WWE SmackDown 9/18/2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show that's been rife with Undisputed WWE Championship matches lately and gave us another one in the form of Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens for the gold. The WINC staff has some thoughts about that match, as well as Trick Williams and Jacy Jayne both qualifying for Money in the Bank, and much more!

As always, if you missed the show you can catch up by checking out our "WWE SmackDown" 9/18/26 results page, which contains every objective detail you need to know about everything that happened on this week's installment of the blue brand. This space is strictly for the WINC crew to provide our subjective opinions about the matches and segments that compelled us the most, in one direction or the other — though admittedly, we will cover pretty much the entire show in the column this week. Without further ado, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 9/18/26 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"

Rey Fénix has had a busy week. Last Friday he defeated Ricky Saints to retain the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship and 24 hours later, he retained it again in a four-way against Jack Cartwheel, Mini Vikingo, and Nathan Frazer (a match that Dave Meltzer rated 5.25 stars, if that's your thing). He closed out his week by competing in a three-way match against Randy Orton and Trick Williams for a chance to qualify for the Men's MITB match.

Fénix had a really great showing, but did not get the win. Orton connected with the RKO, only for Williams to land a Trick Shot knee on Orton to get the win (interestingly, the women's MITB qualifier ended in a similar fashion a bit later in the show). Fénix had a lot of momentum going into this match and it came to an unceremonious stop, much like his booking in WWE. They have spent most of the time not knowing what to do with an extremely talented wrestler and sent him down to AAA, who have figured out how to utilize him. Fénix would thrive in a MITB match and could showcase what WWE has been missing with him. I wouldn't expect him to win, but he should absolutely have qualified, especially against the two men he faced.

Orton does not need to be in a ladder match. Williams doesn't need to be in the match because he is currently a champion. One of my biggest pet peeves in wrestling is champions challenging for other titles. You have a title, give someone else a chance to step up and prove they're worthy of a title. I digress. WWE could freshen things up and have someone unexpected qualify. Can you imagine Fénix in a ladder match with Je'Von Evans? How fun would that have been? Instead, Fénix is out and will probably disappear from WWE TV for a while. He deserves better than that.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Yet another Friday came and went, and with it a men's Men's Money in the Bank qualifier pitting Trick Williams against Rey Fenix and Randy Orton. So from the off it promised that there would be whooping, high flying, and an RKO outta nowhere somewhere towards the end.

That promise was delivered upon as the three meshed together fairly well, Williams being a rather limited striker that makes up for being green in the ring by being sheer platinum with the fans, Orton being the absolutely jacked veteran domineering over his opponents, and Fenix the elite luchador with the wings of Hermes at his ankles.

That allowed each man to feed into one another like a wrestling game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors," with Fenix flowing between the brawlers and oftentimes sniping opportunities started with either of them. Orton always had the cloud of Cody Rhodes hovering over him and never really felt like he would be the one qualifying, but he did deliver an RKO as promised as Fenix looked to fly towards Williams.

Williams then stole the win from Orton without any interference from Rhodes after all, which just felt refreshing. If one were to be honest then Fenix might have been the better choice, personally, to qualify and compete in the ladder match. He is a proven ladder match specialist.

But at the same time, Williams is on the fast track to stardom and would likely be a better selection for the briefcase in itself. He just has that superstar factor to him and is carrying some serious momentum. It makes sense to keep that train rolling without interruption and Money in the Bank is another opportunity for him to stamp his name on the main event picture.

The match being fun and the result being one that makes sense to the wider product has to be appreciated, even if there were some shortcomings. Looking ahead, it will also reunite Williams in the ring with Je'Von Evans and Bron Breakker, two men he has worked with before to great effect. And it really highlights the emphasis on the future within the match to determine who could be a future world champion. That's good stuff.

Written by Max Everett

If you need an example of why WWE's booking is arguably the worst it's been in years right now, then look no further than the tag team match between MFT and Bakusai.

To start, it's not a good look to have one of the newest members of the WWE roster in Kyoki being left laid out by MFT during his second-ever match in the company. Kyoki didn't come off looking very strong in a match where the opposite should've ended up being true as he continues to be established amongst WWE's fanbase, and it just wasn't a great look for him overall.

The more glaring issue with this tag team match was that Tama Tonga and Talla Tonga didn't put their WWE Tag Team Championship up for grabs. If WWE was going to award Shinsuke Nakamura and Kyoki with a disqualification win here by having Haku crack his Tongan walking stick across Nakamura's throat and send him crashing into the ring steps using it, then at least it would've made more sense for him to cost his own team the match here in order for them to retain their WWE Tag Team Championship match. There was no logic or thought in having him randomly cause the disqualification, and it was something that didn't really make any kind of sense at all to me.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

While I'm usually not one for mid-card champions competing in other matches on premium live events instead of defending their own titles, let's be real: WWE was never going to have Jacy Jayne defend her Women's United States Championship at Money in the Bank, so I'm thrilled she's going to be part of the ladder match. Jayne has been on fire since her main roster call-up alongside Fatal Influence after WrestleMania, and I think she's not only going to be a great fit for the match, but also a strong contender to hold the briefcase.

