WWE SmackDown Results, Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights from April 11

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of WWE SmackDown on April 11.

We're just over a week away from WrestleMania 41, so everything WWE is doing right now is to prepare for the event.

Friday's show saw newcomer Rey Fenix take on Berto from Legado Del Fantasma, Damian Priest had a confrontation with Drew McIntyre, and Cody Rhodes made an appearance to hype his upcoming match against John Cena.

Let's take a look at everything that happened on the penultimate SmackDown before WrestleMania 41.

Opening Segment

Nick Aldis began the show in the ring to address what happened last week with Randy Orton. He said he was told to maintain professionalism by his bosses before inviting The Viper to the ring.

Orton said he can tell Aldis is angry but reminded him that he paid double the fine last time he RKOed him just so he could have one in the bank. He asked Aldis to make a match for him at WrestleMania, even if it's against him.

Aldis said he needs Orton's respect, not his money. Orton said he will apologize personally to Mickie James if he has to attack Aldis again for not giving him a match. This led to Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga coming out.

After some trash talking, Orton told them to get in the ring and fight him. When they got the upper hand, LA Knight ran to the ring to make the save.

This was a pretty standard show opener for WWE. We got some talking, we got a little fighting, and it set up a match for later. Nothing groundbreaking happened, but it worked for what it was.

Grade: B-

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Notable Moments and Observations

—Aldis did a great job looking like he was having trouble controlling his emotions.

—Orton imitating the noises Tonga makes was hilarious.

Gauntlet Match

The first match of the night was a six-team Gauntlet to determine who would face Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodrigues for the tag titles at WrestleMania.

Here is the order of entry and elimination:

—Bayley and Lyra Valkyria eliminated Zoey Stark and Shayna Baszler
—Bayley and Valkyria eliminated Natalya and Maxxine Dupri
—Bayley and Valkyria eliminated Kayden Carter and Katana Chance
—Bayley and Valkyria eliminated B-Fab and Michin
—Bayley and Valkyria eliminated Alba Fyre and Piper Niven

Gauntlet matches are tough to judge because they tend to be long as a whole, but each matchup contained within it ends up being short. Bayley and Valkyria put on a great performance for a long time, but it was hard to buy most of the teams as potential winners.

Result: Bayley and Valkyria won

Grade: B-

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Notable Moments and Observations

—Baszler may have lost her luggage because she was in street clothes for this instead of her usual gear.

—Stark's missile dropkick to Valkyria looked awesome.

—Natalya has some new gear to match Dupri.

—Dupri has clearly been training a lot. She looks way more confident in her movements.

—Valkyria's powerbomb to Niven was impressive.

Rey Fenix vs. Berto

As Damian Priest was coming out for a promo, Drew McIntyre attacked him. Several officials had to help Priest backstage while The Scottish Psychopath watched from the ring.

McIntyre spoke for a bit until Priest came back out to fight him again. They will have a Street Fight at WrestleMania, so WWE is trying to make this feel as intense as possible. McIntyre used the steel steps to hit Priest before dropping him with a DDT on top of them.

After a break, Berto took on WWE's newest Superstar, Fenix. This match came about after Berto expressed anger last week about Fenix's debut. Berto took control early and grounded Fenix in the corner with some stomps.

Fenix made a comeback during the break and we returned to see him take out Berto with a twisting dive over the top rope to the floor.

These two developed chemistry right away and put on a fun contest that contained a handful of impressive spots from both men. Berto may not have proven himself the way he wanted with a win, but he definitely proved he can hang with a guy like Fenix.

The masked man hit a Mexican Muscle Buster to score the win. Santos Escobar came out and told Berto to shake Fenix's hand. Berto left angrily but Escobar shook Fenix's hand and showed him respect.

Result: Fenix defeated Berto

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

—Joe Tessitore noted that Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair received disciplinary actions after what happened in their promos last week.

—Santos Escobar and Angel did not stand in Berto's corner so he could prove himself alone.

—Fenix's entrance should come with a seizure warning.

—Berto's corkscrew dive over the top rope looked awesome.

Zelina Vega vs. Chelsea Green

Zelina Vega got a chance to take on Chelsea Green in a singles match this week, but Niven and Fyre were not at ringside to protect her because they were recovering from their match earlier in the show.

Green threw her entrance gear at Vega after the bell to blind her and get an early takedown. They fought at ringside and in a somewhat confusing ending, Green was counted out.

The way this ended was so abrupt and weird because there was no indication that the ref was close to 10. Unless there was a good reason to cut the match short, this felt like the weirdest booking decision. Even Vega looked confused at first.

Result: Vega defeated Green

Grade: D-

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Notable Moments and Observations

—It's tough to tell but WWE might be trying to distance Vega from the LWO.

—Green's dropkick looked like it connected hard. She sent Vega out of the ring with authority.

Tiffany Stratton vs. Roxanne Perez

Most of the versions of the WWE title that have existed over the decades were in the ring for Rhodes' promo about WrestleMania.

The next match saw Roxanne Perez take on Tiffany Stratton in a non-title match after the two got into an argument in front of Aldis backstage.

They got right into the action and had some nice takedowns early on. Perez and Stratton spend some time in NXT together, so it's not like they came into this match as strangers.

They had two singles matches in NXT and each won one of them, so they came into this with an even record. Perez took control as the show cut a break. She kept Stratton grounded to neutralize her size advantage.

This was a solid performance from two women who could be very important to this division in the years to come, but it didn't feel as intense as it could have. There were times when it felt like they were going through the paces, not having a fight.

Stratton picked up the win, but she was immediately pulled out of the ring by Charlotte Flair. She threw Tiffy over the announce table and Wade Barrett stopped her from continuing her assault.

Result: Stratton defeated Perez

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

—Rhodes brought up his time in Defy Wrestling to get a pop from the Seattle crowd.

—There was a couple of title designs missing from the lineup of belts WWE had in the ring.

Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga vs. Randy Orton and LA Knight

This week's main event saw Orton and Knight team up to take on Tonga and Sikoa. The match didn't get started until there was only about 10 minutes left in the show.

Tonga cornered Knight right away so he and Sikoa could double-team him. The Viper got a hot tag and looked like he was going to hit an early RKO, but he ended up being taken down by a Samoan drop.

Sikoa and Tonga had the upper hand for several minutes during and after the break, but Knight eventually got the tag to even the playing field.

He was able to hit the BFT to get the win for him and Orton, but he was taken down by Jacob Fatu after the match.

Result: Knight and Orton defeated Sikoa and Tonga

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

—We need some lore to explain why Tonga makes those noises.

—Tonga mocking Orton was funny.

—Barrett talked about his loins no less than three times during this episode.

The Final Word

Friday’s SmackDown was the definition of a filler episode. All of the big feuds on SmackDown have been set up for WrestleMania, so everything is in a holding pattern until the PPV.

We did get some decent in-ring action with Berto vs. Fenix and with the women’s tag gauntlet, but the match between Vega and Green ending so abruptly hurt the flow of the show. 

The promo segments were all fine but didn’t necessarily do anything to advance any storylines, with the sole exception being Orton’s quest for a match at WrestleMania. 

The build for this year’s ‘Mania has been middling at best, but the card has the potential to deliver two nights of fun. Let’s hope the next week of WWE programming does a good job of getting everyone hyped for the PPV next weekend. 

Grade: B-