WWE Smackdown (3/21/25)

WWE Smackdown

Unipol Arena

Bologna, Italy

March 21, 2025

Commentators: Joe Tessitore & Wade Barrett

Ring Announcer: Alicia Taylor

Last week in Barcelona we crowned new WWE Tag Team Champions as the Street Profitz upset DIY to take the straps. Gunther defeated Axiom in his native country and its all but assured it'll be Damian Priest vs Drew McIntyre. This week Zelina Vega takes on Chelsea Green's bodyguard Piper Niven, CM Punk, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns will have a powwow, Jacob Fatu takes on Braun Strowman and we'll get more Wrestlemania hype for sure. Let's get the show started.

Joe Tessitore welcomes us to Bologna, Italy and we're 29 days away from Wrestlemania 41. Jade Cargill is in action against Liv Morgan (with Raquel Rodriguez in tow) and we also get Jacob Fatu (with Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga) against Braun Strowman. CM Punk is here too but before anything happens, here comes Randy Orton for a conference. The crowd sings his entire song as he makes his entrance. We get a highlight of Randy Orton defeating Carmelo Hayes last week and lining up to give him the punt until he spotted Kevin Owens. Before Randy can say anything, here comes Owens himself in an RKO t-shirt. Owens says he's there to say he was wrong for attacking him. He says that Orton didn't deserve it the same way Sami Zayn and Cody Rhodes did. Owens says he was mad that Orton took Cody's side and it made him angry and Orton knows all about letting anger get to them. Owens says he can forgive him for picking Cody's side if Orton can forgive him and he wants to move on. KO goes on to say he pulled Melo out of the ring last week to protect Randy from himself because he didn't want Orton to go back to 2009. Owens says to look to the future and at Wrestlemania they should go after the tag team championships together. Orton says he should come out there and kick his ass all over the arena and tells KO to shove his apology up his ass. Orton says Owens deserves a kick to the head and he went from "Fight Owens, Fight" to "Bitch, Owens Bitch". Orton says he hears voices in his head, they counsel him, they understand and whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas because at Wrestlemania, Orton's going to kick his head clean off his shoulders. Interesting promo as Kevin Owens pretty much figured out he unleashed a dormant monster and tried to stop it before it got worse. Wade Barrett on commentary confirms that Owens has no idea what he's done.

We're shown a highlight of Drew McIntyre attacking Damian Priest last week during his match with Shinsuke Nakamura. We got a tag match out of it and its next.

Match 1

Damian Priest and Jimmy Uso vs Shinsuke Nakamura and Drew McIntyre

Priest doesn't wait and attacks Drew in the aisle way but Shinsuke joins in for a two on one. Jimmy dives over the top and lands on both heels with Damian moving out of the way. Priest rolls Drew inside and the bell rings. Jimmy rallies with right hands and a superkick to the ribs. Jimmy upercuts Drew, ducks a line and chops Drew into the corner. Drew catches Jimmy in mid-air and hits an overhead suplex. Drew chokes Jimmy with his boot but Jimmy hits a jawbreaker. Nakamura tags in but Jimmy drops Shin off the apron. Nakamura trips Jimmy up and jump kicks Uso over the announce table before putting him on the apron. Shin hits a running knee on the apron and a knee to the ribs back inside. Shin covers for 1...2..no. Nakamura tags in Drew who chops Jimmy in the corner. Drew stomps on Jimmy's hand and applies an arm-bar. Drew throws Jimmy down and knocks Priest off the apron before delivering a suplex. Jimmy rallies with chops but gets dropped with a back elbow smash. Drew re-applies the arm-bar but Drew stops to drop Priest off the apron again. The distraction helps Jimmy hit a Samoan drop, forcing Drew to tag Nakamura. Shinsuke eats an enziguiri and Priest gets the hot tag. Priest goes to town on Shinsuke dropping him several times. Priest walks the top rope and hits a cross body. Priest calls for South of Heaven but Nakamura hits a spinning heel kick. Priest clotheslines Nakamura out of his shoes and covers for 1...2..no, Drew makes the save. Jimmy superkicks McIntyre out of the ring but Jimmy is sent flying by Shinsuke. Shinsuke turns around into South of Heaven and Priest covers for 1...2...3 to win the match. Formulaic but the crowd loved Priest's comeback. Shinsuke and Jimmy were just window dressing as its Priest/McIntyre going into Wrestlemania.

Time of match: 7:43

Winners: Uso and Priest by pinfall

The celebration is short lived as McIntyre attacks Priest from behind after the bell. McIntyre punches away at Priest and says he's coming for him every time he sees him. Drew pounds away at Priest and calls for the Claymore. Drew hits it and says he's going to put Priest down until he stays down at Wrestlemania.

