WWE SmackDown 4/24/2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where you get called up to the main roster, and you get called up to the main roster, and everyone gets called up to the main roster! The biggest impact players this week were Jacy Jayne and Fatal Influence, who showed up not once but twice to beat down basically the entire blue brand women's division, and here at WINC, we have some thoughts about that! We also have more than the usual amount of things to say about Cody Rhodes' post-WrestleMania promo, as well as Tiffany Stratton winning the women's United States Championship and more!

Of course, we can't go over everything here in this column, with apologies to Danhausen, Sami Zayn, and the WWE tag title match. If you missed the show and need to catch up, you can do that via our 4/24/26 "SmackDown" results, which has all the objective facts you could ask for. Here, we're less about objective facts and more about subjective opinions. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved from the 4/24/26 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"

It happens every year, and every year we hate it here in our humble "loved & hated" column, but it's pretty damn difficult to focus on "SmackDown" and be excited about the various "NXT" call-ups and new things going on on the show when a bunch of folks just lost their jobs. It always stings a bit, because it's always a post-WrestleMania Friday "news dump" and many of the bigger name departures come out right before the show goes on the air. In traditional breaking local or national news, it's an attempt to get things swept under the rug for people to forget about over the weekend, but in this day and age, and in professional wrestling news of all things, with its passionate fans, that rarely happens.

This is my third year, I believe, covering post-WrestleMania releases, and I hate that throughout the day, with various rumors online on X, you can always kind of feel it coming. Sure, you hope it doesn't happen, and it did happen a bit later after WrestleMania last year, but it never feels great. And if it sucks having to cover it, it obviously feels 100 times worse for people like Kairi Sane, Aleister Black and Zelina Vega, and the entire Wyatt Sicks. I'm still honestly trying to wrap my head around the fact the Wyatt Sicks just had two entire haunted houses dedicated to the stable and its lore at Halloween freaking Horror Nights at Universal Studios on both coasts, and now they're just gone.

It's just hard to be psyched and tuned in to the show when people like Santos Escobar are leaving the company (in his case, presumably released since we know he just re-signed) when they're injured, which sucks. Zoey Stark was reportedly cleared for a comeback, but she was released before even getting back on TV following an injury that had her out for a year. After a "blah" WrestleMania with its pretty terrible build, and new reports of TKO greed nearly every day, and now, with all these departures, both on the main roster and in "NXT" and developmental, it's hard to get psyched for much in WWE anymore.

Written by Daisy Ruth

What good is it having so many members of a family signed to the company if they aren't going to lean into the drama that only familial relations can bring about?

Jacob Fatu took it upon himself during Monday's "WWE Raw" to challenge his cousin Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight title at Backlash, just moments after Reigns and the Usos affirmed they would be standing together as a unified Bloodline once more. And in typical "Tribal Chief" fashion, Reigns' solution to the challenge put before him was to get in the head and play at whatever insecurity lies within the "Samoan Werewolf," giving him a week to truly make up his mind as to whether this is the path he wants to go down. Reigns also took some time to tell Jimmy Uso to talk some sense into their cousin, which was always what "WWE SmackDown" was going to serve.

As such, Fatu kicked off the show with a recap of his challenge and made it clear he was not looking to back down. The Usos came out, with Jimmy telling Fatu that he can achieve all that he wants to with the backing of the Bloodline, and he could easily target Cody Rhodes and the WWE Championship to that end.

But where Jimmy can be the screwdriver of the pair, slowly turning and prying an opening, Jey went for the hammer approach; he outright told Fatu it was too late, and he should know, because he has been down this road before. Now, he needs to stand on the challenge and the only way he will earn Reigns' respect, or any form of reprieve, is by looking him in the eye and making it clear he is up for it. Otherwise he will expose him.

Before the night was over Solo Sikoa had emerged, said his piece, and got a main event singles match with Fatu out of it – even if that wasn't what he had intended. When that match rolled around, it was fun, if marred by the WWE's own version of House of Torture, ending with the right result as Fatu got the win.

The Usos watched on, having offered to help but been told to stand back, as Fatu fought of all three of the MFTs off, taking them out as a statement to be made to Reigns. Fatu looks like a star at the best of times, but tonight's statement win, taking out the MFTs while the Usos took it in — that just elevated him entirely.

