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WWE SmackDown 3/20/2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved
Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where announced matches between Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre can just be entirely scrapped because they won't stop fighting around the building! The WINC staff has some thoughts on that, along with the crowning of new tag team champions, an unexpected heel turn for Michin and B-Fab, and more! There are also things we don't have thoughts on, like the women's tag title match (which was fine) and the men's US title match (which ruled so hard we don't have anything to say about it beyond the fact that it ruled hard).
If you missed the show and need to catch up, as always, you can do so via our "SmackDown" results page. If you want to know what we thought about the parts of the program that stood out to us the most (for better or worse), here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 3/20/26 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"
Read more: WWE SmackDown Stars: Meet Their Wives & Girlfriends
Hated: Damian Priest & R-Truth as tag champs in 2026
Damian Priest and R-Truth would have been a great choice for WWE tag team champions. In like, 2024. You know, back when Truth thought he was in Judgment Day and Priest was kind of into it. That would have been the time to get me invested in a Priest/Truth tag team. Now? In the year of somebody's lord, 2026? All I can do is throw up my hands and ask if we're really doing this.
I'm not even upset that the MFTs lost the titles. The MFTs were terrible tag team champions. But there are so many better options in the "SmackDown" tag division, from the Motor City Machine Guns to Fraxiom to (assuming they get un-vanished from the Phantom Zone someday) the Street Profits. Hell, even Los Garza could benefit from a run with the titles. But no, WWE wants to stick the belts on a 54-year-old R-Truth — and not even the interesting version of himself he tried to be after getting fired, but the straight-up Ron Cena version of R-Truth? Nah, man. Priest honestly deserves better, but so does the entire rest of the division, and so does anyone still regularly watching "SmackDown."
Loved: MCMG has a storyline
If you're a regular reader of this column, you know that I regularly hate the booking of the men's tag team division and wasting talented teams so they can stand around backstage for dumb segments. Two of those teams, Motor City Machine Guns and Fraxiom, have broken free from the backstage area into the ring. Twice, in fact. A few weeks ago, Alex Shelley didn't get Chris Sabin's foot on the rope in time and they lost their match against Fraxiom. Since then, things have been tense between MCMG.
Last week, Shelley was talking to Candice LeRae to check up on Johnny Gargano. Sabin didn't understand why Shelley cares considering Gargano cost them the tag titles. Tonight, Shelley stopped briefly to check on them when Sabin ordered him to focus and head to the ring. During the closing moments of their rematch, Sabin shoved Nathan Frazier forward into the ropes. LeRae hit Frazer in the face, unbeknownst to Sabin. Sabin got the win and celebrated in the ring. Judging by the look on Shelley's face, he saw what happened and knows his partner is in the dark. Will Shelley tell his partner what happened?
It seemed that they were planting seeds of a split of the Guns, but perhaps it's something else. What if they are turning heel with LeRae managing them while her husband is struggling with his mental health? Or what if aligning with MCMG with The Wrestlings makes Gargano snap out of his funk? I wasn't into a split of Shelley and Sabin, mostly because WWE has sucked at booking them since they dropped the titles. But a heel MCMG is something I can get behind. They've had heel runs before in TNA and it was great. Do I trust WWE with a heel MCMG? No, but at least these two options are more entertaining than anything they've done in months. Now, just leave Axiom's mask out of it.
Written by Samantha Schipman
Hated: What's going on with Randy Orton?
Considering that I have just over a decade under my belt of watching professional wrestling, I can almost always decipher what the point of any given promo is or at least what it was supposed to be. I was completely lost when it came to what the point of Randy Orton's promo was supposed to be on this episode of "SmackDown".
I know that Orton talked about how much he loves sharing his love for the fans, but how he wants his legacy to be capturing 15 World Championships. I know that Orton talked about listening to the voices in his head last Friday. I know Orton talked about Cody Rhodes, the Undisputed Championship, and WrestleMania 42. However, when I put all of that together, I still have no idea what Orton or WWE was trying to get at. It didn't make any sense at all for me, and felt like Orton was rambling for the sake of rambling as a means of giving him more television time ahead of WrestleMania 42. This entire segment could've easily been more focused on Orton's reason for betraying Rhodes last week other than the "voices in his head", with years or months of pent up aggression being a far better reason for him turning on Rhodes in my opinion.
I also found that this segment muddied the waters a bit for me as to whether or not Orton was fully a heel character now. The sentiment of Orton wanting his legacy to be about gold screamed heel to me, but it was also offset by him talking about his love for the fans and his non-chalant demeanour throughout the entire promo. Overall, Orton's promo accomplished absolutely nothing at all and was very confusing to watch as a fan who had no idea what she was supposed to gain from any of this. And that's not even considering what happened between Orton and Matt Cardona at the end of the show!
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Loved: Some development within the MFTs
This week saw the MFTs lose the Tag Team titles to the pairing of R-Truth and Damian Priest, with the group having been attacked by the Wyatt Sicks as part of their wider feud, thus allowing Truth to hit the Attitude Adjustment and get the pinfall on JC Mateo. That is a little bit questionable, but seeing Truth win a title after all he went through last year is somewhat exciting.
The Wyatt Sicks and MFTs feud has been nothing short of coma-inducing boring, but Solo Sikoa insists on keeping the Wyatts' lantern, made out to be the one held by the late Bray Wyatt, so thus we continue on Road Ad Nauseam.