We cut to Braun Strowman working out before his match and WWE United States Champion LA Knight walks in to wish him luck. LA says they have the numbers advantage so he's got Braun's back in the match. Braun says the match is a number one contender's match for the US title and Knight says "YEAHHH". Was wondering what LA Knight was going to do at Wrestlemania, here's our answer.

We cut to Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair's brawl lest week and we go to a split screen interview with Charlotte and Tiffany after a commercial. Tessitore asks Tiffany first what her mindset is and Charlotte says "the queen speaks first" and Charlotte says she had a hard time buying Tiffany as a threat. Charlotte says Tiffany is compared to her but she only THINKS she compares to her, she's not that special. Tiffany says she's the champ and Charlotte non-chalantly says "By cash in?" Charlotte calls her delusional and at Wrestlemania 41 it will be the pinnacle of Tiffany's career but just another stepping stone for her. Charlotte calls her undeserving and Tiffany says Charlotte was her supporter and she looked up to her. Tiffany says she saw the real Charlotte as Charlotte mocks her saying she almost had a tear. Charlotte says she was a star in the making but said that because she had to. Tiffany says Charlotte has a habit of finding the hottest thing and throwing water on it and Charlotte says Tiffany has never been across from her, only underneath struggling. Tiffany says Charlotte is struggling because fans don't want her and Charlotte nonchalantly says wooing or booing they still react. Tiffany says she has her whole career to match Charlotte's accolades and Flair counters she'll be lucky to have a job at her age (she turns 39 in April). Tiffany says she's going to cement that the Universe runs on Tiffy Time and we cut here. Tiffany got absolutely SPANKED here and Charlotte countered everything she said like it was nothing. If Tiffany had to read off a script, that was totally unfair because Charlotte was ready. Still, it adds to the underdog vs queen storyline. Jacob Fatu makes his way to the ring alone (for now) for the next match. Tessitore says this is a match fans will drool over as we go to break. Back from commercial Wade Barrett shouts that Strowman is "ONE BIG S.O.BBBBBBBBBB"

Match 2

Braun Strowman vs Jacob Fatu

This is going to be a hoss fight and a half. Strowman gives him the crotch chop as the bell rings. Joe says January 25th on Saturday Night's Main Event was the start of this as Braun bumrushes Jacob into the corner to start. Braun headbutts him to no avail but misses a charge in the corner. Fatu shoulderblocks him in the corner and hits a headbutt of his own. Braun shoulderblocks him down but a charge in the corner eats boot. Braun backdrops Jacob and clotheslines him over the top rope to the floor. Braun throws Jacob inside and boots him in the head as Barrett says keep Fatu away from him. Strowman sends Jacob into the corner as Tessitore calls Braun the conductor of an Italian opera. Fatu bails and Strowman goes for the pain train, only for Fatu to throw him over the empty announce desk. Jacob hits a jumping clothesline from the apron and rams Braun into the announce table. Fatu headbutts Strowman outside but Braun rallies with a right hand. Strowman sends Fatu into the ring steps and rolls back inside to cater to the crowd. Fatu limps around before being thrown back in the ring. Fatu's Samoan drop is countered but Fatu hits a dropkick to the knee followed by a running clothesline. Fatu taunts him to get up and applies a nerve hold. Braun powers out of it but Jacob headbutts him down. Jacob hits a superkick, pop-up Samoan drop and a running senton. Fatu covers for 1...2...no. Braun crawls to the corner and Fatu hits the Umaga. He splashes Strowman in the corner but Strowman rallies with a big clothesline of his own. Strowman rallies with right hands, two clotheslines and a Samoan spike (!!) of his own. Braun rips his own shirt off and calls for the Pain Train. Braun runs over Fatu who goes spiraling over the announce table. Braun rolls Fatu inside, ducks the line and hits a spinebuster. Uh oh, here comes Tama Tonga who Braun cuts off. Solo Sikoa comes from behind to hit the Samoan spike for the DQ. That was a fun hoss fight but monumentally stupid of Solo & Tama to run in since it cost Jacob a US title shot. Guess Jacob doesn't care.

Time of match: 9:21

Winner: Strowman by DQ

Post-match beatdown has Solo and Tama beating down Strowman but Jacob doesn't like it. Solo orders Jacob to join in and Jacob reluctantly joins in. Help is on the way as here comes LA Knight. Knight knocks down Tama and punches away at the others. Jacob misses a charge in the corner and Strowman cleans house as Knight & Braun stand tall. Tessitore says Strowman is now number one contender for the title and they're going one on one next week. In the ring Strowman reminds Knight he's coming for the belt and Knight is just fine with that.

