WWE Friday Night SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (April 4, 2025) with a live show emanating from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois, featuring all the latest build to the upcoming WrestleMania 41 extravaganza scheduled for later this month in Las Vegas.
Advertised for tonight: Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Seth Rollins will all be in town for the show once again, one week after signing the contract for their main event triple threat.
Plus, two number one contender matches! Jacob Fatu and Braun Strowman will meet to decide who is next to challenge for the United States championship while DIY battles the Motor City Machine Guns for the right to be next in line for the tag team titles. Elsewhere, Rey Fenix debuts, Naomi takes on B-Fab, and a whole lot more!
Come right back here at 8 pm ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on USA Network. It will be below this line here. (Note: Links to illegal streams are prohibited. Pics and GIFs are allowed.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR APRIL 4
Don’t complain about your personal hell, you should be grateful you don’t have to share one. Naturally, it’s starting to burn though, writing the circles of your inferno, but me? I’m just here to liveblog this pro wrestling show for you, folks.
The show opens with the usual montage of talent arriving at the arena.
We get a recap of the CM Punk/Roman Reigns/Seth Rollins triangle feud.
CM Punk makes his entrance and takes his sweet ol’ time soaking in the adoration of his hometown crowd.
He gets on the mic and says he was told the best audiences are overseas but he knew he was comin’ home to Chicago, and he grabs a camera from an operator and tells Chicago to let ‘em know. And that’s why they don’t listen to outside voices— little fact, he’s not supposed to be here.
Stop him if you heard it before, he was born with the cord around his neck and turned out blue, he’s not supposed to be here! He thanks the 16,000 of his hometown friends and family that are here tonight. Who’s gonna make him leave? Every time he laces his boots up or goes to the grocery store he does his business and nothing has changed.
He doesn’t know if you’ve heard, but he’s in the main event of WrestleMania, and he’s earned it. He started in the backyards of Chicago, trained at the Steel Domain, signed a contract here, paraded out dressed like Al Capone on John Cena’s gangster car and he was told he wasn’t supposed to be here every step of the way.
So he appreciates everyone congratulating him and wishing him luck as he goes through the airport and now the hard work begins. He is a product of this town and thanks each and every one of them but forgive him if he doesn’t thank his beautiful wife April first. She’s probably gonna be made at him for that, but his puppy Larry won’t be mad at him.
There’s way too many people to thank, who got him where he needed to be, but he figured the crowd was a good start, so from the bottom of his heart, thank you. He’s got a date at WrestleMania and he promises he’s gonna whip Seth Rollins’ ass and put a beating on Roman Reigns in the main event.
Enter Paul Heyman.
He apologizes for being late and assures everyone it was no disrespect to Chicago or his best friend, CM Punk. He says to ask not what you can do for your Wiseman but what your Wiseman can do for you, and he tells Punk that he belongs in this ring, in Chicago, and in the main event of WrestleMania.
The last time they stood inside this ring, he came up to CM because Solo Sikoa and company were breathing down his neck and he said “please take me with you” and then the next week they took him out for longer than he’s ever been out except the times he was fired, and then Punk took a beating from Drew McIntyre so severe in Hell in a Cell that he almost didn’t come back.
And then he came to CM and begged and pleaded for Punk to be the fifth in WarGames and Punk did it for him and saved the family, the match, and the Bloodline and he deserves all the credit in the world, and he thanks him, but if he’ll indulge him, he has one more favor to ask of him.
Punk asks what he can do for him, and Paul leans in and asks Punk to tell him the favor he wants of him, please. Roman is breathing down his neck and he wants to know and od you know what it’s like when these Samoans get angry? Punk gets confirmation that Roman isn’t here and tells Heyman he’d like to tell him at the same time he tells Roman, and to let him know when the Big Chief wants to show up next.
CM takes his leavea and Paul E sweats in the ring.
We get a hype reel for Rey Fenix and we go to break.
Nathan Frazer vs. Rey Fenix
Fast-paced feeling out, Frazer ducks a kick and falls all the way back in the ropes. Shot off, handspring, off the ropes, duck under, front kick, Fenix blasts him with a crescent kick! Couple of quick nearfalls, Hurricanrana… NOPE! Action to the floor, Nathan comes up short on a dive and Rey comes off the top on him as we go to break!
Back from commercial, jockeying for position in the turnbuckles, Frazer with a superplex, roll it into a Final Cut… SO CLOSE! Nathan goes for a Phoenix Splash, nobody home, high knee to the jaw gets him back in it but Fenix floats over a suplex and nails him with a dropkick and a ropewalk penalty kick… SOMEHOW NATHAN FRAZER KICKS OUT OF A FIRE THUNDER DRIVER THAT SPIKED HIM RIGHT ON HIS GODDAMN DOME?!
