WWE SmackDown 4/18/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the final piece of in-storyline WWE programming before WrestleMania 41! This week's official go-home episode closed with Cody Rhodes raising the WWE Championship high above the prone form of John Cena, which ... none of us found interesting enough to write about, sorry. We also won't be covering the six-man tag that immediately preceded Rhodes and Cena, because there's not much more to say about that than "We really hope Rey Mysterio is okay." But there were a lot of other things that happened on this three-hour broadcast, and we have strong feelings about most of them!

For just the facts without our opinions, check out our "SmackDown" results page. To learn what the WINC staff thought about this week's episode, however — from Seth Rollins sitting in the ring crosslegged to Carmelo Hayes finally getting a big win to continued tag team title shenanigans — here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 4/18/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown."

With just one night to go before getting in the ring with Roman Reigns and CM Punk in the main event of WrestleMania Saturday, Seth Rollins sat down in the ring for his own iteration of the "Pipebomb" to outline the stakes. 

He started with the first of his nemeses in Punk, launching into a promo that blended reality outside of the WWE canon without detracting from the core focus. He alluded to Punk's ill-fated time in AEW, questioning whether he returned because the fans wanted him to or because someone had written him a fat check, all without directly mentioning any of the entities outside of Punk. He then asked if Punk had truly come back to WWE for the fans, or because he had burned the bridge with the first company like all others, and then WWE wrote him a fat check. 

Rollins is the right person to blur the lines as it pertains to Punk, given that positioned himself as the defender of the WWE that had flourished in Punk's absence from the very beginning, and it only rationalizes his placement in the match. But of course Rollins would lay into his former Shield-brother in Reigns, although he would tread little new ground; he called Reigns selfish and ribbed on his part-time schedule, much to the beat of many promos before. But it was crucial that he went over his issues with Reigns in this promo for the next part, closing the circle on why the match is so important. 

In his words, 12 years ago, Paul Heyman brought Rollins, Reigns, and Dean Ambrose into WWE to be Punk's Shield. And from that point on he spent night after night working with Punk and Reigns only for them to get the spotlight and the adulation. This was a great way to start the show tonight and prelude the main event tomorrow night, putting the one that some have called the third-wheel in this feud alone in the ring to make it clear why he feels he is the protagonist of the story. Who knows, depending on the way tomorrow transpires, he may well be.

Written by Max Everett

You know those surreal moments where you sometimes wonder whether you're in a dream or awake in the real world? Well, Carmelo Hayes emerging victorious in the 2025 Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal felt like one of those for me personally.

Hayes has been on the main roster for quite some time now, but hasn't really done anything notable or of significance aside from a Best of Seven Series with Andrade and teaming up with The Miz. Given that WWE has chosen a handful of Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal winners in the past based on who they see a bright future in such as Baron Corbin in 2016, Jey Uso in 2021, and Bronson Reed in 2024, it's a good indication that the tides will perhaps soon change for Hayes and he will be given the main roster singles push that he deserves to have after the run that he had in "NXT". It was refreshing to see him actually be given a chance to shine tonight, and score a fairly big win under his belt.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

One of my favorite things tonight on "SmackDown" was something I actually didn't even think about the possibility of until it happened. WWE didn't keep Naomi away from Bianca Belair when the former appeared on the blue brand tonight to address her WrestleMania opponents before they clash at the event on Sunday. When Belair was in the ring confronting Rhea Ripley and Women's World Champion IYO SKY, Naomi's music hit and she stormed out to address her former friend, who she said wasn't texting or calling her back after their emotional falling out when Naomi revealed she was the one to attack Jade Cargill at the end of last year.

First, I absolutely love Naomi as a heel. I didn't see her short-lived heel run in TNA Wrestling, so I'm being blown away by her work now. The way she speaks and carries herself just stands out more than her "GLOW" character and it's something new and welcome on the women's roster.

The pair started to go at it again like they did during their emotional reveal segment after Elimination Chamber, but Cargill put a stop to it so the dramatics were short-lived this time. The rest of the segment was excellent as well, with Ripley getting in Cargill's face and telling her it wasn't about her right now, before Naomi came back in the ring to brawl. SKY, who has been an afterthought in all of this, just kind of stood back and watched it all happen until she saw an opening to climb to the top rope and hit a big Over the Moonsault to her challengers (and officials) below. SKY was the last woman standing, outside of Cargill leaning on the ring barricade, though off to the side, and I just think this entire segment accomplished a lot in a short time.

If WWE was going to have the women competing for the "WWE Raw" women's championship appear on "SmackDown," it made perfect sense to continue a "SmackDown" storyline with Naomi and Belair. Too often we see WWE pretend like fans don't remember things, which very well could have been the case here tonight. We could have seen more video packages for the Naomi and Cargill feud, like we did last week, though they were excellent, and Belair, Ripley, and SKY get their own in-ring segment, but mixing the two matches and feuds together with the remaining, seemingly unfinished storyline connection was excellent. Seems like something I shouldn't have to commend WWE for, but, here we are, and I'm happy to do just that tonight.