We cut to Cathy Kelley with the women's tag champs Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan. Cathy asks why she still has an issue with Jade when Naomi was the attacker. Liv says all this time Jade let everyone believe they attacked her when she could have told everyone a while ago (true). Liv runs down Bianca Belair and Jade then says she'll finish the job that Naomi couldn't. Raquel messes with Cathy's hair as she leaves...ha!

We get a graphic for the conference between Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and CM Punk later as Piper Niven makes her entrance for the next match as we go to break. Back from commercial we get a graphic of the end of the last match before cutting to an irate Jacob Fatu kicking things over. Fatu is mad they cost him a title shot and Solo says they're just trying to help. Fatu tells him he's taking care of himself "Uce" and to watch it. Ooooh, dissention in the ranks. It would make sense to have Solo vs Jacob at Wrestlemania to finally split the new Bloodline. We cut to Italian rapper Anna in the crowd as Zelina Vega enters to no pop.

Match 3

Piper Niven (with Alba Fyre and Chelsea Green) vs Zelina Vega

Vega wants a piece of Green but Piper said she had to go through her first, so here we are. Bell's gone and Piper towers over her. Zelina gets in the first slap and Piper throws her into the corner. Piper misses a charge and Zelina goes for an O'Connor Roll...bad idea. She does avoid an elbow drop and sends her into the corner. Zelina goes for Code Red but Piper shoves her off. Piper no-sells a whip and drops her twice with shoulderblocks. A third shoulderblock drops Zelina as Barrett brings up Chelsea's victory over Sol Ruca on NXT on Tuesday. Niven throws Zelina outside but Zelina jumps on her back inside with a sleeperhold. Piper just heaves her down and stomps on her. Piper goes for the Vader Bomb but Zelina pulls her off and rallies with forearms. Zelina hops on the second rope and hits forearms, taunting Chelsea and Alba. Zelina runs into a Bossman slam as we go to break. Back from commercial, Vega rolls up Piper for 1...2..no. Piper shoves her down then sends her into the corner. Piper heaves Zelina into another corner as Barrett says Vega is an anime fan. Niven taunts the irate crowd as Barrett pledges allegiance to Chelsea much to Joe's dismay. Barrett "She's the Champion of the United States, including us." Niven applies a Million Dollar Dream and a Glasgow Kiss. Joe mocks Chelsea and Barrett as Niven taunts the crowd again. Niven goes for a powerslam but Zelina slinks out of it. Niven hits a big right hand and goes for a gorilla press slam. Zelina reverses it into a chinlock until Niven backs her into the corner. Zelina goes for an Octopus hold according to Barrett then sunset flips for 1..2...no. Zelina hits a forearm and covers for another two count. Zelina hits a spinning back elbow and double knees into the corner. Zelina goes up top and hits the double knees to the ground, covering for 1...2...no. Zelina goes for the code red but its blocked. Zelina then hits a tornado DDT and covers for 1...2..no. Chelsea hops up on the apron and gets decked for her trouble. Zelina hits 619 on Piper and kicks Fyre in the head. She turns around right into a crossbody by Niven for 1...2...3 to win the match. Not the best cat and mouse match but hell of an effort for Zelina to essentially fight 1 on 3. She might be in the plans for a push.

Time of match: 12:15

Winner: Niven by pinfall

Back from commercial we get our road to Clash In Paris this coming August. Then we get a long recap of John Cena's epic promo from Monday and Cody's response. The best was the little kid that Cena singled out, there's a future villain arc. We get breaking news that Randy Orton will indeed face Kevin Owens at Wrestlemania 41. We cut to Jade Cargill with Cathy Kelley who apologizes for last week and asks if she's ready to face Liv. Jade says Liv wants to try it but she'll show her, and then when she's done with Liv she's coming for Naomi. Jade says tonight is a preview of what she does to Naomi.

Back from commercial we get the number 4 in the smoke vignette but at the last second the smoke reveals a 3 behind it. If this is a countdown, we got 3 weeks to figure out what this all means. On to the next match.

