag team tournament, setting up a few last-minute WrestleMania matches, and the official arrival (FINALLY) of former AEW star Jade Cargill.
We'll get to most of that stuff at one point or another in this feature, though we can't quite hit everything (forgive us, LWO vs. Legado del Fantasma feud). If you came here for a comprehensive breakdown of everything that happened Friday night, you'll actually want to check out our "SmackDown" results page instead. If you came here for our opinions on the show, however, you're in the right place! Did Cargill's debut live up to the hype? Are we digging WrestleMania 40's increasingly final form? And most importantly, what did we think about The Rock's "Raw" highlights being played over and over again despite — oh no, those dastardly Samoans did it again! Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 3/29/24 episode of "WWE SmackDown."
Loved: A win for Pretty Deadly is a win for all
I love it when multiple elements of business get accomplished in one fell swoop in a single professional wrestling match. Friday night on "SmackDown," Pretty Deadly's first televised win (in a two-on-two tag match) since November 24 did just that. The honors for them are much-needed, and certainly a win over two made guys in Randy Orton and Kevin Owens, even with interference from Logan Paul, is a big boost for a squad that unfortunately was felled by a shoulder injury to Elton Prince early in their main roster run, which initially had significant momentum. As for the participants in the triple threat match at WrestleMania for Paul's WWE United States Championship, the subtleties in Paul's interference and the subsequent beating from Orton and Owens that he narrowly avoided were masterful teases toward a match that will surely feature an implosion of this temporary alliance of fan favorites.
Paul's use of brass knuckles time and again gives his every appearance the factor of unpredictability via dastardly means that a good heel needs. And like it or not, he's already well-established as a good heel — and he's only getting better. That (as well as his cowardly hiding under the ring afterwards) led to not just the win for Pretty Deadly but also some temporary tension between Orton and Owens, with the former upset at the latter for the loss,= before realizing what Paul had done via instant replay. The two quickly got back onto the same page, with Orton yanking Paul out from under the ring before Pretty Deadly evened the odds for the heels. Ultimately, Prince ate a Stunner from Owens, and Kit Wilson an RKO from Orton, but Paul was able to escape, stealing a car to flee the arena. The good guys chased off the bad guy by helping each other out, but with the US title on the line, there's no way these two get through the WrestleMania match without killing each other, either during or after the match — or both.
Written by Jon Jordan
Hated: There is such a thing as overdoing it
I don't think I'm alone when I say that the Cody Rhodes vs. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson feud, featuring Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, can be a little suffocating. Sure, these guys have put great stuff out in recent weeks — can't believe Rhodes suffered from blood loss *and* hypothermia in the final, rainy moments of last Monday's "WWE Raw" — but there comes a time when a feud becomes oversaturated. The segments are consistent, sure, but eventually they become stale, uninspired, and underwhelming. They don't have the same gravity that they used to — the words said and the actions done don't mean much anymore.
So when there was no sign of Rhodes or The Rock in the house to make some unnecessary additions to their saga-length story Friday night, I was not complaining — until there was some weird, also unnecessary drama recap for what happened on"Raw." This went on far too long for a two-hour show. In a place as fast-paced as the ring, a lot can happen in the three minutes the recap took (approximately five minutes if you want to count Paul Heyman's announcement that Reigns ordered Rhodes' assault as part of the "recap"). Those three-to-five minutes could have been allocated to a longer backstage brawl between IYO SKY and Bayley, or a longer announcement segment from Jade Cargill, or a more satisfying match between The Street Profits and A-Town-Down-Under, or literally anything else. (That said, the phrase "2 hours and 11 minutes later" was so specific that it was kind of hilarious.)
I get that Johnson and Rhodes' story is currently the hottest thing in WWE right now, but it's a bit upsetting that these two huge names — names that do not need any more screen time then they are currently allotted — still continue to take up space even when not physically present. Is WWE afraid that if we go one (1) show without mentioning The Rock, we're suddenly going to forget about him? Where was that energy when SKY and Bayley's feud would go a whole week without new developments? Do we need to be reminded, day in and day out, that The Bloodline hates "The American Nightmare's" guts?
There is such a thing as overdoing it, and I genuinely think that the exposure Johnson and Rhodes are getting is borderline overdoing it. When you have Rhodes stumbling to fill up space in a promo because there is legitimately nothing else to say, then that's probably a good indicator that you can afford to lay off a storyline. We don't need a recap segment for a feud that has as much exposure as this one, and we definitely don't need it when it eats up three-to-five minutes of valuable time that could be used to develop any of the several other WrestleMania storylines that "SmackDown" is responsible for building.
Written by Angeline Phu
Hated: Way too bright Knight of the soul
I haven't been terribly interested in the LA Knight vs. AJ Styles feud, but at least last week's show took things in an interesting new direction with Knight's attempted home invasion. Unfortunately, that momentum couldn't be maintained this week in a segment that dramatically shifted the tone from hard-nosed and gritty to generic and silly.
One of the few things that needed to be accomplished prior to WrestleMania was for Styles to re-establish himself as the villain of the feud. Knight is playing a sort of anti-hero, which is fine and makes the home invasion angle perfectly within reason, but it demanded an appropriate response from Styles to stave off any chance of the audience sympathizing with him. If it was me booking it, I might have had Styles turn the tables with an invasion of Knight's home, keeping the tone dark and sinister, something like the recent AEW feud between Swerve Strickland and "Hangman" Adam Page. Or if that's too dark for WWE, just have him do the thing he mentioned he wasn't going to do in his promo Friday night: press charges and keep Knight from participating in his first WrestleMania. Getting out of your match by suing somebody; that's a move that would establish you as a cowardly heel, right?
