WWE SmackDown 5/29/2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show that aired early for international viewers as it was broadcast from Barcelona, Spain, and featured an in-ring promo segment between GUNTHER and Cody Rhodes ahead of their show-opening WWE title match at Clash in Italy this weekend. We have some thoughts about that promo here at WINC, just like we have thoughts about plenty of other things, from Axiom's match with The Miz to Blake Monroe's latest video package.

As always, if you missed the show, be sure to check out our 5/29/26 "WWE SmackDown" results page for all the happenings. Don't come to this column for comprehensive or objective coverage — we only talk here about the things that stood out the most on this three-hour program, either in a positive or a negative sense, and this column . If that's your jam, welcome! Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 5/29/26 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"

I guess it was wishful thinking to believe that Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss would be out of Rhea Ripley's business with Jade Cargill after their six-woman tag team match last weekend at Saturday Night's Main Event, but I guess they're still trying to play the numbers game and even things out with B-Fab and Michin. While that makes sense, I'm getting pretty tired of seeing it, as I'm already beyond over Ripley and Flair's dynamic, as I've mentioned countless times before, and I'm not sure it makes sense anymore.

Cargill got the pin on Ripley at Saturday Night's Main Event, so while Bliss and Flair lost the match, it still could have been a fine time for them to walk away from it all. Instead, the women came out to back up Ripley again, and Bliss ended up in a match against Cargill and ate two Jadeds, including one on top of a chair. Flair looks to be out for blood if Ripley can't get the job done at Clash in Italy, and while I have no doubt that Ripley will win, I just wish that match could be some kind of number one contender's bout or something a little farther down the line, rather than a continuation of this story.

Flair and Bliss should be back to thinking about the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships, as they still haven't gotten another match against Paige and Brie Bella after their last bout post-WrestleMania 42 ended in a no contest thanks to Fatal Influence. The veterans took out Fatal Influence a few weeks later, but rather than go back for the titles, they're still in Ripley's business.

I don't love Flair and Ripley continuing to be around each other, as I don't think it's great for Flair's new character alongside Bliss that fans have really come around on, and I hope that after Clash in Italy, these women can get away from one another. That is, until it's time for either Bliss or Flair to challenge Ripley for the WWE Women's Championship.

Written by Daisy Ruth

If you had asked me what matches I would enjoy the most prior to this episode of "SmackDown," one that I absolutely would not have said is the one between Axiom and The Miz.

As is, the match itself between the two men was a lot better than I honestly expected it to be considering that I didn't really care a ton about it heading into this show. It was honestly quite a bit longer than I expected it to be, but that came as a pleasant surprise to me with its fast pacing and engaging action. The thing that really made this one for me, though, was the live crowd.

It's pretty expected that Axiom would get a very warm reception from his hometown crowd, but the thing that I didn't expect was for that energy to carry throughout this entire match. It added to the atmosphere of everything and was the definitive ingredient that made his match fun to watch for me. I also liked the minor addition of the lights flickering throughout this match, as it didn't require any explanation with Danhausen being the cause of it and emphasized how much Danhausen is haunting The Miz. This match may not have been anything big or over the top, but it still stood out as one of my favorite things to come out of this episode of "SmackDown."

Written by Olivia Quinlan

It was another week of "WWE SmackDown" which meant it was another week of Solo Sikoa's forest of family pursuing the Tag Team Championship by wrestling just one of the Tag Team Champions. This time, in a tag team match, with Royce Keys partnering with Damian Priest instead of R-Truth. 

The only two trees left standing from the group that entered this year are Talla Tonga and Tama Tonga, with JC Mateo and Tonga Loa both marked with a spray can and cut down by the corporate chainsaw. So given Sikoa does the saying "Jump" for others to ask "How high?" it was always going to be them wrestling the match. Issue being, neither are really all that enthralling in the ring, and they were stuck opposite a "Can they co-exist?" team of big men. 

Thus followed a slow match, marred with interference because MFT is WWE's House of Torture, with the finish coming after R-Truth came down to the ring and got run over, and Talla winning the match. In the past few weeks, Priest has been fighting the battles of his team against the MFT, wrestling Talla to a singles loss, then Tama to a singles win, then Sikoa to a singles loss, and then this week's tag team match. 

Keys was being eyed to join MFT by Sikoa, only to then choose not to because he is clearly doing so much better on his own. Priest doesn't trust him, Truth thinks he is Deebo from "Friday" and still he is fighting their fight because... reasons? 

Months were spent feeding into the idea that Tama might be breaking up with MFT, only for him last week to reaffirm his position in the group he'd done nothing but complain about for the weeks beforehand. 

It's just a different variation of the same stuff week in and week out. Nothing was said as to whether MFT will finally be getting their title opportunity. Nothing really needed to be said, WWE just continues to do the bare minimum and reap the rewards of its name value. 

There continues to be no point in watching the weekly TV with only a select set of Premium Live Events given the grace of something actually happening. And this storyline, or rather a collection of matches with the connective tissue of a geriatric crash test dummy, happens to be worst culprit in terms of dragging and dripping whatever little narrative there is across months of programming.