Frazer lands an enzuigiri but Fenix cuts him off with a kick, up in Muscle Buster position, swings it out into a Michinoku Driver… IT’S OVER!
Rey Fenix wins by pinfall with the Mexican Muscle Buster (hey, that’s what they called it)
Post-match, Byron Saxton interviews Fenix.
He thanks Chicago and says he has a lot of history here and tonight isn’t the debut of Rey Fenix, it’s so much more. Tonight he is rewarded with love and passion, with rich and animal, and he’s been waiting his whole career to say that he is WWE animal.
Santos Escobar lectures Los Garza about being more like Rey Fenix. Humberto Carrillo says Fenix is just a flying lizard and he’s better than him. Santos likes to see the fire out for him but asks him to show him in a singles match next week.
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, Drew McIntyre cuts a promo wearing an eyepatch, the gist of which is that nobody cares about him unless he’s stealing Drew’s thunder. He might never be the same with the glass in his eye, and he needs a miracle, so he’s going to pray, and everyone knows that bad things happen when Drew McIntyre prays.
Braun Strowman is interviewed backstage and he talks about how he’s gonna iwn the United States Championship and complete his grand slam.
Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga roll up.
Sikoa says he’s finished before he even gets started because he’s gotta go out there and face the Samoan Werewolf.
LA Knight rolls up to tell Solo to get his boys in order and Braun to get his eyes on the prize. He talks about how big his balls are and Tonga tells him he should be worried about him tonight. LA says he’s gonna stomp him out right now if he can just get a referee out here, and he makes his entrance to send us to break.
LA Knight vs. Tama Tonga
Feeling out, Tonga dropkick into the corner, big back elbow, Knight snaps off a suplex! Following it up with a big boot, putting boots to Tama in the corner, big hip attack sends Tonga to the floor! LA with a dropkick through the ropes, Solo Sioa and his velvet suit getting in his face but Knight chooses to just bounce Tonga off the announce desk a few times.
Back inside, Solo runs interference and Tama blasts Knight off the apron and into the desk and we go to break!
Back from commercial, big suplex from Tonga for two, Knight turning the pressure up, neckbreaker and a slam, People’s Elbow connects! BFT blocked, uppercut, a right hand to Sikoa, Tama almost steals it with a schoolboy pin! LA gets him…
LA Knight wins by pinfall with BFT.
Byron Saxton interviews Paul Heyman backstage.
Heyman berates him for bothering him and he starts talking to Byron before realizing that’s silly and he grabs the camera and says he’s on record as saying to CM Punk that no matter what the favor is, his answer is yes, so just tell him and get him out of the jam he’s in with his Tribal Chief.
Anything he wants, the answer is yes. Paul turns around and greets “his Tribal Chief” arriving in an SUV, but Seth Rollins gets out and has a good laugh about it. Oh, he was expecting the other Shield guy? He says he’s been thinking and boy Heyman dug himself into a hole with this favor thing, so he wants to be there when Punk explains the favor, too.
Charlotte Flair makes her entrance dressed like she just got accepted as the new Black Queen of the US branch of the Hellfire Club and we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get another of these smoky vignettes, this one featuring glimpses of some kind of magical circle.
Tiffany Stratton makes her entrance and gets in the ring for her face-to-face with Charlotte, moderated by Wade Barrett.
Flair crows about her reaction from the crowd and Stratton asks the crowd what time it is and gets a big “TIFFY TIME!” roar out of them. Charlotte says Tiffany was begging and she’s the gift that keeps giving,and every week that desperation leaks through and that’s why she picked Tiffany.
She wanted to show the smartest wrestling fans here in the world, right here in Chicago, that there is no comparison. Stratton says Charlotte’s greatest opponent has always been the fans and she’ll never win. And no matter how many titles she wins, she’ll always come second to her daddy, Ric Flair, and at WrestleMania she’ll come second to Tiffany Stratton.
It takes Charlotte a moment to speak above Chicago and ask if Tiffany thinks she’s the first to say she comes second to her dad. The booing continues to throw Flair off so much that it’s uncomfortable enough that she just lets Stratton have the last work. Tiffany says that Charlotte was trying to play volleyball and drinking in her daddy’s basement at 25, whereas she’s walking into WrestleMania as champion.
Flair says it’s just another match but she’s gotten to, and she might be the Queen inside the ring, but outside she ain’t the queen of shit. She calls Charlotte a nepo baby but Flair disagrees, saying she’s the nepo queen and she’s the number one nepo baby. Stratton gets another barb off and Charlotte asks if that’s why Ludwig Kaiser is in her DMs but Tiffany ignores it and keeps walking.
