WWE SmackDown Gets Crushed on Cagematch Again After Pat McAfee Angle

The fallout from this week’s SmackDown is getting worse—and now both Cagematch ratings and the ongoing backlash to Pat McAfee are at the center of it yet again.

The April 10, 2026 episode of WWE SmackDown was hit hard on Cagematch, currently sitting at a 1.17 rating at the time of writing. That puts it among the lowest-rated SmackDown episodes in years—and one of the worst-received shows in recent memory.

This comes just one week after the April 3 episode crashed to a 0.25 rating, officially the lowest-rated SmackDown ever on the platform and second only to Heroes of Wrestling 1999 in overall wrestling history. Now, instead of rebounding, the April 10 show has followed it up with another heavily criticized score.

Fans didn’t hold back in their reviews, with many questioning WWE’s direction and creative decisions after putting Pat McAfee on the show again: “I don’t get it, I just don’t. Are they actively trying to get whatever audience they have left to throw up their hands and say enough is enough?”

Some viewers also pointed to specific issues with the show’s structure, including pacing and match presentation: “Also, what are they doing with Iyo? Like, cool that she’s in a main event with Jade, but 9 minutes and nearly half was in a commercial break?”

Others criticized the heavy focus on personalities like Pat McAfee, suggesting it came at the expense of the wrestling itself: “Also, it’s clear they cut segments and video packages since MAGAfee went 26 minutes without a single commercial.”

The frustration didn’t stop there, as some fans even compared WWE’s current direction to one of wrestling’s most criticized eras: “WWE is slowly becoming like WCW in 2000, bad booking, the overuse of celebrities in shows and matches. What’s next?”

This reaction lines up with the broader backlash already building online, especially around segments involving Jelly Roll and Pat McAfee, as well as storyline decisions involving Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton.

The bigger issue now isn’t just one bad episode—it’s a pattern. Two straight weeks of extremely low ratings on Cagematch suggest that fan frustration isn’t cooling off, and if anything, it’s getting louder.

With WrestleMania 42 just a week away, this kind of response puts WWE in a tough spot. The company is clearly pushing major angles, but the audience reaction shows a growing disconnect between what’s being presented and what fans actually want to see. At this point, WWE might be forced to adjust quickly—or risk heading into its biggest event of the year with momentum working against it instead of for it.