WWE SmackDown Notes: Sami Zayn Joins SmackDown Brand, Drew McIntyre Explains His Reason for Cody Rhodes Attack, Naomi to Make Return Appearance on 8/18 WWE RAW Show, 8/22 Show Card

Aug 15, 2025

Sami Zayn Joins SmackDown Brand

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts featured Sami Zayn announcing he has officially joined the SmackDown brand.

During the show, Solo Sikoa and the MFTs came out to the ring. Sikoa grabbed a microphone and talked about Zayn showing up on SmackDown last week but they showed up on RAW and stomped his ass out. Sikoa then stated that Zayn is stomped out, Jimmy Uso, stomped out and Jacob Fatu is stomped out. Sikoa continued speaking only to be interrupted by Zayn’s music and him coming out. Zayn stated that he is out here to talk and asks them if they can talk, which Sikoa responded stating they can and told the MFTs to leave the ring. This led to some back-and-forth banter between Zayn and Sikoa over Zayn talking about besides the World title, the U.S. title is another title he has never held in WWE and Sikoa telling Zayn that he won’t hold that title anytime soon and he’s on RAW and not SmackDown. Sikoa then told Zayn to get off his show and he doesn’t want to see him again. Zayn responded announcing that he has officially joined SmackDown and told Solo that Solo took something away from him and he is going to take something away from him.

🚨 🚨 🚨 @SamiZayn is OFFICIALLY on SmackDown, and he's already got some help in the form of Jimmy Uso and Jacob Fatu!! 😱 pic.twitter.com/jC47QN0HlU
— WWE (@WWE) August 16, 2025

This led to a brawl breaking out and the MFTs getting back into the ring to attack Zayn. This then led to Jimmy Uso and Jacob Fatu running out to save Zayn and helped clear the ring of Sikoa and the MFTs. SmackDown GM Nick Aldis then came out and welcomed Zayn to the SmackDown brand and announced a Six-Man Tag Team match for the main event for tonight’s show.

Drew McIntyre Explains His Reason for Cody Rhodes Attack

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured Drew McIntyre explaining his reason why he attacked Cody Rhodes at last week’s show.

During the show, McIntyre came out to the ring and talked about people have been asking him all week why he hit Cody with the Claymore through the announce table. McIntyre stated that it was so violent that we should see it again. This led to a video airing on the big screen recapping the attack on last week’s show. McIntyre stated that he did not attack Cody Rhodes and their eyes are lying to them and as usual and he will explain it to them. McIntyre then asked Joe Tessitore what the medical update is on Rhodes and Tessitore responded that their isn’t one. McIntyre then asked if management is hiding it because of what he did to their golden boy. McIntyre stated we don’t know how long Cody will be out for and it’s all his fault.

After some more words mocking Rhodes and his need to be WWE Champion to be relevant, McIntyre stated that he did not attack Cody Rhodes last week, Cody attacked him. McIntyre then talked about the AA happened in the ring and he broke the count and Cody threw him to the floor. McIntyre stated that the match ended and Cody threw him into the ring post and onto the announce table. McIntyre then claimed that Cody was going to take him out and he defended himself. McIntyre stated that he told Cody that he wanted him to beat John Cena because he will be the one to take the title off of him. McIntyre then stated that Cody pisses people off and he takes people out. McIntyre stated that he is not the bad guy but if he is provoked, he will do very, very violent things and if he gets provoked, he is the real nightmare.

"I did not attack Cody Rhodes last week, he attacked me."@DMcIntyreWWE has gone off the rails 😅 pic.twitter.com/LAGCF1icRm
— WWE (@WWE) August 16, 2025

Naomi to Make Appearance on Next Week’s WWE RAW Show

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured one new segment announced for the card of next week’s WWE RAW show on August 18th at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennslyvania.

This new segment announced was WWE Women’s World Champion Naomi to make a return appearance.

New promo for this Monday’s RAW that aired on #SmackDown:

“Naomi sounds off on the state of the Women’s World Championship…”
pic.twitter.com/s8mQVxwtEh
— WrestlePurists (@WrestlePurists) August 16, 2025

This will be Naomi’s first appearance on RAW since being pulled from the August 11th RAW show due to her not being medically cleared to compete.

Current card for August 18th WWE RAW show: