Friday Night SmackDown aired this week from inside the SAP Center in San Jose, California, two weeks away from WrestleMania 42.
After the events of this week’s Raw, where IYO SKY was attacked by Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab, Rhea Ripley would arrive to SmackDown to address what happened on Monday night. Ripley said congratulations to Jade, as the WWE Women’s Champion finally used her brain for something and managed to find her one and only weakness. Now, it’s not about receipts or titles, because she’s made this real personal by attacking IYO, challenging Jade to come out so she could whoop her ass.
However, it was IYO SKY made her way out, still hurt as Ripley wondered what she was doing. SKY knows that Rhea is angry, and so is she. Jade attacked her, and she knows Rhea will get her at WrestleMania, but SKY wants to face her tonight. Ripley says she trusts her, but she isn’t 100 percent after Monday, believing she can handle it. General manager Nick Aldis soon arrived to give IYO her match, which would be the main event.
With four teams vying for the Women’s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania, the first match of the night pitted hometown hero Bayley going up against Alexa Bliss, with Lyra Valkyria and Charlotte Flair accompanying them.
The former rivals tried to one-up each other throughout the match. Flair, who was rooting heavily for Bliss, got involved near the end as the action spilled to the outside, with Bayley hitting some Flair-inspired chops to Bliss before throwing her back into the ring as well as mocking Ric Flair’s walk. Flair threw her jacket at Bayley in response, distracting The Role Model and helping Bliss win via roll-up.
During a backstage segment with WWE Tag Team Champions R-Truth and Damian Priest, sounds of a scuffle were heard, and it wasn’t long before B-Fab fell to the ground, flat like a pancake, after being thrown by Rhea into a crate. Ripley then told Priest “two down, one to go”, implying that she attacked Michin off-screen as well. Turns out, Michin was laid out and writhing in pain before the main event, telling Jade it was at the hands of Rhea.
IYO was backstage, now getting ready for the main event match when Ripley walked up to her, saying she couldn’t just stand by and let Michin and B-Fab be, so she took them out, leaving Jade for SKY. SKY thanks her, but advises her to stay in the back, wanting no distractions, which Ripley agrees with so long as SKY leaves some Jade beatings for her at WrestleMania.
The match began with SKY bringing it to Cargill immediately, although The Storm took advantage throughout the commercial break. Trying to apply a rear naked choke on Cargill, SKY almost found herself on the losing end of the match but remained quick in her offense; a punt kick followed by Jaded would lead to a Jade victory. Soon grabbing a steel chair to continue hurting SKY, Rhea rushed into the ring to stop her. Cargill walked away in a boastful mood as the show went off the air.
Friday Night SmackDown airs next week from inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with the special “WrestleMania SmackDown” branding, although no women’s matches are currently advertised as of this writing. Following the show, the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame will air at 12 a.m. from the Dolby Live at Park MGM venue with Stephanie McMahon as one of this year’s inductees.
WrestleMania 42 will stream live on Saturday, April 18th and Sunday, April 19th at 6 p.m. Eastern Time (3 p.m. Pacific) on the ESPN app for viewers in the United States and on Netflix in other countries; the first hour of the events will also air on ESPN2 and the ESPN cable network. The women’s matches for the show are as follows:
Night One – Saturday, April 18
Women’s World Championship: Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan
Women’s Intercontinental Championship: AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch
Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal 4-Way Match: The Irresistible Forces (Nia Jax & Lash Legend) (c) vs. Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs. The Bella Twins (Nikki and Brie)
Night Two – Sunday, April 19
Women’s Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s edition of SmackDown in the comments below.