Tonight's episode of WWE SmackDown (August 22, 2025) emanates out of the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland and will air at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network, but will air earlier across the globe on Netflix at 3 p.m. ET when it is actually being recorded.
This post here will be updated frequently throughout the night to reflect live coverage of Friday Night SmackDown, including all the match results, rundowns of the promos, and any other interesting or noteworthy things that take place. Keep refreshing for updates to find out all the winners and more!
Preview & Predictions for WWE SmackDown:
On tap for tonight's episode, John Cena is set to "return" to SmackDown (is anyone else infuriated over how WWE always promotes people as "returning" when they could be there on a regular basis, as if we haven't seen Cena in months? It's such a lazy way to avoid saying "John Cena will cut a promo"). But that's what he's going to do. He'll cut a promo about Logan Paul, talk about how it's great to be there in Ireland for the last time, and how he is going to beat Paul at WWE Clash in Paris. They'll probably get into some sort of physicality and it would not at all be surprising for Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes to get involved, or maybe if Rhodes is supposed to sit this out, that John Cena gets backed up by Randy Orton and we get that tag team match announced for later (Cena and Orton against McIntyre and Paul) for the main event.
Aleister Black will face R-Truth or Ron Killings or "Mr. Killings" as he called him last week. Black should likely get the win as he's the guy to build up since WWE has already mostly dropped the buzz from re-signing R-Truth, unfortunately. The only way R-Truth wins is if Damian Priest returns and interferes. That's a good possibility, mind you. But Killings isn't winning clean, at least.
The Motor City Machine Guns will be in action against Melo Don't Miz. I could see the same situation happening as last week, where The Miz steals a pin from Hayes and it continues to drive a wedge between those two.
All that and more will go down tonight, so keep checking and refreshing for the most up-to-date results!
Here are your results for WWE SmackDown - August 22, 2025:
- The show started with a promo from Becky Lynch, who got heat by badmouthing Ireland. Tiffany Stratton came out, followed by Nia Jax and then Jade Cargill, to set up the usual tag team main event.
- Fraxiom tried to warn Carmelo Hayes backstage to be careful with The Miz since he's a schemer. Melo stood up for his tag team partner, saying that he's smarter than everyone else and that he's a legend who was carving out a legacy while they were all kids. (For context, The Miz is 44, Melo is 31, Axiom is 28 and Frazer is 27)
- Melo Don't Miz (Carmelo Hayes & The Miz) defeated The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) by pinfall.
- Backstage, MFTs interrupted a happy interview of Jimmy Uso and Sami Zayn talking about Naomi's pregnancy so that Solo Sikoa could be a jerk and say they should name the kid after himself, and for Zayn to threaten to beat him for the United States title.
- Piper Niven defeated Charlotte Flair by pinfall with a little help from Chelsea Green interfering.
- Backstage, Michin once again confronted Giulia and Kiana James about getting a Women's United States title match. James says if Michin wants a match, she'll have to go through her, first, which pleases Michin.
- John Cena's promo was immediately interrupted by Logan Paul, but Cena got the last words in (calling Paul a parasite and saying that he's wasting his time with him instead of facing people like Jacob Fatu, The Usos, Dominik Mysterio, and AJ Styles) and put Paul down with an Attitude Adjustment. Later, Paul bumped into Drew McIntyre backstage, who told him to "make it right" by taking out Cena tonight "no matter what it takes" .
- The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) defeated MFT (JC Mateo & Tonga Loa) by pinfall on Mateo.
- Instead of the scheduled match between Aleister Black and Ron Killings, R-Truth accidentally flew to Dublin in Georgia rather than Ireland, but Damian Priest was out to fight with Black for a brawl segment.
- Drew McIntyre cut a promo about how nobody's told him off for what he did to Cody Rhodes, which means that The American Nightmare doesn't have any friends backstage as they all want his spot and his title. He was quickly proven wrong when Randy Orton showed up from behind him and laid him out with an RKO.
- Jade Cargill & Tiffany Stratton defeated Becky Lynch & Nia Jax by pinfall.
- Backstage, Nick Aldis told John Cena that he "just heard from Brock Lesnar", but before saying anything else, Cena was assaulted by Logan Paul with a sucker punch.
What are your thoughts on tonight's episode of Friday Night SmackDown? Drop your reactions in the comments below and spark a discussion!