Last Friday’s WrestleMania 42 go-home episode of WWE Smackdown averaged 1.58 million viewers on USA Network, up 11.9 percent from the previous week. It’s the best audience total for the show since September 5 of last year.

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of the go-home episode of SmackDown before this weekend's WrestleMania PLE.

The night before WrestleMania, WWE has a loaded Smackdown show, including the Andre the Giant battle royal and Cody Rhodes to address Randy Orton.

“WWE Friday Night SmackDown” is airing the 16th episode of its 28th season on Friday at 8 p.m. You can watch live as it premieres on the USA Network on Sling TV or DirecTV (free trial). This week, the episode will continue the lead up to the ultimate event of the WWE calendar, WrestleMania, which begins on April 18.

Randy Orton has been colluding with a mystery ally for weeks. On WWE SmackDown, Orton circumvented the many fan theories about who he'd enlisted in his feud with Cody Rhodes. Orto

There's no other way to put this, especially considering the feud — and wrestlers — that are coming at the expense of it: The Pat McAfee shoehorn has made Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton's WrestleMania 42 feud one of the worst of all time.

WWE aired a very well-done vignette of Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi. Royce Keys and Joe Hendry were the only person who received entrances entrance. Kit Wilson tripped over Johnny Gargano, who was comatose in the ring amid all the combatants,

Nothing is going right for Cody Rhodes. On WWE SmackDown, Rhodes and Jelly Roll were once again staring at the lights as Randy Orton and Pat McAfee stood tall. There's more going

Tonight’s SmackDown takes place from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. One hour after the show ends, the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will take place at Dolby Live at Park MGM. The updated lineup for SmackDown is below.

On the last night before WrestleMania 42, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 4/17/26 episode of "WWE