WWE SmackDown 11/14/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where your WarGames team gets a fourth member, and your WarGames team gets a fourth member, and your — oh wait, no, your WarGames team is losing its fourth member, actually, sorry! And in case that didn't make it clear enough, yes, we have a lot to say about how this episode of "SmackDown" decided to go about building its respective WarGames matches (and also, kind of randomly, a traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 elimination match, but not at Survivor Series).

Other stuff happened too, like Matt Cardona making his return as Zack Ryder and Ilja Dragunov winning another open challenge — we'll hit both of those but we won't be covering everything here. If you want to catch up on anything you missed that we might not talk about, check out our "SmackDown" results page. If you're interested in what the WINC staff thought about this particular offering from the blue brand, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 11/14/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"

Remember when WarGames was a big deal?

Maybe I'm just becoming jaded with WWE's current product (and if it is, I think it's impressive I managed to hang on for four and a half years), but this year's WarGames builds have been hit or miss, with things erring on the "miss" side on "WWE SmackDown." Friday's episode of the blue brand saw developments for both men and women's WarGames matches, and while there were some redeemable qualities and interesting story beats, I can't help but feel like this episode of "SmackDown" did nothing to help the stale air surrounding 2025's WarGames season.

The night started with an, admittedly, huge development in the women's WarGames scene, when Charlotte Flair walked out on Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, and, most notably, tag partner Alexa Bliss. While this, in theory, greatly changes the landscape for the women's upcoming WarGames build, it's the execution I find to be lacking. SKY's "WARGAMES!" cry was cute and, honestly, fitting, considering her history with WarGames, but other than that, "SmackDown's" opening women's segment felt really contrived. RHIYO was cute, but shallow. Bliss, someone who is renowned for her microphone skills, cut an extremely juvenile and stunted promo against Lash Legend, Nia Jax, and The Kabuki Warriors. Flair walked into the ring with not a lick of uncertainty to be found in her dazzling grin, but by the time she took the mic, she cut a promo about the history of bad blood between herself and Ripley: an argument that is, on the surface, logical, but one that crumbles when you realize that nearly every woman in that ring has argued, quarreled, or straight-up warred against the other before. This story beat worked — and may continue to work — in theory, but not in practice. If the ladies want to sell us this story, I'm going to need some more sauce (especially from women like Ripley, Bliss, and Flair, who are known mic workers).

Drew McIntyre made a statement with his WarGames declaration (on The Vision's side), but I can't say the same for Jimmy Uso. The second Uso twin took to a backstage segment to informed Cody Rhodes that he had "just got off the phone with CM Punk," and now was officially in WarGames. I get that it's Jimmy Uso, and that we, respectfully, don't need a lot of fanfare from him, but if you're not going to make him an important player in WarGames, why add him at all? Give that position to someone more over than Jimmy is.

Maybe I'm just becoming jaded with WWE's current product, but overall, neither of these matches have been building up to anything. Much less a William Regal-style "WARGAMES!" screech.

Written by Angeline Phu

Sami Zayn is tired of Solo Sikoa and MFT causing problems on the Blue brand and not being able to do anything about it since he's been sidelined. Of course, that drew Sikoa and his cohorts to the ring. Sikoa called Zayn a pathetic, desperate liar. Sikoa decided not to beat up Zayn because he wasn't medically cleared. Knowing that Sikoa and MFT aren't to be trusted, Zayn didn't come alone. Shinsuke Nakamura, Rey Fenix, Alex Shelley, and Chris Sabin to help him out. They sent Sikoa and MFT scattering.

While the teams for the WarGames matches have been set for "Survivor Series", Sikoa asked Aldis for a match. Aldis agreed, but their match will take place the night before the PLE. It will be a traditional 5-on-5 elimination match. This is another major PLE that Motor City Machine Guns will miss and have it on a Friday night instead, but I digress.

Zayn's team is composed of three of the best tag team wrestlers (though Fenix best tag team matches were pre-WWE), and two U.S. Champions (among other titles). They are five of the best on WWE's roster and I'm excited to see them team up together. On the other side of the ring, Sikoa and MFT also have multiple champions from inside and outside WWE. This should be a really solid match and could be a standout on "SmackDown", especially since these ten men are being left off the PLE, even though I won't be surprised by the Wyatt Sicks getting involved.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Ilja Dragunov vs. Axiom was one hell of a wrestling match, and taken simply on its own merits, I'm in favor of it. "NXT UK" for the win, and all that. In context though, I'm almost ready for the US title open challenges to stop.

I think it's great that Sami Zayn lost the title to Dragunov, but I also think the creative around the open challenges had to pivot at that point in a way it simply hasn't so far. Zayn was primarily defending the title against people lower than him in WWE's current hierarchy – the likes of Carmelo Hayes, Je'Von Evans, and of course Dragunov himself. Win or lose, he's helping make those guys in those matches, and the creative is very easy in terms of "overconfident young guy wants to step up to older, slower champion." Good, sounds great. But now you've got one of those overconfident young guys wearing the title, and you can't just keep doing great matches with younger/newer talent. That doesn't do anything for anyone. Dragunov needs to continue to be established by continuing to beat older, slightly bigger-name stars, people more akin to Aleister Black than Fraxiom, and it makes logical sense that the older veterans would come to prey on an overconfident young champion. Instead of leaning into this natural conflict, WWE has opted to insert artificial conflict in the form of this weird "open challenges for anyone but Ciampa" storyline, because there's none to be had in "open challenges against other young babyfaces." The effect is to leave the entire segment feeling hollow, no matter how well executed the moves were.