Match 4

Liv Morgan (with Raquel Rodriguez) vs Jade Cargill

Morgan interrupted Jade's interview last week and we got this showdown this week. Tessitore and Barrett bicker during Jade's intro about Liv & Raquel. Bell's gone and Liv runs right into a big boot. Jade caters to the crowd and taunts Raquel, backing her down. Liv from behind gets a right hand and is sent into the barricade. Jade heaves Liv into the ring and poses for the crowd. ObLivion is blocked and Liv misses an enziguiri. Jade misses a pump kick but blocks the Codebreaker. Jade hits a fallaway slam as Joe says Jade hadn't had a singles match since August 9th. Liv and Raquel go to leave but Jade chases after them and knocks Liv down. Jade throws Liv in the ring but misses a charge in the corner. Liv runs right into a powerbomb and Jade stacks her for 1...2...no. Raquel distracts Jade who hits the backstabber before sending her into the ring post. Jade falls out of the ring as we go to break. Back from commercial Liv has Jade in a chinlock, until Jade powers out of it. Tessitore says Liv Morgan had an amazing 2024 and she hits the 3 Amigos. Liv does the Eddie Guerrero pose and hits a shining wizard, but Oblivion is blocked. Jade german suplexes Liv and kips up. Jade rallies with shoulderblocks and a siperkick. Jade hits 2 running back elbows and a spinebuster, but doesn't cover immediately. Jade pulls Liv up and hits the F-5 (!!!) and covers for 1..2...no. Wade says Jade took too long to cover but here's Naomi for the distraction. Jade blocks ObLivion as Raquel hops up on the apron, allowing Naomi to clock Jade with a tag belt with the ref distracted. Liv hits ObLIvion and covers for 1..2...3 to win the match. That was Jade's first pinfall loss since her debut at the 2024 Rumble. Good cat and mouse act but just like Zelina, the numbers game is too much.

Time of match: 10:11

Winner: Morgan by pinfall

Naomi beats down Jade after the match as Wade says "Since 2008 I have never once seen this side of her, what the HELL??" Guess he missed her 2015 heel turn. Naomi throws Jade off the apron into the announce table in a call back to Jade getting thrown into the car. Naomi poses to a chorus of boos and that was desperately needed to make Naomi look strong for once. 

We get a highlight of McIntyre's attack on Priest before we cut to him leaving. Cathy Kelley walks up and asks what he's doing and Drew says Priest was a vulture picking at the bones the past year. Drew says Priest is as tough as he is stupid and if they want to fight, he'll be in London next week. Drew goes to leave but Seth Rollins walks up and smiles at him. 

We cut to a highlight of the Street Profitz winning the tag straps last week and they're up next for a pow-wow. We're shown "Signs of The Night" and Barrett wants to see the Liv-A Lisa as we go to break. Back from commercial, here come the Street Profitz for a soliloquy. The crowd chants "You deserve it" and Joe agrees. Ford says he's got news, the Profitz are the champions for the first time in four years.  Ford starts an "Ay, ay, ay" chant and Dawkins says its about damn time. Dawkins says they've been doubting themselves, questioning each other and....."you deserve it" breaks out again. Dawkins says it was all worth it and Ford says he can always count on him. Uh oh! That's usually a kiss of death. They hug it out and Legada Fantasma comes out. Santos Escobar cuts a promo in Italian much to the crowd's delight and congratulates them in English. Escobar says Los Garza are pissed but they're ready to take the titles off the Profitz. Cue Pretty Deadly where Kit Wilson says Santos can run his mouth but they're the number one contenders. Elton Prince tells them to step aside but Santos refuses. He says this is personal and to stay out of it. Ford "Woah woah woah woah woah woah". Ford says Deadly has their title shots but if Los Garza wants to go, let's go. Ford and Dawkins want the smoke much to the crowd's delight as we go to break. Back from commercial we get the orange luchador vignette which is clearly Ray Fenix about to make his debut.

Match 5

Los Garza (Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo) with Santos Escobar vs Street Profitz (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) for the WWE Tag Team Championship

