WWE SmackDown - 11/28/2025: 3 Things We Loved And 3 We Hated

With the Thanksgiving leftovers tucked in the fridge, and the first vestiges of Christmas decorations going up, the Black Friday edition of "WWE SmackDown" has come and gone. There was plenty to do on the final show before tomorrow's big Survivor Series event in San Diego, CA, including setting up the semifinals for the Last Time Is Now Tournament, as well as determining the advantage for Saturday's Women's War Games Match. It also played host to the traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 Match, which saw Solo Sikoa and his MFTs defeat Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, Rey Fenix, and MCMG. But enough about what happened, that has been handily covered over on the results page.

It's time to break down the good and the bad from the pre-taped edition of "SmackDown." There was plenty to love, like the blistering match between Charlotte Flair and Asuka, as well as the show-closing moments that featured a surprise attack from The Wyatt Sicks. There was also plenty to hate, such as the way that "SmackDown" has become a pre-show for PLEs like Survivor Series, despite PLEs having fewer matches than ever, or the confusing interactions between the WWE Women's Champion and the WWE Women's US Champion.

Enough of my pontificating, it's time for the Wrestling Inc. Staff to dig into the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the November 28, 2025, edition of "WWE SmackDown."

Having read the spoilers ahead of tonight's show, I was fully convinced I was going to have a "lol, of course Charlotte Flair wins again" moment, but I surprisingly, to myself at least, ended up not feeling that way at all. It was one line Flair had backstage during the babyface WarGames team segment that changed my way of thinking about this match pretty quickly. I still don't like the babyfaces getting the advantage in this kind of match, and it may not bode well for them tomorrow, but I loved this for Flair's character.

With all the other girls hyping her up going into her WarGames advantage match against Asuka, "The Queen" mentioned that she hadn't faced "The Empress of Tomorrow" since she tore her ACL (and MCL, and meniscus, if I remember correctly) back in December 2023. I definitely thought they had gone one-on-one since Flair's return at the beginning of the year, so I was surprised by that.

Shocking to no one, they put on an excellent match, which probably felt even more special, as there haven't been many women's matches on the last few episodes of main roster programming. While it wasn't as long as it probably should have been, likely due in part to the traditional Survivor Series match later on in the night, I thought these women did an excellent job. Flair looked to have it won at one point off a moonsault, but Asuka kicked out, and it was the Natural Selection to end the match.

Following the bout, Flair looked very emotional and was giving heart hand symbols to the crowd. Ever since the real-life Ashley Fliehr's emotional Players Tribune article, as well as Charlotte Flair's team-up with Alexa Bliss, complete with a tag team championship reign, I feel as though Flair's gone through a very effective character rehab. It's certainly turned me around on her character. However, knowing WWE as well as I do over the last almost 30 years, that could very well mean we're going to see a Flair heel turn at WarGames, but for now, this was a lovely highlight of the night.

Written by Daisy Ruth

While I understand why it was WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill to interrupt Chelsea Green's Women's United States Championship celebration on tonight's edition of "SmackDown," I still don't love it. Cargill did it because she's been running into the now two-time women's mid-card champion, who has been calling herself the "best women's champion in history," backstage and having words with her over the last few weeks. While I love both of them, I don't think this storyline is doing either of them any favors. It feels like WWE made them both champions without providing any clear direction for who they would face.

I'm confused as to why Giulia didn't crash Green's party, though I don't believe we've seen much of her since she lost the title to Green, who won by nefarious means, back on November 7. While I've been whining forever now that I want Giulia to move on to bigger and better things, it seems a little silly that she doesn't appear to be upset over losing her gold in storyline whatsoever. Maybe that's WWE creative wanting us to forget she even had the belt, as it was quite the lackluster run.

While both Green and Cargill need their first opponents for their current reigns, it shouldn't be each other. I do think that Green is destined to become the top women's champion at some point, but she shouldn't be feuding with Cargill at all, with her own title to worry about. And, it really feels like WWE put the gold on Cargill without any direction for her at all. I'm honestly really curious to see who Green's first opponent is going to be, as it certainly doesn't appear to be Giulia.

