Report: Recent SmackDown Match Was Supposed To Main Event WWE Survivor Series 2025

The next WWE main roster Premium Live Event will be the 39th annual Survivor Series in San Diego, California on November 29, and while no matches have been announced for the event quite yet, one bout that was supposed to be the main event of the show has since been moved up due to a recent injury.

According to Dave Meltzer in the most recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the main event of Survivor Series 2025 was meant to be Cody Rhodes defending the Undisputed WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre in a rematch from their showdown at Wrestlepalooza in September. However, that match has since been moved to the upcoming Saturday Night's Main Event show on November 1 instead due to the recent injury to former WWE United States Champion Jacob Fatu.

"The Samoan Werewolf" was reportedly set to go one-on-one with McIntyre in San Diego, but he has since been ruled out of action after undergoing a dental procedure which also meant that he wasn't medically cleared for his initial match with McIntyre on a recent episode of "WWE SmackDown." As for who Rhodes was meant to face at Survivor Series, Meltzer didn't mention any plans for Rhodes, but it's likely he would have featured on the show in some capacity.

With Rhodes facing McIntyre at Survivor Series, Meltzer noted that there is a severe lack of depth in the "SmackDown" main event scene as Rhodes has just beaten McIntyre clean, and the other options are performers who the company want to keep strong. Fatu in particular is someone who many see as a future top star in WWE, meaning that they don't want him losing clean too early against someone like Rhodes. Talla Tonga has been kept strong since making his debut, but Meltzer feels like he might not be ready as he has been kept out of singles matches, and Solo Sikoa has already had a lengthy feud with Rhodes, meaning that if McIntyre loses, there isn't many immediate contenders for Rhodes to face.