WWE SmackDown - 10/3/2025: 3 Things We Loved And 3 We Hated

There's just one more "SmackDown" until WWE Crown Jewel in Perth, Australia. The October 3 edition of "SmackDown" was a muted affair, but one that moved things along admirably to the big supershow.

There was plenty to love, like the amount of Je'Von Evans that "SmackDown" fans have been given to the ending story beats between, just like there was plenty to hate, like the heatless contract signing or the convoluted storyline involving The Miz and Carmelo Hayes. We won't be breaking down what happened, as that's been taken care of on the results page. Instead, we'll be shooting from the hip, the heart, the head, and all those other organs that have opinions.

Without further ado, here's the best and the worst of the first "SmackDown" of October.

Last week, Je'Von Evans impressed the WWE Universe after an excellent match when he answered Sami Zayn's open challenge. Michael Cole became an instant fan of the NXT standout and was still gushing over him a week later.

He returned this week and met with Nick Aldis, who told him to keep in touch because he has a bright future on the Blue brand. Rey Fénix complemented Evans' skill. Los Garza took offense, which naturally led to a match. These two faced off back in May with Los Garza taking home the win. This time, Evans and Fénix looked like a cohesive team that played well off each other, leading to them picking up a win this time. Putting Evans with two veterans of their respective calibers is huge for Evans. He can get one-on-one experience with two really great wrestlers (one being a legend). While Evans will likely hold a title in NXT, this is still the path he should on by soaking up the experience of talent like Zayn and Fénix.

One of my editors joked that Evans' gimmick is that he stands around and gets complimented. Zayn returned to NXT and told Evans he was good. Aldis and Fénix did the same. Cole can't get enough, and Booker T was excited by him as well ("OH YES!"), even though he watches him compete weekly. Welcome to the club. While he has been making a name for himself in NXT and seems to be main roster-bound any day now, Evans killed it on the indies for several years before inking a WWE contract. He is the (bouncy) futur,e and it'll be here sooner rather than later.

Written by Samantha Schipman

I don't know what exactly, but it feels like The Street Profits should've accomplished more by now. Multi-time tag team champions, multiple teases of a split and singles career for both, but ultimately, it feels like the company is afraid to commit to them.

This continued on Friday, as Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins's feud with the WWE Tag Team Champions is being held on the "SmackDown" before next Saturday's PPV, like so many Street Profit Tag Team Title matches have been. It feels like WWE is scared of putting them on PPVs outside of multi-tag ladder matches and the like. The Wyatt Sicks are also a bit neutered by their pseudo-VHS promo. They don't have the menace or the terror that they had in the initial days.

There's only so much complaining I can do. Tag team wrestling has never mattered in WWE. It didn't matter to Vince. It doesn't matter to Levesque. It's just there to kill time and give Rey Fenix something to do (oddly without Penta). It just seems like The Wyatt Sicks and The Street Profits both represents acts who have been vaguely squandered by WWE's inability to actually give a s*** about tag team wrestling.

There was a report that came out last week when Je'Von Evans answered Sami Zayn's United States Championship Open Challenge that there was going to be more "WWE NXT" integration into the main roster, presumably without official call-ups. That seems to be the case, because tonight, Zaria and Sol Ruca, or ZaRuca, defeated Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre to become number one contenders to Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair's Women's Tag Team Championships.

I loved this for a lot of reasons, outside of just my general love for all things "NXT," including the fact that Ruca and Zaria took the fight to the main roster rather than wait on Bliss and Flair to come back to "NXT." They weren't just sitting around on Tuesday nights waiting for another number one contender's match to somehow find its way to them on "NXT." They showed up backstage and spoke to Nick Aldis about getting a match, and Green and Fyre were good dance partners for the bout.

I'm a big Green fan and I thought she worked perfectly against both Zaria and Ruca, and to be honest, I wouldn't hate to have Green back down on "NXT" to have Men's North American Champion Ethan Page by her side while she challenges Ruca for the women's title. I really liked the in-ring work during this bout, and Ruca won in the end with a wicked Sol Snatcher, one of the most interesting finishers in WWE today, on Green. The finish left me wondering about what could happen between those two on "NXT."

After the win, we saw a quick backstage segment with Bliss and Flair, who basically said that ZaRuca better be ready when they come for their titles, because they're not losing. They mentioned a bit about also being a fellow odd-couple tag team, which was cute. I really hope we get this match next Friday in Australia, since that's where Zaria is from, and that would be really huge for both her and Ruca, even if they don't win the titles. I'm assuming that a Roman Reigns match gets the fifth slot on Crown Jewel, so I won't even bother being picky enough to ask for the match on the PLE card. "SmackDown" in Australia is just fine.

No matter what, that's going to be a great match when it happen,s and I was just so happy to see more "NXT" talent, especially from the women's division, on the blue brand tonight.

Written by Daisy Ruth

In professional wrestling, it's nice to see a contract signing that gets straight to the point and doesn't have any shenanigans every once in a while, as it feels refreshing compared to the more traditional, dramatic ones we've become so accustomed to seeing. While the Crown Jewel Contract Signing between Stephanie Vaquer and Tiffany Stratton certainly did get straight to the point and was very straightforward, it was far too short and underwhelming to the point where it made the whole ordeal feel pretty pointless.

