Next week's episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown will take place on April 11, 2025 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington, and it will feature at least one major match that has implications for WWE WrestleMania 41.
That is because it was announced on tonight's episode by SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis that there will be a cross-promotional match between the blue brand and the WWE Superstars on the Monday Night Raw roster wherein six different women's tag teams will compete in a special gauntlet match to determine who gets a shot at the current champions, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez of The Judgment Day, for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
The card is always subject to change, but at least as far as the graphic was concerned, the announced tag teams competing in this gauntlet match will be Katana Chance and Kayden Carter, Women's Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria and Bayley, Pure Fusion Collective (Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark), B-Fab and Michin, The Secret Hervice of The Green Regime (Alba Fyre and Piper Niven), and the newly-formed team of Maxxine Dupri and Natalya.
Absent from that list would be Damage CTRL (though Kairi Sane may be returning soon and could possibly team up with Dakota Kai), no representation of Ivy Nile, Zelina Vega, Nia Jax and Candice LeRae (with the possibility that Jax may be sidelined with an injury), or the proposed tag team of Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross while The Wyatt Sicks are just as conspicuously absent as Bliss herself.
No NXT talent were mentioned, either, despite how The Meta-Girls (Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson) had been vying in the division on and off for the past few months and some other women have expressed their interest recently in going after the women's tag team titles, like Zaruca (Sol Ruca & Zaria) or Gigi Dolin & Tatum Paxley.
Whoever wins—be it one of the six announced teams or anyone else added on the spot—will get that title shot at WrestleMania, and another thing scheduled for next week's SmackDown that has some influence on Mania's card is a face-to-face between Damian Priest and Drew McIntyre. Both had pre-taped video promos calling the other one out, but interestingly, Priest's comments mentioned fighting at WrestleMania. A match wasn't confirmed, but probably will be next week.
Look out for a follow-up on Randy Orton giving an RKO to Nick Aldis, a promo segment with Cody Rhodes, as well as some other lingering storylines, including Rey Fenix's second WWE match after his victory over Nathan Frazer tonight. Fenix will be in action against Humberto Carrillo of Legado del Fantasma, as the group were watching Fenix's match backstage and Berto took offense to Santos Escobar gushing over him. Los Garza has been on the outs with Escobar as of late, and Berto thinks he's better than Fenix, so he'll have an opportunity to prove it next Friday.