Nick Aldis has a major announcement in conjunction with Adam Pearce— next week there will be a #1 contender’s gauntlet match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, with the winner challenging Judgment Day at WrestleMania.
Street Profits make their entrance to send us to break.
#DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) (WWE Tag Team Championship #1 Contender’s Match)
Gargano and Sabin to start, back and forth, John gets frustrated and tags Ciampa in and Shelley comes in in turn. Double-teams, sending Tom to the floor, Alex slides out after and Ciampa leads him on a merry chase until he eats a Superman Spear from Gargano that sends us to break!
Back from commercial, Sabin dives on #DIY and throws Ciampa back inside, Tom tears the turnbuckle off but Chris rolls him up for two! Knee Trembler connects… PROJECT CIAMPA CAN’T KEEP CHRIS SABIN DOWN! Throwing Alex out of the ring, lining Sabin up, he rolls away and they stop short of Meet in the Middle! Sabin shoves Tom into John, a little Backseat Boyz sequence, up top for Skull and Bones but Gargano shoves Shelley off the turnbuckles!
Schoolboy from Ciampa with feet on the ropes but referee Charles Robinson catches him! He charges in, Sabin drops him into the turnbuckle…
Motor City Machine Guns win by pinfall with a schoolboy pin from Chris Sabin on Tommaso Ciampa, becoming #1 contenders to the WWE Tag Team Championship.
Post-match, MCMG jaw at the Street Profits in the front row.
Melo Don’t Miz roll up on Pretty Deadly and mock them for losing a title shot in their own country. PD offer their own jokes— The Marine 3, the Marine 4, the Marine 5… Miz asks how their musical is coming and they say they have a song about a guy who hasn’t been relevant in years called The Miz.
Miz talks up his tag success and they say he’s always got a newer, hotter model, like the Leonardo DiCaprio of tag teams. They accuse Melo Don’t Miz of not being a real tag team but that gets their dander up and they set up a match.
B-FAB makes her entrance, flanked by “Michin” Mia Yim, to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Naomi makes her entrance but Jade Cargill jumps her and beats her down until security arrives to pull Jade off of her!
B-FAB vs. Naomi
Match still on, we get a bell and B-FAB immediately hits a mat slam! Into the corner, smashing her face into the turnbuckles, whip across, reverse roundhouse in the corner, big boot for two! Naomi gets her in the Tree of Woe and swings her neck and back into the turnbuckles! Wrist control…
Naomi wins by pinfall with a wrist-clutch single-leg Codebreaker.
Post-match, Naomi asks Jade where she’s at because she’s still standing, and Jade appears from out of nowhere and lands a thrust kick! Chickenwings for Jaded but security arrives to pull her away!
Nick Aldis comes to the stage and says he’s had enough of this and there’s only one solution— Naomi vs. Jade Cargill AT WRESTLEMANIA!
Damian Priest cuts a promo as a rebuttal to Drew McIntyre’s narrative about him from earlier.
Kevin Owens is shown walking backstage to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Nick Aldis is in the ring and says this is one of the parts of his job that isn’t fun.
There’s a difference between coming back next week and everything’s fine and not knowing if you’ll ever be able to get in the ring again, and there’s a reason they say “don’t try this at home.” But he wants us to hear it from the man himself, and he introduces Kevin Owens.
Owens gets on the mic and says he’s been doing this for twenty-five years and in that time, he gave everything he had every time he stepped in the ring, and he’s gotten to live incredible things and experience things he’ll never forget, and take care of his family in ways he could never dream of.
But there’s a price to pay for that, and that’s the toll on their bodies, and now it seems like it’s his turn. The reality is, for the last four months he’s been dealing with a pretty serious neck injury and this week they figured it out, and now he has to go get neck surgery. So that’s what he’s gonna do, and the timing couldn’t be worse, because not getting to be in the ring with Randy Orton at WrestleMania really sucks.
He’s thankful for WWE for letting him come out and say it himself, because he doesn’t know when he’s gonna get to come out here again. The last few years he’s learned not to take anything for granted, and he’s learned not to take this for granted. So, for now, he wants to say thank you and he’s sorry.
On his way out, Randy Orton makes his entrance.
Kev holds his ground on the apron as Randy makes his way up to him and says something inaudible. Owens leaves but stops to seemingly confront a fan.
Orton is thoughtful in the ring and Aldis apologizes for him no longer having a match… AND RANDY DROPS HIM WITH AN RKO!
And so we go to break.
Braun Strowman vs. “Samoan Werewolf” Jacob Fatu (WWE United States Championship #1 Contender’s Last Man Standing Match)
Fighting on the floor, back inside, Fatu takes control and heads up top but Strowman pulls him right back down! Scoop, float over, into the ropes, Jacob with a superkick! Freight train elbow, double jump moonsault! A second moonsault! The monster gets up and we go to break!