We're joined in progress with Ford hitting a rolling frog splash and covers for a 1 count on Garza. Ford hits a running knee but Garza chops out of it. Carrillo tags in who hits a dropkick and taunts the irate crowd. Berto chops Ford and tags in Garza for the Unit Slam. Garza taunts the crowd and tears his pants off, throwing them at Dawkins. Joe "He may regret that." Garza puts Ford on the second rope and pounds away with forearms then puts him in the tree of woe. Berto tags in to kick away before Ford gets the hot tag to Dawkins. Angelo hits the stinger splash on Berto but Escobar pulls the top rope down to send Dawkins to the floor. Carrillo hits a suicide dive as we go to break. Back from commercial, Garza has Dawkins in a surfboard as Escobar poses on the floor. Garza dropkicks Dawkins and covers for 1...2..no. Garza and Berto double team Dawkins and Berto covers for 1...2...no. Berto hits a scoop slam and taunts Ford. Carrillo hits a standing moonsault and tags out to Garza. Angel kicks him in the inner thigh and cheap shots Montez for good measure. Garza and Berto hit a Garza Special (Gory Special/Diamond Dust) and covers for 1....2..no, Ford stops the count. Dawkins drops Berto and gets the hot tag to Ford. Montez drops both members then clotheslines Berto down. Ford punches Berto on the apron and goes up top. He misses a top rope splash but hits a spinebuster, covering for 1...2..no. Ford goes up top again but Garza is kicked off. Berto kicks Ford and all three men go up top. They go for FTY but Ford just lands on his feet and turns slowly to look at them with the crowd in a frenzy. Here comes Dawkins to drop Garza with a big right hand as Ford hits a superplex on Carrillo. Ford covers for 1...2..no. Berto tags in Garza but Dawkins tags in as well. Dawkins hits sky high on Garza and backdrops Berto to the floor. Escobar hops up and is sent off for his troubles. Dawkins hits a hilo over the top onto all three members of Fantasma. While he was in mid-air, Ford made a blind tag. Garza rolls into the ring unaware and Ford hits the frog splash, covering for 1..2...3 to win the match. Decent match with the Profitz possibly heading into Wrestlemania as the tag champs. I said it before but when the inevitable split happens, Carrillo would be a heck of a babyface against Angel Garza.

Time of match: 14:32

Winners: Profitz by pinfall (still Tag Team Champions)

We're shown Paul Heyman arriving to the arena who pats the cameraman as we go to break. Back from commercial we're shown HHH's Hall of Fame video with his quad tear/MSG comeback highlighted. Its been debated for the last 24 years what his role would have been in the Alliance angle. We cut to DIY giving Pretty Deadly shit. Kit and Prince says they got a title shot next week in London. DIY says they'll help them win the titles for a title shot in return. Wilson and Prince tell them no and walk off. Motor City Machine Guns walk up and says welcome to the back of the line. Sabin and Shelley say they want DIY before they leave with DIY arguing.

Next week it'll be the Street Profitz against Pretty Deadly and LA Knight defends the US title against Braun Strowman. Here comes Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman in tow. The Italian crowd sings a football chant and Roman waits for them to stop before they go into an "OTC" chant. When that stops, Roman wants his acknowledgement and says he loves the crowd. Roman says Punk screwed him at the Royal Rumble so he screwed CM Punk in the cage match. He says Seth Rollins tried to kill him and he tried to kill him in return. Way to admit attempted murder on national television. Roman says he's going to be here for 20 minutes so if anyone wants some, come get some. Right on cue here's Seth Rollins wearing one of the finest blue sleeping bags you'll ever see. Rollins grabs a mic and conducts the crowd like he's Arturo Toscanini. He says Reigns messed up because he doesn't understand how dangerous CM Punk is. Seth says Roman should have let him finish Punk when he had the chance. Seth says it was never about him to Roman, it was about the two of them just like always. Seth says they can't co-exist at the same space and their story has a lot of pages written, and its about time they added another chapter. Seth opens his jacket but here comes CM Punk for a rebuttal. Punk climbs to the top rope and says this right hand isn't taped up to hold the mic but its time for facts. He calls them Chief and Grimmace and says neither of them have beaten him without the other's help. Punk says the Rumble was every man for himself and Heyman should have told him that. He says he saved his families ass in Wargames and is still owed a favor by Paul. He thanks Heyman for delivering Roman on a silver platter and Roman looks at Heyman. Punk attacks Roman from behind and they roll around before Rollins gets him some of Punk. Roman heaves Rollins off and its a three way brawl. Referee Ryan Tran tries to separate them as Wade Barrett says there's no way one man can stop this. Here comes the refs, security and Suit Brigade to stop them. Punk stands on the announce table with Hurricane Helms telling him to back off. Punk points to the Wrestlemania sign which causes Heyman to say no. Rollins bumrushes Punk but Roman Reigns uses the steel steps to drop both of them. Its utter chaos as the show comes to an end.

We're getting closer to Wrestlemania and now we're getting matches. Kevin Owens vs Randy Orton is confirmed with Priest vs McIntyre as well as the triple threat all but assured. We might get Jade vs Naomi as well. These 5 match cards for 3 hour shows are brutal but its Wrestlemania season. Next week we got Pretty Deadly vs Street Profitz and LA Knight vs Braun Strowman. As for this show, the crowd was hot except for Zelina Vega and the matches were good....just too much talk around them. Still, its all about Wrestlemania and the matches look great. The next show after this is Monday's Raw in Glasgow, Scotland. I'll see you there.