It's also just a real shame that WWE has apparently pegged Dragunov as a "moves guy" even though anyone who watched "WWE NXT" while he was there knows he is a messy drama queen. It's criminal that he and his on-again, off-again lover/nemesis Carmelo Hayes are on the same roster and have yet to interact, but even if you're not going to give me that — why is Sami over here assembling an entire team to go up against the MFTs, and Dragunov isn't on it? Is it just because when you're the US champion you can only do open challenge storylines now? Because that would suck in general, but especially for Dragunov, who would shine in the more character-centric role Sami and his antics could provide. And wasn't Tama Tonga eyeing Dragunov's title, too? Could we not have done both?

I'm not saying this Dragunov run is bad or anything, but as of this moment, I'm over the open challenges. "SmackDown" doesn't have the roster to supply Dragunov with a steady stream of beatable veterans even if they wanted to. If that's what kept Dragunov out of the traditional Survivor Series match and got Nakamura in, ditch it. It's not worth it.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Seeing Matt Cardona fully commit to the bit, to the point of having Zack Ryder merchandise back up on WWE Shop, during his main roster return on "SmackDown" tonight was really fun to see. And, if you stop to really think about it, it makes sense. I'm not sure how many casual WWE fans are watching anything on the independent scene, though maybe they caught Cardona on "WWE NXT" last month. However, they might remember Ryder back from his "Z! True Long Island Story" days or back when he was working with Cena in 2012 in the Eve Torres love triangle storyline.

While it was pretty obvious that LA Knight was going to be the one to advance in the "Last Time is Now" tournament for the shot to challenge John Cena during his final match at Saturday Night's Main Event next month, it was cool to see Ryder be the first mystery competitor in the tournament. Cena himself teased the fact that there could be competitors who "didn't even work here," meaning WWE, and I expected that to mean TNA. While I think Cardona/Ryder is still technically a freelancer on indies, he's been working with TNA, and that's how he got himself a match in "NXT" in the first place.

It might have been a simple thing and likely a relatively easy move, since his wife, Chelsea Green, is on "SmackDown" as well and was on the show tonight, it was cool to see someone from Cena's direct past be the first mystery entrant in the tournament. We still have one to go on "WWE Raw" on Monday, which is likely going to be former TNA Champion Joe Hendry, and while he's been vocal about how badly he wants a match against Cena, Hendry just doesn't have the history like Ryder and Cena do. And, if it gets Ryder a bag from the merchandise that's being sold now, that's pretty cool for him, too, even with the loss to Knight.

Written by Daisy Ruth

On paper, an Undisputed WWE Championship match between Cody Rhodes and Bronson Reed should be one that's cool, fun to watch throughout the entire contest with two of the biggest names in WWE right now, and has a memorable ending. Unfortunately, that didn't exactly end up being the case in their title match on this edition of "SmackDown".

The action throughout the match itself was great, and I understand where WWE was coming from in not wanting to have Rhodes lose the Undisputed WWE Championship just yet or wanting to give Reed a loss as they're looking to make The Vision look stronger than ever after turning on Seth Rollins. If that's the case, then I'm just not sure why they didn't choose to make the match between Rhodes and Reed a non-title match. There were so many more possibilities when it came to and ending for the match if the title hadn't been put on the line such as Reed going over Rhodes or keeping with the disqualification in a manner that would've felt less disappointing.

None of this was helped by the fact that the ending to this edition of the "SmackDown" was essentially the same ending that "Raw" put on for weeks on end. Yes, it may be a new show and the addition of a suspended Drew McIntyre to The Vision's WarGames team was pretty interesting, but WWE has done so many endings like this one that it did nothing to stand out. It was just boring to watch after seeing similar things so many times at this point, and was especially disappointing to see happen during a title match.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Friday night saw some rather predictable movement on the Men's WarGames front with two members for each respective side added to the mix on "WWE SmackDown." It was only on Monday that Cody Rhodes banded together with CM Punk and Jey Uso to make the WarGames challenge to the Vision and Logan Paul, so each team had two empty slots going into the show and, as such, Paul Heyman and Bronson Reed arrived for recruitment; Nick Aldis told them they were not welcome, but Reed and Heyman managed to talk Rhodes into defending his WWE Championship against the "Aus-Zilla" in the main event, thus securing their stay for the night. 

Meanwhile, Jimmy Uso declared he would be the fourth member of Team Babyface in a backstage segment with Rhodes and his brother, and while Jimmy in himself isn't the most exciting name, he's a solid worker and one that makes sense given the past few months. Rhodes got to defending his title against Reed in the main event, as promised, but that match as one would have imagined never found a natural ending. Instead, everyone came out for a skirmish before Drew McIntyre ransacked the scene and announced his arrival as the Vision's fourth member. 

McIntyre makes all the sense in the world, having been feuding with Rhodes for the title over the past few months, and having an entire laundry list of issues with Punk even after their saga met its bloody end. The Usos and McIntyre have been at odds for the past few years largely thanks to their part with The Bloodline costing him the title at every turn. And beyond that, the promise of McIntyre locked inside a steel cage with his rivals promises a clinic in brutality, and this writer is all the way down with that. So yeah, there's not much to rave about when all is said and done, but two good additions to what's shaping up to be a stacked WarGames match cannot be hated from this point of view.

Written by Max Everett