Back from commercial, Werewolf with headbutts. both men are down and Braun rolls to the floor and gets a table as Fatu barely beats referee Aja Perera’s count! Table leaned in the corner, Strowman blasts Jacob with a boot! Braun to the floor and Fatu dives on him, sending him over the announce desk!
Samoan Werewolf charges in on the floor and Braun wraps a steel chair around his gosh darn head! Strowman Express sends both men crashing through the timekeeper’s barricade! And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, they’re out in the crowd, Strowman gets him on top of a stack of road cases… SUPLEX OFF THE CASES AND THROUGH A TABLE! Braun bleeding from the arm, crawling his way back to ringside, crawling back inside… FATU PUTS HIM THROUGH A TABLE WITH THE HIP ATTACK! Both men down and out, referee Perera counting, Jacob stirs at eight and pulls himself up! IT’S OVER!
Jacob Fatu wins by answering the standing ten count when Braun Strowman could not, becoming #1 contender to the WWE United States Championship.
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial we get a recap of last week’s John Cena / Cody Rhodes segment.
Commentary hypes up next week’s show.
Byron Saxton interviews Paul Heyman and is told simply that Roman Reigns is arriving soon, and we go to break.
Back from commercial, an SUV rolls up and Roman gets out, ignoring Paul Heyman and making his way directly towards his entrance.
Reigns asks Chicago to acknowledge him and asks his Wiseman if he is here. Heyman says he is, and the crowd responds with thunderous “CM Punk!” chants. Roman asks if Punk is still talking about this favor, and Paul says he is. Reigns asks if he should share a secret, and Paul says he should, and Roman says CM Punk wouldn’t even be back here if it wasn’t for him.
He wouldn’t be in the main event of WrestleMania if it wasn’t for him, and he gets it, he’s from the same city and they’re good people but they’re not that smart. CM Punk’s been around forever and wrestled everyone under the sun but he’s never been in that main event of WrestleMania.
Not until he was introduced to the Tribal Chief. The crowd chants for him and Roman asks Punk to come on down and indulge his Tribal Chief as to what this favor is.
Instead, we get Seth Rollins.
He says Roman doesn’t like living in reality and cites a few examples of WrestleManias where things went wrong for him. He says Reigns underestimates CM Punk and thinks if he ignores him he’ll just go away and that doesn’t work. Could have stopped it in WarGames, could have stopped it in the Garden, and he didn’t and now we’re waiting on this favor.
Reigns fires back and says Seth doesn’t understand loyalty but he keeps his word, and he didn’t call Seth down here, he called Punk down here. Rollins says he’s out here to hear from CM Punk too, so there’s only one thing missing.
Enter CM Punk.
Punk gets on the mic and circles around the favor, saying it’s about friendship, legacy, promises made, promises kept, and loyalty. This goes back to Louisville Kentucky and OVW and they told Paul that Punk doesn’t belong and he should fire him, but he said no. Paul truly is a wise man, and he prophesied this on national TV.
Hell even before that, on the day Paul left this company on Big Show’s bus, the three of them and Rob Van Dam talking amongst themselves and he made it about him, Paul they’re gonna fire me, Paul don’t leave, and he said no no no, you’ll be fine. Punk apologized for making it about him and asked what he can do, and Heyman said WHEN you main event WrestleMania, force them to deal with US.
Well THEY aren’t here anymore, so he’s gonna force the Tribal Chief to deal with them, out of his comfort zone. Because at WrestleMania, in the main event, in Punk’s corner, his Wiseman, Punk’s best friend, Paul Heyman.
Reigns looks distraught as a shit-eating grin spreads across Seth’s face. Roman looks away and then loosk back, asking if that’s really the favor. He laughs it off and Punk looks steel-eyed at him. Roman says Paul loves him and needs him and he saved him, and even if he let him, he wouldn’t.
He asks his Wiseman to let this desperate fool down easy. Paul E, red-eyed, looks at him conflicted, about to cry, unable to bring the mic to his mouth or force the words out. Reigns asks if he’s crying and says he better wipe ‘em up and tell him no. The words start pouring out off-mind and Roman says he took Paul in and made him relevant, tell him no.
Clarity comes across Heyman’s face and he wipes the tears from his eyes. Roman says he’s gonna give him one more opportunity to tell Punk no, and Heyman lifts the microphone to his mouth and says he can’t do that. Rollins falls to his knees laughing, Roman gets Paul in the corner and CM blindsides the Tribal Chief… GO TO SLEEP!
Punk squares up with Rollins now, Roman losing himself crying, Heyman screaming “no” in withered agony, and Seth takes his leave as Punk does the Go to Sleep taunt down the barrel of the camera.
That’s the show, folks.