I don't want to see Jade Cargill in a ladder match, and while Alexa Bliss would have been a solid hand and a fan-favorite choice, it's Jayne's time to shine. She's so good at playing the heel, which we saw tonight to open up this match when she tried to antagonize the crowd on the commentary desk before Bliss tripped her up.

The match overall was fine — as fine as a bout involving Cargill can be at this point. She had a few clunky spots, including what looked like a slightly mistimed effort to break up Bliss' pin attempt on Jayne following a Sister Abigail. Bliss and Jayne had good showings in the match, however, which kept this bout on the rails. While both the men's and women's MITB qualifiers had a similar ending, the stolen finish worked better with the fully heel Jayne, rather than the tweener Trick Williams on the men's side. Jayne stole the victory from Cargill after she hit the Jaded to Bliss, and Jayne ran in there with a kick to send Cargill out of the ring to get the pin.

As a big fan of the women's division of "WWE NXT," I absolutely love the current women's MITB lineup. Jayne, Sol Ruca, and Lola Vice are going to kill it, though I would love to see a veteran or two in there out of the three spots remaining to help balance things out a bit. Outside of the opening angle and the main event, "SmackDown" wasn't much to write home about tonight, but Jayne getting one step closer to becoming Miss Money in the Bank was cool to see, and she was the right choice to advance.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I don't know why I expected more from Cody Rhodes' sit-down interview with Michael Cole tonight. Maybe it's because Bully Ray convinced me what exactly this needed to be for Rhodes to get back on the rails and get fans behind him again. Maybe it's because I half-expected Orton to appear out of nowhere and there to be a big, exciting backstage brawl or something. Whatever I expected, though, this wasn't it, and it fell really, really flat.

Cole started off with more of a thought than a question, saying that it's becoming a pattern that Rhodes can't "pull the trigger" on someone he cares about. Rhodes said he wasn't going to give any excuses, and he's proud of being "QB1," and despite not having the same team behind him as he did at WrestleMania 40, WWE is a big place with plenty of other teammates.

Rhodes did a lot of admitting things in this promo that really didn't do anything for me, like saying he should have realized everyone was going to stab him in the back, since it comes with the territory of being champion. The main part of this was Rhodes saying it's ridiculous everyone is discussing his morality, and he doesn't need to go down a "darker path," because he's gotten this far by being the same guy he's been since his return at WrestleMania 38. This felt like WWE just throwing it in fans' faces that Rhodes isn't turning heel, no matter what they say all over social media.

He did say, however, he'll do what he needs to do against Orton and not make the same mistake he made by not punting Orton in the head at Sunday Night's Main Event. It was a lot of talking, which Rhodes is certainly good at, but I didn't believe him. We've all seen Rhodes much more fired up than this, so it didn't land the way it should have.

Then, WWE went one step further (to annoy me, personally) by releasing a social media clip after "SmackDown," where Rhodes told Cole after the cameras cut that he was "going to kick Orton's f****** head off." Cole referenced the moment on commentary, so I figured this was coming, but I'm so sick of WWE furthering stories on X instead of TV.

Nothing about this did anything for me tonight, from the apparent confirmation Rhodes isn't turning heel anytime soon, to the sneaky footage posted after the fact, where he still wasn't fired up, or menacing, or anything, really. I'm assuming they're going to have another match at Money in the Bank, so there are a few more weeks of build, and hopefully, they're much hotter than this.

Written by Daisy Ruth

It's nigh-on impossible for Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to have a match that doesn't wind up in this side of the column, given all of the layered history and the fact that they are simply two of the best wrestlers on the planet. But tonight saw one more milestone in their saga as Zayn defended the WWE Championship against Owens in the main event.

The set up was brilliant, with Owens doing the one thing no one else has yet to master, remembering s***, to talk Nick Aldis in booking the match. He did get a little help from Zayn doing the one thing no one wants to master: letting his mouth run away with him and annoying Aldis just enough to compel the decision.

Zayn further sowed the seeds of Johnny Gargano's eventual interference in the match, telling him in a backstage segment that he will not get another shot at the title if he is not champion. The match itself was brilliant. Owens and Zayn are wrestling soulmates so it should come as no surprise that everything was fluid and structured in a way that just felt natural.

The crowd, much like myself, wanted Owens to win the match even if Zayn having a seven-day second title reign felt a little harsh. That fed into the emotion of the match, every near-fall releasing dopamine and building to its crescendo. Gargano interfered alongside Candice LeRae, a fever dream for any fan of PWG, but even still Owens survived. Then, of course, CM Punk returned and interfered, dropping Owens with the WWE title belt before getting dropped by Zayn, thus allowing the champion to take advantage and get the winning pinfall.

That is what would have happened had the referee decided to conclude the count, at least — Zayn had to put Owens down with another Helluva Kick for a rather awkward finish. The one black stain on the match and it unfortunately came right at the very end, the moment most people will remember first. But the match itself was perfectly worked, logical even with the interference we so often bemoan. The past few weeks have seen a noted difference with the names in the title picture and the quality delivered in the subsequent title matches. Zayn, Owens, Punk, and Gargano are all great workers and it's reflecting in the product. Here's hoping that just continues and extends to the rest of the card.

Written by Max Everett