WWE SmackDown live results: Pat McAfee speaks
On last week’s SmackDown, Pat McAfee revealed himself as Randy Orton’s mystery caller as he aligned with Orton to attack Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. McAfee claimed that he wanted to restore the Attitude Era to its former glory as the reason why he chose to help Orton.
Tonight, McAfee has promised he has a “huge surprise,’ though Rhodes will certainly be looking for a bit of revenge against him as WrestleMania 42 looms closer with only a week to goo.
Also tonight, ahead of his unsanctioned match against Jacob Fatu, Drew McIntyre has promised to reveal to the world “the real” Fatu.
Royce Keys is set to officially make his debut on SmackDown tonight after last appearing in the 2026 Royal Rumble and a few Main Event matches.
On Friday afternoon, WWE also announced that Rhea Ripley will be on tonight’s show. She is set to address Jade Cargill’s attack on IYO SKY.
Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern.
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– Joe Tessitore welcomed us to tonight’s show as he set the stage for WrestleMania 42 next week. We then got a recap of last week’s series of events featuring Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Pat McAfee. Following that, we saw Rhodes walking backstage and asking Nick Aldis where Pat McAfee is. Rhodes was told by Aldis to not go after Pat McAfee, under strict orders from above (i.e. TKO management). Jelly Roll showed up and was looking for Orton and McAfee, and was told the same thing by Aldis. Jelly then told Rhodes that this wasn’t about McAfee or himself, but twenty years of friendship between Orton and Rhodes being flushed down the toilet. Jelly encouraged Rhodes to keep his focus.
Rhea Ripley opens SmackDown
Ripley got right down to business and said that Cargill made things personal by attacking IYO SKY on Raw this past Monday. Ripley challenged Cargill to come down and fight her. Instead, IYO SKY made her way down to the ring to talk to her friend. SKY wanted to face Cargill, and said that she’d talk to Nick Aldis if she had to for this match to get made.
Mr. Aldis showed up afterwards and decided to make it official as our main event tonight.
Just a standard main event set-up segment, not really much else to say. As for the opening bits with Cody Rhodes and Jelly Roll… I get the feeling we’ll be in for a long night and road to WrestleMania soon. Stay tuned…
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Bayley (w/ Lyra Valkyria) vs. Alexa Bliss (w/ Charlotte Flair)
Hometown heroine Bayley got loud cheers from the San Jose crowd as the match got underway. Bayley got ahead on Bliss with a sliding elbow, as she reversed an early Sister Abigail DDT attempt from Bliss. Nobody had the upper hand early on. In the corner, Bayley missed with a running knee attack as Bliss dodged at the last second. Bliss tepped on Bayley and pounded on her head with her boot, much to the disdain of the crowd. Bliss got a little cocky and ate a clothesline from Bayley, followed by the sliding dropkick to the outside. This took us into the commercial break.
We returned from break as Bliss leveled Bayley with a dropkick, followed by the modified Natural Selection for a near-fall. Bayley recovered and connected with the sunset flip right into the middle turnbuckle on Bliss. One, two… not yet. Bliss had Bayley trapped in the corner in a tree-of-woe position, and made no mistake with the dropkick. As Bliss headed to the top rope, Bayley tried to intercept her, but to no avail. Bliss connected with the tornado DDT for another near-fall.
Bayley countered another Sister Abigail DDT attempt from Bliss with the Bayley-to-Belly. Both women recovered and hit each other with furious strikes before it turned into an exchange of pin attempts. Bliss tried to get a rope-assisted pinfall, but the referee saw it. Another sunset flip into the turnbuckle from Bayley to Bliss, as the hometown favorite headed to the top rope and connected with the diving elbow. One, two…. 2.99999999!!!!!!!!!
Bliss rolled out of the ring and tried to catch her breath with Charlotte Flair, but Bayley went right after Bliss. Lyra Valkyria got into Flair’s face and argued, this allowed Bliss to get the sneaky roll-up pin and win.
Alexa Bliss def. Bayley via pinfall
Well, it just wouldn’t be WWE if they didn’t have the hometown hero eat the pin, I suppose. Otherwise a good enough match to start us off.
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– Carmelo Hayes was in the medical room as Trick Williams and Li’l Yachty showed up to taunt him. Hayes promised to go after Williams if he got past Sami Zayn at WrestleMania. After Hayes left, Matt Cardona had some words for Williams, and that led to a match between the two made.
– We got a video package from Drew McIntyre where he was speaking behind bars, to talk trash about Jacob Fatu’s checkered past. McIntyre insulted Fatu for “choosing” a life of crime over providing for his family. He promised to be Fatu’s judge, jury, and executioner at WrestleMania.
– Backstage, we saw Fatu watching McIntyre’s promo as he was asked about it. Fatu said that McIntyre was going to find out something, but he was interrupted by Solo Sikoa and the M.F.T.s. Sikoa mocked Fatu for being in the same place that he got his teeth knocked out all those months ago. Sikoa said that Tama Tonga was going to step up to Fatu, though Tama seemed to not be happy about it.
– We got a video package introducing us to Royce Keys, as he talked about his own past before heading to WWE. Keys stated that he wanted to be defined by where he was going rather than where he started from. Keys’ debut was said to be coming up next.
Royce Keys vs. Berto (w/ Angel)
Berto hit Keys in the back, but it wasn’t very effective. Keys responded with a fierce clothesline that crushed Berto before he lifted him from the ground with a powerslam. With Berto stunned in the corner, Keys tried to run, but Berto made a quick escape. Outside the ring, Angel provided a distraction for Berto to push Keys into the ringpost. Back in the ring, Berto landed a nice dropkick to Keys. Berto attempted a diving crossbody, but he was caught by Keys for the fallaway slam. Keys hoisted Berto on his shoulders for the running powerslam. Angel tried to run at Keys, but got hit with a clothesline. Straps were down and Keys hit his spinebuster for the win on his SmackDown debut.
Royce Keys def. Berto via pinfall
How they’ve not really used Royce Keys (fka Powerhouse Hobbs) since his Royal Rumble debut has been baffling, to say the least. Hopefully with this official debut, they use him more moving forward because Keys is too good of a talent to be just left on the sidelines the way he’s been so far.
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– Pat McAfee arrived at the arena and was told by Nick Aldis about the directives of not being touched. Jelly Roll confronted McAfee and demanded to know if he told Randy Orton to RKO him. Jelly got into McAfee’s face but was told to back off by Aldis as McAfee was off to address the crowd.
WWE SmackDown recapper. Former NXT PLE/WWE Saturday Night's Main Event/fill-in recapper.