Tonight's episode of WWE SmackDown (October 17, 2025) emanates out of the SAP Center in San Jose, California and will air at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network.
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, this show will feature some fallout from the WWE Crown Jewel event that took place this past weekend. While the most interesting thing that happened this entire week was The Vision turning on Seth Rollins and his injury, that was on Monday Night Raw, so don't be surprised if all we see from that is a video package about the angle. Then again, Cody Rhodes lost that match to Rollins, so there is always a chance they follow that up in some fashion and continue to build on that angle in some way when he kicks off the show with a promo. Of course, don't be shocked if that leads into an interruption and builds to some sort of tag team match announced for the main event, as that happens nearly every week.
The same goes for how Tiffany Stratton lost her match to Raw's Stephanie Vaquer. I doubt there will be much ado about Stratton losing, but I also wouldn't be shocked if Giulia and Kiana James or someone like Chelsea Green didn't come up to her and badmouth how if they would have been in the match, they would have beaten Vaquer, to start a new angle.
Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair will defend the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship titles against Sol Ruca and Zaria. That has been alluded to for weeks, and they've finally pulled the trigger on doing the match. Don't hold your breath for a title change, as ZaRuca are not only pretty firmly on NXT (especially with Ruca holding two of those titles), but their impending breakup storyline would point to them losing this for sure.
Drew McIntyre against Jacob Fatu is still being advertised to take place after attacking each other on last week's episode. However, reports have come out that Fatu could be injured and out for several months. If that is true, that match needs to be scrapped. If it does happen, and if there is an injury, Fatu will likely be written out of action and lose this. I could see this turning into a scenario where instead of having the match, they just have another backstage brawl—maybe even one where the action already took place off-camera to protect Fatu—and Nick Aldis just cancels it. They've done that plenty times as a way out of that situation.
Sami Zayn could always have another US Open Challenge, too, but that isn't advertised at the time of this publication. He could also be in a tag team match alongside Shinsuke Nakamura against two members of MFT if they want to go in that direction after last week's attack.
Here are your results for WWE SmackDown - October 17, 2025:
- Cody Rhodes opens the show with a promo about how Nick Aldis made the McIntyre vs Fatu match a No. 1 contender's match.
- Rey Fenix was attacked backstage by MFTs backstage.
- WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Match: Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair (c) defeated ZaRuca (Sol Ruca and Zaria) by submission.
- Backstage, Jacob Fatu and Cody Rhodes had an interaction.
- Aleister Black and Zelina Vega had a promo segment.
- The Miz and Sami Zayn had a backstage segment implying The Miz would answer the open challenge, only for Ilja Dragunov to return!
- Open Challenge for the Men's United States Championship: Ilja Dragunov defeated Sami Zayn (c) by pinfall to win the title! MFTs then attacked both until Rey Fenix made the save, followed by The Wyatt Sicks showing up.
- Tiffany Stratton was interviewed backstage about her loss at Crown Jewel. Kiana James interrupted to talk some trash, leading to a match set for next week. between the two.
- The Motor City Machine Guns defeated Los Garza by pinfall.
- Fraxiom and #DIY had a run-in backstage.
- Jacob Fatu was attacked backstage seemingly by Drew McIntyre (who denied it), who figured he could be the default #1 contender by forfeit, only for Cody Rhodes to come out, leading to a title match directly.
- Drew McIntyre defeated Cody Rhodes by disqualification after Rhodes used the title belt.
What are your thoughts on tonight's episode of Friday Night SmackDown? Drop your reactions in the comments below and spark a discussion!