Monday will see the next installment of this story and it is one heating up, harkening back to the Bloodline days of old.

Written by Max Everett

If you're a fan of Tiffany Stratton, I'm terribly sorry. Your GOAT is washed.

On Friday's episode of "WWE SmackDown," Stratton went toe-to-toe with Giulia for the WWE Women's United States Championship. Good stuff out of the way first: Giulia was great! Giulia, a figure who has been criminally underutilized on the blue brand, got the ability to showcase her technical prowess, her unique in-ring style, and her infectious energy. However, no matter how good Giulia was, she couldn't pull Tiffany Stratton out of the rut she seems to be in. You read that right. Giulia was unable to pull Tiffany Stratton — former WWE Women's Champion and previous victor at WWE WrestleMania — out from her rut.

Stratton was bad tonight. Yes, she could still do the her acrobatic song and dance, and that's always very impressive. However, in terms of wrestling — in terms of in-ring synergy — Stratton was just not there tonight. The spark that distinguished Tiffy Time from the rest of the "SmackDown" women's roster was not there. Giulia singlehandedly carried this match, to the point she was, basically, feeding Stratton the win. At multiple points, Stratton and Giulia's sequence seemed choppy and fragmented. Giulia was falling into Stratton at multiple points in the match, and Stratton just couldn't seem to meet Giulia where she was. You thought Rusev was making things obvious by jumping into Je'Von Evans' OG Cutter at WrestleMania? Giulia literally lifted her leg up post-Prettiest Moonsault Ever (the night's second or third attempt at the finisher, by the way) in order to spoonfeed Stratton the win. Sure, it was nice of Giulia to do, but that was the cherry on top for a poor performance from Stratton. Stratton was a dulled version of herself, completely devoid of the bratty personality and electrifying energy she had during her most recent main roster run. It was to the point where I don't know if she deserved to win the title tonight. The Stratton win was pre-booked, of course, but Stratton's performance was so weak it made the title win unbelievable, in the worst possible way.

Is that cruel to say? Perhaps, but it's clear that Stratton is, performance-wise miles away from where she has been, historically. Obviously, Giulia has years of in-ring experience over Stratton, but Stratton has never been a particularly bad wrestler — not until Friday, where Giulia wrestled circles around her. You wouldn't think that the difference in experience would be that vast, to an extent in which you could visibly see Stratton struggling to keep up with Giulia, who, admittedly, was struggling to slow down enough for her struggling in-ring partner. Apparently, it is. Stratton might need more hours at the Performance Center.

Written by Angeline Phu

It's no secret that Cody Rhodes' past month or so has felt like it's been absolutely screwed from here until SummerSlam, but his simple promo tonight felt like a nice little bit of a reset. Maybe that's because there was no interruption, though establishing a new challenger for the belt if Randy Orton is going to be taking some time off might have been nice, but Rhodes talking to the camera, black eye and all, with no interruptions felt needed tonight.

He did call out Sami Zayn by name for calling him the "golden boy" in their tense backstage segments, though Zayn is still involved with Trick Williams and the United States Championship scene. I liked how Rhodes said he made it a point to arrive at WrestleMania wearing all gold (something that I'll admit went right over my head at the time) to prove something.

I also loved the little message to TKO, or rather, the important message to the "outside forces" who keep messing with his WrestleMania plans, that they're "0-3." Rhodes told them to send their best or sit and count their money and mind their business, which I thought was a fire line. Hopefully we won't be getting any more celebrity involvement anytime soon, until at least the aforementioned SummerSlam, though thankfully we have quite a few months until then.

And finally, he basically issued an open challenge without saying as much, just putting all three rosters on notice that he's "easy to find" but "hard to beat." So, if Orton is on the shelf for a bit to recover, Rhodes could have new challengers from all angles, which would be kind of fun and interesting. If not, this promo just felt like a little reset and nothing more, and honestly, at this point with how messed up the Undisputed WWE Championship booking has been, whatever. At least Rhodes got out there to cut a promo tonight and got a few points across, despite Orton not being in the building. Fans needed to see the top champ on the brand following 'Mania, and this got the job done.

