A crazy day for WWE with over 20 roster releases, Fatal Influence joining the SmackDown roster, Blake Monroe being advertised as coming soon to the blue brand, and Tiffany Stratton winning the Women's United States Championship from Giulia is coming to a close, but not without yet another big announcement going down.
A vignette aired during the April 24, 2026 episode of Friday Night SmackDown to build hype for Ricky Saints, highlighting how he previously held the NXT Championship and NXT North American Championship, saying he would be making his debut as a new member of the SmackDown roster on next week's episode.
The May 1, 2026 episode will take place at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. While WWE did not mention who Ricky Saints would face in his debut match, they actually didn't even necessarily confirm he would be wrestling as the wording of "debuts" could be ambiguous enough to be left at a promo segment instead.
The only match even hinted at for next week's show, though also still not confirmed, is Charlotte Flair against Jacy Jayne.
On this episode, Jayne and the rest of Fatal Influence (Lainey Reid and Fallon Henley) attacked Flair, Alexa Bliss, Paige, and Brie Bella, interrupting their WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match. Fatal Influence also went after Rhea Ripley, beating her down in a 3-on-1 attack. Afterward, Ripley went to the medical bay to get checked on, having a confrontation with Bliss and Flair, who were currently being evaluated by the trainers. All of them are now rightfully upset with Fatal Influence, with Flair and Ripley getting in each other's faces about what they're going to do to fight back. Flair stormed off, saying she would get her hands on Jayne next week.
On top of this, it is now officially advertised that Roman Reigns will indeed be appearing on next week's episode of Monday Night Raw (April 27th), where he will answer the challenge that Jacob Fatu issued for a World Heavyweight Championship match at the upcoming WWE Backlash premium live event. Fatu defeated Solo Sikoa on tonight's SmackDown and singlehandedly took out the rest of the MFTs (Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and JC Mateo), proving to The Usos that he didn't need their help. He had also earlier in the night interacted with Jimmy and Jey, who were trying to convince him to join The Bloodline and go after Cody Rhodes instead, only for Fatu to reject that idea.