Afraid not. Instead of these or any other (probably better) ideas, Styles came out and cut the most generic heel promo in wrestling history, all about how he hates the fans and he wants to beat up LA Knight on the biggest stage, blah blah blah. You've heard it a million times, you know what he said even if you didn't watch it. That was followed by a bit where Styles suspected Knight of being in the building but didn't know where he was, which culminated in Knight revealing that he had disguised himself with a terrible wig, attacking Styles, and Styles running away. The crowd was into it, I suppose (though Knight is no longer getting the white-hot reactions of 2023) but I don't really see how they're going to build a compelling match out of this feud as it exists right now, and they're basically out of time. My guess is that the match will be skippable, just as this segment was the most skippable part of an otherwise excellent "SmackDown."
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Hated: A-Town Down Blunder
Have I mentioned that I can't stand the Austin Theory character? (Answer: Yes, I have.) And that's not in the good way, as in the way one shouldn't care for a solid heel. There's an appreciation for the work in that scenario. With Theory, as I've stated before, I just can't get behind it whatsoever, and at this point it's both annoying and detrimental to Grayson Waller.
It's nice to see Waller get an opportunity at WrestleMania, and if that comes with the price tag of Theory tagging along, so be it. After all, someone has to lose in the tag team six-pack challenge. While I'd hoped these two would have hit the skids as a team by now, I suppose an implosion between the two at Mania, or shortly thereafter based on the results within, would still be a win. Waller is a baller just the way he is, but Theory needs a new coat of paint in the worst way. Grow the hair out. Put some pants on. Buy a vest or something. I don't know. But do something.
Did I want The Street Profits in this match instead? Not necessarily. Do I think Theory has the goods to be a major success at the highest level of this industry? Yes, I do — just not in this incarnation. Is "A-Town Down Under" the dumbest tag team name since "Better Than You Bay Bay"? Without question. But hey, at least Grayson Waller is going to WrestleMania — let's hope we also get a new and improved Austin Theory before too long.
Written by Jon Jordan
Loved: Bayley and IYO's feud finally starts to heat up
Despite being a story a year and a half in the making, Bayley and IYO SKY's WrestleMania feud has been hot and cold in its booking. When this feud is poorly booked, it's very poorly booked — there have been vocal concerns regarding SKY and her lack of promos in the feud, Bayley's mistreatment and erasure despite winning the 2024 Royal Rumble, the overall inconsistent schedule of their segments, and more. At this point, Bayley and SKY's build-up to WrestleMania has been held together by nothing but the two women's impeccable skill and a few hopes and dreams.
When this feud is cold, it's cold. When this feud is allowed to be hot, though — when the fire is allowed to fester and burn in the open air — this feud becomes white hot.
Friday's edition of "WWE SmackDown" fanned the flames of the whimpering, forgotten ember this story had become. SKY took to an interview segment to hash out her thoughts on Bayley, and SKY was allowed to speak for herself! She cut a devastating promo that had me second-guessing the logic behind Bayley's motives in this feud, because SKY used the time allotted to her to make some very good points. Her accusations of Bayley as a hypocrite who only formed Damage CTRL because of her own selfish desires are not only reasonable, given what we knew about Bayley before her recent face turn, but also echo sentiments made by Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, and other top babyfaces. SKY delivered her lines with ice-cold apathy that sent chills down my spine — she is not just the "bad guy," she is an uncaring person who has expressed how little she thinks of Bayley, and it's downright scary. When SKY is given the opportunity to showcase just how much of a cold-hearted heel she can be, she absolutely knocks it out of the park.
And now, we have to talk about how Bayley absolutely sent SKY over that steel chair. Besides being absolutely hilarious — SKY sold that shove beautifully — this was the first time Bayley and IYO have gotten a chance to really go at each other alone, without any Damage CTRL interference. It feels nice to have the two women who are going to fight at WrestleMania clash before their big match. It feels like such a small thing — we're going to watch Bayley and SKY go at it on the grandest stage of them all in just a week's time — but to see just how Bayley and SKY loathe each other, even outside the influence of the other members of Damage CTRL, makes the feud more interesting to watch.
Bayley and SKY were given the time tonight to shine, and they absolutely came through. I genuinely wish that they had been given more of this sort of time in the midst of 'Mania season, but the past has already happened. If they can keep putting the pedal to the metal on this feud going into WrestleMania — if they can keep heightening the stakes —then imagine how much better their ultimate clash will be.
Written by Angeline Phu
Loved: A new alliance forms
The "SmackDown" women's division has stolen the show week after week lately, and the storyline heading into WrestleMania between Bayley, Bianca Belair, Naomi, and Damage CTRL has certainly been the thing I've been the most excited to watch. I didn't think that it could get much better until Jade Cargill was introduced into the mix tonight.
Cargill's introduction to "SmackDown" may have been short and sweet, but it left a little mystery as to what she would be up to first. The longer "SmackDown" went on, the more obvious it seemed that Cargill would provide a helping hand to Belair and Naomi to set up a six-woman tag team match with Damage CTRL at WrestleMania, and it was fun to watch play out, well executed by the talents involved, and the perfect way to end an otherwise great episode of the show.
Cargill, Belair, and Naomi feel like a natural fit with one another, so much so that they even matched their outfits. It feels like the natural progression in a storyline, with Belair and Naomi needing another star in their corner that isn't Bayley — and it makes Cargill immediately feel like a massively big deal.
Written by Olivia Quinlan