Written by Max Everett

While I don't love that Blake Monroe didn't make her official "SmackDown" debut tonight in Barcelona, which would have been pretty freaking "Glamourous," and I know she's over there thanks to my Instagram feed, I actually didn't hate the video promo that aired for her tonight. I thought the overall quality of the video was better, maybe because a lot of it was shot outside in more natural light. It felt like WWE had been using old footage of her "WWE NXT" vignettes for awhile there and this felt a lot more fresh.

For once, Monroe's "coming soon" promo actually had some direction. Instead of putting the entire locker room on notice, Monroe focused on WWE Women's Champion Rhea Ripley. The promo saw Monroe writing in her diary, and she called Ripley "fascinating." The more she went on about the champion, the more it was giving "Woman From Hell," which is a character many main roster fans have not yet been exposed to. But, she wasn't outwardly playing that card yet, which I thought was interesting. That character against Ripley would be exciting.

Her, "You can run from your fears all you want, but you can't run from me. I'm the stuff from nightmares and I'm dressed as beautiful as a dream" line really had me feeling like we could see the "Woman From Hell" on the main roster sooner rather than later, and I don't think I mind that. "The Glamour" is a good character, but the duality of Blake Monroe is even better, and hopefully they find a way to play up to that better than "NXT" creative did.

I also liked that Monroe brought up Ripley's past heartbreak, with video from Dominik Mysterio's turn on "Mami" for Liv Morgan at SummerSlam 2024 playing under Monroe's voiceover. While it may not be impacting Ripley, at least not outwardly, anymore, it showed how she's probably going to pull out anything she can to get under her opponents' skin. With women more established on the main roster with more stories behind them, that could get really interesting.

While Monroe should have been somewhere on this pretty bland show tonight, I thought her promo having direction was great. WWE desperately needs new challengers for its top women's titles, and Monroe vs. Ripley would be really fun.

Written by Daisy Ruth

We're just 48 hours from Clash in Italy, but you wouldn't really know that other than the ads during the show. Outside of the opening and closing segments, the rest of "SmackDown" was just a show. Jade Cargill exchanged words with Rhea Ripley when she was joined by Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. Cargill was of course backed by Michin and B-Fab. Before her rematch with Ripley on Sunday, she defeated Bliss while Ripley and Flair were preoccupied with B-Fab and Michin. So at least one challenger had a match.

The rest of the show was mostly filler, although there was a good match between Axiom and The Miz. Carmelo Hayes still wants a shot at the US Title, but Trick Williams is now focused on King of the Ring instead of defending his title. Hayes had a match with Ricky Saints that ended in a double count out. But hey, at least the non-finish wasn't due to Lil Yachty interfering. That's right; Yachty accompanied Williams to Europe. The other matches aren't really worth mentioning and my colleague did a great job with the results recap if you really want to know what happened. 

There was a video package for Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu and one for Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar. Then came the promo between GUNTHER and Cody Rhodes to send the crowd home. It was a solid promo segment, especially from GUNTHER (as you'll read from another colleague in this same column). Perhaps that was enough to sell fans on the second PLE in the same month because the overall show sure didn't give fans a reason to spend their money or time on it.

Written by Samantha Schipman

GUNTHER cut what WWE framed as a heel promo as he and Cody Rhodes finally entered the ring opposite one another for a talking segment. Of course, the issue with WWE framing it as a heel promo is that he didn't utter a word of untruth and left Rhodes with his red, white, and blue tail tucked between his legs.

GUNTHER went through Rhodes' career and how, on paper, it may seem as though they are comparable. But Rhodes always had that extra step-up, just one phone call to begin training, another to land his first WWE contract, and presumably another single phone call to secure his return from the land that shall not be named.

They're not comparable. GUNTHER cut his teeth on the independent circuit around the world before he ever hit international TV. He shed an entire half of him to prove himself worthy of the WWE, even after carving a record-breaking run with the United Kingdom Championship.

Rhodes had always been the unicorn on the independent circuit, the rogue prince exiled from the kingdom that was always going to be his. Even when he didn't have the name, he was still always Cody Rhodes, and that story was enough to sustain him before getting back to the promised land.

GUNTHER continued to say that Rhodes was not the hero he portrayed himself to be, he was self-absorbed and couldn't resist the urge to feed his ego. Obviously this is as up to debate as the story allows it to be, but Rhodes has been called egotistical and selfish by Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn, Gunther, Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, and Randy Orton, just to name a few.

That's a lengthy list, and while it added to the promo in itself, it also represents a sore missed opportunity to reveal Rhodes as the villain in this all. Part of what drew me to the promo was both the fact that GUNTHER is a credible prize-fighting challenger with all of the talk to match, legitimately threatening and oozing with the confidence of a proven dynasty, and the potential to explore the content of what was said. Long has there been a call for Rhodes to turn, quashed somewhat by his cementing as the company's top babyface. But it's been a while now, and it would be cool to have something different, especially when everything that's being said lends to it.

All in all, GUNTHER did what you would want a final promo to do. He verbally dressed the champion down in the way a challenger should, and it went a little way to diminishing the nonsensical build to this point.

Written by Max Everett