Giulia and Kiana James attacking Stratton on the entrance ramp in order for James to be able to offer her services to Vaquer definitely did make things a little more interesting, but it didn't necessarily make a ton of sense. I personally don't really think that James has done a ton for Giulia throughout the course of their ongoing partnership, and for that reason, I didn't really understand why James was even offering her services to Vaquer to elevate her in the first place. Vaquer is doing perfectly fine on her own as the reigning Women's World Champion, and in my opinion, has absolutely no reason to even think about taking up James on her offer. Watching Vaquer and Stratton team up next week to take on Giulia and James should be fun with all the "can they co-exist" stuff, but this contract signing should not have been used as a means of creating a reason to hold the tag team match next week and should've just solely focused on creating excitement for the Women's Crown Jewel Championship Match between Vaquer and Stratton.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Let's be honest, it can be boring when a group gets along really well, and many a toxic workplace will have surely told you that dissent between workers shapes character; while that maybe shouldn't be the case in real life, wrestling is exactly the sort of medium where that very flawed relationship, that of the marriage of convenience, can be as unhinged as the mind goes. For that in the current day WWE, look no further than The Vision.

They are, for what they have been presented, one of, if not the most dangerous factions in WWE, cunning, crafty, and willing to do everything both within and well beyond the ruleset. But they are also a group of volatile egos, led by WWE's arch-egomaniac in Seth "Freakin'" Rollins, the loyal-so-long-as-the-going-is-good Paul Heyman, "Big" Bronson Reed, and the blue-chip prospect with no regard for any human life, including his own within a match, Bron Breakker.

They shouldn't get along; they don't really get along. But in being a group of spectacular individuals with a mostly shared goal – a Vision, one might say – they have thus far been able to have the last laugh on every occasion. Whether it be Roman Reigns or the Usos, the Vision cares not for the results of a match as opposed to the damage they can do in the long term. They have lost, but they ensured that they were the only ones walking out with their hands raised. But one thing that has been consistently shown, and was once again reflected in the closing angle of the show, has been the overplaying of their hand and, ironically, how blind the Vision can be in pursuing that damage.

In the main event of "SmackDown," Reed and Breakker scored a victory over the pair of Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes; Heyman distracted the referee, allowing Rollins to enter the ring and deliver a curbstomp to Orton, thus allowing Reed to deliver a Tsunami Splash for the win. For all intents and purposes, they had the last laugh. Rollins told Breakker and Reed not to go after Rhodes, telling them that he was his, and Breakker could be heard arguing over the fact. But then, allured by the sight of Rhodes in the ring, seemingly open for attack, Rollins turned his attention to the ring.

Heyman explicitly told Rollins not to pursue the invasive thought, explaining that Rhodes was in Rollins' head, but his decision was already made up, and sure enough, he went into the ring and received a Cross Rhodes for his troubles. There it is, the weakness within the group, and it's been compelling to follow the interactions between this volatile set of characters. Thus far, The Vision has proved to be successful. But the hottest fires burn fast, and continually there is a theme that hubris and impulse is costing the group. It feels like the seeds are being sown for their eventual downfall, but in any case it makes for entertaining TV, and thus gets a love from me.

Written by Max Everett

The breakup between Carmelo Hayes and The Miz has been brewing for weeks and seemed inevitable last week after Hayes didn't break up a fall on his tag partner, but it all still just stinks because this is a feud I'm just not excited for, and I highly doubt I'm the only one. I feel as though WWE had the opportunity to just make this a clean break and move on, but tonight, Miz attacked Hayes on the stage as he attempted to answer Sami Zayn's United States Championship Open Challenge for the second time. You could see it coming from a mile away, but I still just wish Miz would stay away from "HIM."

That's nothing against Miz, and it has more to do with the lackluster booking of Hayes from the beginning on the main roster. Sure, Miz is a WWE mainstay, but I just don't feel like this feud is going to elevate Hayes any higher. A match against Miz isn't going to headline any episode of "SmackDown," and it's certainly not going to fit onto a five-match premium live event card. The in-ring action is likely going to be very good, but it's not going to be memorable in the grand scheme of things, especially with everything else WWE has going on at one time. There is always going to be something more exciting and bigger than this feud, and it's going to get lost in the shuffle. While, yes, of course, WWE needs its mid-card and mid-card feuds to supplement all its other big angles, it just sucks for Hayes.

That being said, when it gets lost in everything, where is that going to leave Hayes? Maybe I'm more tuned out when it comes to the IWC these days, but the #WeWantMelo trend has seemed awfully quiet. Sure, he's on our TV screens more than he was before, but after that hashtag trended, what did WWE do? They brought him back alongside Miz, to a collective groan from the Twitter/X-verse, rather than as a singles star. That would have been the cleanest break possible, just bringing back Hayes and forgetting about Miz, since they hadn't been on TV together in so long, but WWE fumbled that and had to reunite them. Fans should get another hashtag trending to get the eye of the chronically online Triple H, maybe a #MeloDeservesBetter or something.

Written by Daisy Ruth