Written by Daisy Ruth

It's "WrestleMania" weekend and the WWE tag team champions couldn't make the card. Nevermind the fact that they got a huge win 35 days ago to become champions to a monstrous pop. Their Number One contenders, Motor City Machine Guns have been a huge part of the "SmackDown" tag title picture since their arrival in October. They shocked the wrestling world winning the titles in their third match on their second night in the company. Since losing the titles, they've been screwed out of their rematch. #DIY, Pretty Deadly, and Los Garza have been in the tag title picture since October as well. Nick Aldis famously used a white board to explain the blue brand's tag division. They've been telling a story for months and it would naturally lead to the biggest show of the year.

Instead, the match was relegated to the "SmackDown" before "The Show of Shows". It couldn't even make it to the pre-show. The go home show was a lot of filler and didn't feel important. Even a match between two of your best tag teams felt unimportant. The feeling grew when the match ended in a disqualification, thanks to #DIY. They've been crying conspiracy for weeks, but the real conspiracy is that WWE hates me because not only did tonight's match not make it to 'Mania, next week there will be a 'Mania worthy match on "SmackDown". Following tonight's DQ, Nick Aldis announced a TLC match for next week. These teams are good enough to be in a match made famous by The Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian, but not good enough to have a match on "The Show of the Immortals". On top of that, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin – one of the greatest tag teams of this generation – are being robbed of a 'Mania Moment.

WWE hasn't cared about tag team wrestling in a very long time. Yes, New Day is facing War Raiders this weekend, but there's two nights. There's room for both men's titles and the women's tag titles to all be defended, To have the "SmackDown" titles relegated to a TV show instead of a pay-per-view is disappointing, but not surprising. The title gets hot potatoed and I fully expect a title change next week. Street Profits, The Guns, and #DIY deserve better and so do fans of tag team wrestling.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Look, trust me when I say that I am fully aware of how rocky the build up to the WWE Women's Championship match between Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair has been and that WWE has reportedly been the most keen on the segments that the two women have had with one another. While I can therefore understand them possibly wanting to keep them apart as much as possible in terms of verbal exchanges, Stratton and Flair is still one of the more notable matches on the entire WrestleMania 41 card with how much starpower they both bring to the table (especially the latter. So, it's disappointing to see that there was little thought and effort put into their appearances on tonight's show with their respective, brief sit-down interviews with Wade Barrett.

Tonight's "SmackDown" was WWE's last chance in terms of their weekly programming to generate some last minute excitement for the fanbase by doing something memorable, fun, or even unique. However, they instead to barely feature either woman on the show and put them in interviews that fans will forget in no time flat on a show that had other more notable moments for better or for worse. It felt like a major missed opportunity, and was a let down (which is coming from someone who has largely disliked the storyline between the two).

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Tonight's "SmackDown" felt like a usual go-home show where WWE books everyone involved in matches at the premium live event in different iterations of tag team matches or different members of a faction against an opponent, and tonight was no different when it came to United States Champion LA Knight taking on Solo Sikoa. I wouldn't have minded it as much in this instance if it didn't make me feel like Knight is retaining tomorrow to set up the Fatu and Sikoa feud that probably should have happened already. Maybe it's my fault for not assuming that Fatu would interfere in this match when it was originally booked. I thought maybe that he would help Sikoa beat down Knight following the match after Sikoa lost to the champion.

To me, it doesn't really feel like a Fatu move to attempt to help out Sikoa, so he was obviously just trying to get to Knight to soften him up before their championship match tomorrow night at 'Mania. With Fatu getting involved, however, it meant the match was awarded to Knight, which I'm sure isn't going to sit well with Sikoa. After tonight, it seems more likely than ever that the former tribal chief is going to get involved in his cousin's championship match and cost him his shot at gold.

At risk of hating what hasn't happened yet; I really just hate how this was set up to make tomorrow's result seem even more predictable. WWE could have easily stayed away from booking Sikoa against Knight tonight to make his potential retaliatory interference tomorrow at least a bit shocking for the audience, many of whom really want to see Fatu as a champion already. Tonight could have been booked as a face-to-face between Fatu and Knight. While possibly redundant, as we did that with the Women's World Championship as well as with Cody Rhodes and John Cena, we at least would have gotten some Fatu mic time, which is always good. 

I guess I applaud WWE for at least trying to make tonight a bit more interesting and less redundant when it comes to tomorrow's matches, but this just wasn't it in the lead-up to the United States Championship bout at WrestleMania.

Written by Daisy Ruth