However, through that fog of question came a small glimmer of development for the faction once called the Bloodline. Tama Tonga, having been teased for an eventual pursuit of the United States Championship, was getting grilled by Sikoa for losing the titles alongside Mateo. Tonga told Sikoa he thought they should give back the lantern, given that it is a continued distraction and the Wyatts will never leave them alone without it.
Sikoa exploded, and prompted Tonga to continue questioning his leadership. He said that Sikoa was sounding more like Roman Reigns, which drew a hurtful shock from Sikoa as a result. But it is also interesting that the entire segment was shot with the group stood behind Tonga, and opposite Sikoa. They have more in common with Tonga when all is said and done, and with him getting an extended yet restrained presence in the United States picture, there feels like a plan to give him something, however that may come.
Given that the MFTs are always on TV and constantly marred by the Wyatts, it's good to see them given something else to handle. And it seems like there is going to be some form of internal conflict, which only really feels like a positive for Sikoa as well. The group is undoubtedly on the cusp of being stale, while almost always retaining some form of curiosity, and will take something to produce something great. But this is a start, at least.
Written by Max Everett
Hated: Michin alliance with Jade Cargill doesn't work, neither does promo
It really feels like WWE is throwing things at the wall to see what sticks ahead of WrestleMania 42, and tonight's heel turn of Michin and B-Fab felt like one of those things, albeit, what felt like a pretty minor thing in the grand scale of 'Mana excitement. Sure, we saw B-Fab talking to WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill in the background of another backstage segment last week, but I was sure that meant that she was going to turn heel and betray Michin.
I certainly didn't expect both of them to turn heel and align themselves with a woman they've been feuding with for months against her WrestleMania opponent, Rhea Ripley. Michin and Cargill just faced off in a match last week on "SmackDown." That's why, when we saw B-Fab speaking to the champion, just her heel turn to become the mouthpiece for Cargill made sense. Bringing Michin along with her lessens any possible future storylines.
But, perhaps "feud" is a strong word here. They've been catty to each other in plenty of backstage segments over recent months, but last Friday's match was actually the only one that Michin and Cargill have had against one another, officially. That feels really strange after how many weeks they've been at one another's throats backstage. But, I guess that's the story of Cargill's title reign: a whole lot of nothing.
In addition to this terrible heel turn, which seemed just like a turn for the sake of a turn, when it comes to Michin, at least, I also really disliked Cargill and Ripley's promo. I haven't thought any of their face-offs have been strong, and Cargill literally saying that she didn't need not just the championship, but didn't need professional wrestling to still be "that b****" was a bit too off course for me. I just don't think that's something you should be saying going in to a fight on "The Grandest Stage of Them All," especially ahead of one that's failing to garner much excitement. It may have been their best segment so far, but that doesn't mean it was any good.
None of this really worked for me tonight, and I can't say I'm excited at all to see Cargill vs. Ripley. With the way things went tonight, I'm nervous that Ripley won't actually win at 'Mania, now that Cargill has Michin and B-Fab alongside her to interfere, but, I guess only time will tell.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Loved: No official match for McIntyre & Fatu, but endless brawl brings the heat
It was reported ahead of "SmackDown" tonight that at least one previously advertised match wouldn't be going ahead, and when I read that, I automatically figured it would be Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre's one-on-one that was previously announced by General Manager Nick Aldis last week. And, while false advertising, for lack of a better term, isn't always my thing when it comes to wrestling shows, the all-out brawl between the two to get some heat leading into their reported (and obviously highly likely) WrestleMania match was fine by me. I was not a fan of many things tonight, but this was certainly one of them.
I like a good fight that continues on–and-off throughout the show. It means the brawlers really hate each other enough to continuously escape officials and security, and it's almost always extremely entertaining. WWE also didn't overdo the brawls tonight, surprisingly, and we got three good moments where McIntyre and Fatu were throwing hands.
The show started out with a car crash, quite literally, with McIntyre seemingly punching out Fatu's windshield before dragging him through it. It was a hot start that had Fatu bleeding, and McIntyre came out to air his grievances in the ring. Fatu put a stop to that, however, and hit a big splash to the former Undisputed WWE Champion through the announce desk. It was an exciting way to start out of the show, and I really enjoyed it.
Later on, you had them interrupted a tense moment between Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga, which worked, and the show was then bookended by another brawl segment, one where Nick Aldis and officials had to run back to the parking lot to catch them after dealing with Randy Orton in the ring. The urgency of the rush from that chaotic scene to another was exciting and actually felt meaningful. While Fatu and McIntyre falling off the transformer area, scaffolding... thing, was a little cheesy with the camera angle, it was a fun way to end the show.
Fatu and McIntyre's WrestleMania match has yet to officially be announced, but I like it. I've already basically forgotten about the pivot from McIntyre as champion back to Rhodes, and the fact that I really thought we'd be getting a triple threat match between these two and Rhodes for the gold at 'Mania, and I'm sure that's what WWE is going for at this point. Maybe I've just accepted what WWE has given me, but I want to see a McIntyre vs. Fatu stipulation match, probably a street fight, at WrestleMania. They work well together, and if tonight was any indication, that's going to be one hell of a match.
Written by Daisy Ruth
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