Friday's "go-home" episode of "WWE SmackDown" officially kicked off Royal Rumble weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Despite nothing of major significance going down so close to the first major premium live event of 2025, "SmackDown" featured some minor advances in storytelling and really set the stage for Saturday's festivities. The lone championship match of the night was a rematch of a rematch between Women's United States Champion Chelsea Green and Michin.

Here's how it all went down.

Rumble reboot?

No matter how you feel about the Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens feud, there's a relatively clear takeaway — the Royal Rumble PLE, not match, needs an overhaul.

The Royal Rumble starts the Road to WrestleMania, which makes having either of the top two WWE men's or women's belts defended on the show a little bit awkward. During their promo showdown, CM Punk pointed out that Kevin Owens has lost five championship matches at the Royal Rumble — a number that is all but certainly going to increase Saturday night.

I'm sure the match between Rhodes and Owens will be excellent, but we spend the entire year building toward WrestleMania, which means a title change at this point would be a disservice to everyone involved, including the fans. Maybe this is making a mountain out of a molehill, especially considering we've basically had two men's champions over the past four Royal Rumbles, but it certainly feels like something worth addressing.

We all watch the Royal Rumble for the two titular matches anyway — popping an Intercontinental Championship or United States Championship match (men's or women's) on the card instead of bigger titles would be more impactful and less of a foregone conclusion.

As far as the opening segment itself, it was fine, with Owens and Punk each having their moments to shine. It didn't quite reach the heights of the Punk-Rhodes exchange on Monday night, which I think only further proves the point I'm trying to make above.

Stars and gripes

Chelsea Green did some really excellent work in the lead-up to her historic Women's United States Championship win in December and continues to consistently bring something fresh and funny to the table — calling Piper Niven her "Secret Her-vice" this week, for example.

Green's first extended program with Michin has even been good, with the two sharing strong ring chemistry. So, you may be wondering, "Why the debatably good pun in the sub-head here?" Well...

We should've gotten a clean ending to the Green-Michin feud on Friday night. Instead, what we got not only extends the rivalry to a potential fourth showdown with the title on the line, but also makes Green look weak as champion. I understand that on a certain level it works, especially for her character, but this is the first reign in the history of this championship and Green is more than capable of having a run that isn't continually undermined by cheap heel victories.

We love you, Jacob!

Jacob Fatu continues to be a must-see attraction any time he's on WWE television and his microphone skills are just as intense and captivating as his physicality. Maybe it's because we haven't seen someone with his unique style in recent history, but he consistently is making the most of every opportunity he gets.

The same story unfolded on Friday night, as he shared the ring with Damian Priest, turning the Archer of Infamy's relatively standard "I'm going to win the Royal Rumble" promo into the...

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

In just a few moments, Fatu was able to get himself and Damian Priest over in a big way. There was no shared history between these two and no title at stake, but I instantly cared about this showdown more that maybe anything else in the entire episode of "SmackDown."

After briefly holding his ground, Priest was overwhelmed by Fatu and Tama Tonga, drawing out LA Knight. The rescuing Knight grabbed a steel chair and took out Tonga before turning the weapon on Fatu, who punched it.

That wasn't a typo: Jacob. Fatu. Punched. A. Chair.

This was near-perfect booking and led to a tag-team match later on in the night, which was also handled extremely well with Priest picking up the pinfall victory over Tonga but Fatu standing tall as the show went off the air.

If anything, this proves that, in Priest's case, getting as far away as possible from the Judgment Day puts him back in line for a push to the top of the card, and that even with the Bloodline saga being over — or at the very least, on pause — Fatu and Tonga are bona fide stars in their own right.

Royally good

1. Liv Morgan picked up a loss against Naomi in a really solid match, but wound up looking strong after the bell thanks to Raquel Rodriguez. Even amid a rough patch, Morgan remains one of the primary players in WWE's women's division and should make an impressive run — if not win — Saturday night at the Royal Rumble. WWE also pointed out that she's competed in every women's Royal Rumble match ever.

2. The "SmackDown" tag division is as strong as I can remember. We got significant story advancement in an eight-man tag match pitting Legado Del Fantasma and Motor City Machine Guns against DIY and Pretty Deadly. We asked the Uncrowned Horsemen this week if WWE should unify the tag belts and we were split on it. I don't think we're split on loving the Blue Brand.

3. The Miz turned back the clock in an absolute show-stealer of a match against Andrade. As good as the match was, I think the best part is that the Wyatt Sicks didn't get involved after last week's tease. Miz remains criminally underrated as a staple of WWE over the past 20 years.

4. R-Truth maybe had the social post of the week after the announcement of Paul "Triple H" Levesque being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He also had a cameo on "SmackDown" with Priest and Knight that was also very fun.

Royal stumble

1. The brief promo/segment involving WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton, Candice LeRae and Nia Jax fell completely flat for me. I'm not sure what squashing Stratton does for anyone, especially when it came thanks to a sneak attack from the most physically dominant woman on the WWE roster in Jax. This harkens back to the initial point in this recap — the proximity to the landscape-altering Royal Rumble hurts.

2. Jimmy Uso vs. Carmelo Hayes was the first match of the night and it was totally OK as filler. Hayes lost — again, which is OK — but even with a win, it doesn't feel like we're going anywhere meaningful with Uso after his main-event match against Owens last week.

Despite some issues with "SmackDown" overall, Miz-Andrade and Priest/Knight vs. Fatu/Tonga finished out the show on a relatively strong note. 👑 7.5/10. 👑