Written by Daisy Ruth

One thing I think needs a lot of work in every single promotion in wrestling is the way the World Championship is presented as it pertains to those not immediately planned to wrestle or feud for it in the coming future. We're well beyond the point where this needs to be said but wrestling is a scripted medium, and with that it becomes obvious to say that there must be a plan in mind when it comes to Cody Rhodes and the WWE Championship. But the issue is where the seams become visible.

Rhodes came out in pretty bad shape and was not obviously not going to get medically cleared to compete after getting his head punted by Randy Orton on Saturday. But, at the same time, he made it clear that he would still be continuing with the title and would be looking to the future. Given the way WrestleMania ended, head punting and all that came with it, there is more than a non-zero chance that Orton continues to be the man who chases Rhodes for the title in the immediate future. That doesn't change the fact that Rhodes went out and made it abundantly clear he was waiting on the next person to step up, alluding to a potential "WWE NXT" call-up in the process.

It was a segment that almost looked designed purely for someone like an Orton or someone entirely new to emerge and stamp their claim. After all, Jacy Jayne did that with Rhea Ripley. This is claimed to be the most prestigious title in the world of professional wrestling, and yet when the champion puts himself on a silver platter and is actively begging for competition, no one comes out.

Rhodes name-checked Sami Zayn in the promo; maybe he could have come out and said something about that, considering his goal more than anything is to become World Champion. But no, at present, he is far more concerned with the United States title held by Trick Williams. He does not have the time to also put out feelers about being next in line. Ricky Saints is an imminent call-up that could have benefited for chasing after his friend and the top title. But no, he is planned and announced to debut next week, so that wouldn't work. Someone, literally anyone, could and should have come out to say, "Well what about me?" but the fact is it was not part of the destination the GPS had mapped out. The GPS lacks nuance, the ability to read a script and discern what the next logical step is. Creative is more than just putting dots on a pathway. It needs someone to weave it together.

Written by Max Everett

The main roster has been full of "NXT" call-ups in the immediate post-WrestleMania season, but none of them have come even close to the magnitude and magnificence of Jacy Jayne and Fatal Influence's port to the blue brand. On Friday's episode of "WWE SmackDown," Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Lainey Reid put the entire "SmackDown" women's locker room on notice — and I truly mean on notice.

First, Jayne's main roster debut has been a long-time coming. Love her or hate her, she's been holding down the fort in "NXT." She has survived several stablemates, the incredible booms of "NXT" upstarts — many of which were her juniors — and multiple "NXT" eras. She is one of the most deserving "NXT" call-ups in recent memory, and after years of incubating in "NXT," she showed it — no, surpassed all expectations — Friday.

You don't just get handed the opportunity to beat down WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella, recent WWE return and former WWE Divas and "NXT" Women's Champion Paige, fourteen-time world champion Charlotte Flair, and five-time world champion Alexa Bliss. Unless, that is, you're Jayne and Fatal Influence. I could not imagine a stronger debut on "SmackDown" than beating up some veritable industry icons — I could not even begin to imagine looking so good while doing it. Jayne walked into her debut with the confidence of a veteran who had been there for years. There was no awkward period, no wait time for her greatness. You could tell, almost immediately, just how in her element Jayne was. For a person who finds competency sexy, I was immediately enamored with Jayne as a blue brand superstar (especially considering the state of "SmackDown's" female roster, which is...yeah).

You don't just get handed a match with newly-crowned WWE Women's Champion Rhea Ripley. Unless, that is, you're Jacy freakin' Jayne. Jayne and Fatal Influence re-emerged later in the evening to confront "Mami's" post-WrestleMania celebration, and Jayne was getting Dominik Mysterio-level boos. While other wrestlers would've frozen up at the sudden influx of attention, Jayne relished in it. She heckled the crowd right back, and even Ripley couldn't hold back her smile. Jayne is already so comfortable in this position, and she hasn't even been on the main roster for a full 24 hours. Imagine how much further she'll go!

Jayne's subsequent match with Ripley was a highlight of the night. Jayne and Ripley clicked immediately, and the two of them had a great match that, yes, ended in a disqualification. Still! For Jayne to not take a pin tonight is the cherry on top for an incredibly dominant main roster debut. 

This is the type of explosiveness we need in the women's division. Jayne has got it.

Written by Angeline Phu