Thankfully, in a quick backstage interview with Cathy Kelly, Cargill said that she was just making an example of Green to put the rest of the women's locker room on notice, so hopefully we're moving on from it, since Michin and B-Fab were shown immediately after. Michin said someone needed to fix Cargill's attitude, and it was going to have to be her. While I have my thoughts on that potential match/feud, that's a rant for another day. For now, I'm just sad that Green's celebration was interrupted by anyone, really, as she's always one of the most entertaining aspects of "SmackDown."

Written by Daisy Ruth

It's not often that you see a star be given a second chance in a tournament in WWE, but it's actually a refreshing change of pace to see the company turn an unfortunate situation with Sheamus' injury into something beneficial for The Miz.

Now I'll be the first to admit: The Miz was never going to win The Last Time Is Now Tournament in the first place. However, Miz's backstage with Nick Aldis, in which Aldis just so happened to draw Miz's name, was a much-needed bit of fun on this show. He also had a good showing with LA Knight in their quarterfinals match, and the finish with Miz being caught with his feet on the ropes only for Knight to surprise him with a BFT brought things full circle by having Miz essentially cost himself the second chance that he was given once again. It was creative and unique to what WWE tends to do, and an interesting element on an episode of "SmackDown" that felt pretty random and thrown together with little relevance to Survivor Series: WarGames.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

The traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series match couldn't make it to tomorrow night's PLE with two WarGames matches on the card, so it got the main event slot on the go-home SmackDown. After seeing the match (which aired commercial-free, btw), it didn't even need to be on TV, which is insane when you look at the amount of talent in Team Sami (I just wrote about my love for this team in this very column). Talla Tonga eliminated both members of Motor City Machine Guns consecutively. WWE seems to be really high on him, as not only did he eliminate one of the greatest tag teams in the modern era, but he's beaten Rey Fenix and Jey Uso. They protected him by having Talla eliminated via countout.

As soon as the match was announced, it was obvious the final two would be Solo Sikoa and Zayn since it was their feud that brought about the match. That's exactly how it played out, and the match played out in a very WWE way. Zayn landed a Sunset Flip and an Exploder. Sikoa blocked a Helluva Kick and connected with a Superkick. Zayn blocked the Samoan Spike and rolled up Sikoa and nearly got the win. Alas, Sikoa would just barely kick out and hit a weak Samoan Spike for the win.

Following the match, Sikoa was surrounded by the Wyatt Six and took a Sister Abigail from Uncle Howdy. The match should've been the MFTs vs. The Wyatts since they've been stalking the MFTs for weeks. They've also been targeting the tag team division as well. This match didn't do anything for anyone involved, except Talla. Sikoa might have bragging rights, but he got laid out almost immediately. Everyone in the Survivor Series match looked dumb by the end.

Written by Samantha Schipman

The main event of this week's "WWE SmackDown" was hardly riveting or particularly developing as Solo Sikoa and his MFT, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, JC Mateo, and Talla Tonga took on the team of Sami Zayn, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Rey Fenix in a traditional Survivor Series elimination match – one night before the actual Survivor Series event.

Talla tore through much of the opposition before Zayn ran the MFT gauntlet to eventually whittle things down to just him and Sikoa; Zayn continued to survive everything Sikoa threw at him, until he didn't, and Sikoa won the match after the ever-dangerous thumb to the throat. But then there was a glimmer of something better, something a little compelling, even if something very, very small: the lights went out, Uncle Howdy appeared behind Sikoa, the rest of the Wyatt Sicks stood on the apron, and delivered Sister Abigail to the bootleg "Tribal Chief" to close the show.

Running the seemingly eternal feud between Sikoa and Zayn disguised as a five-on-five match is one thing, but at the very least, it was a means to an end – said end being the continuation of the faction war. It worked because Sikoa had been procedurally isolated in the match beforehand, even if that match in itself was a little flat, to leave him alone in the ring and vulnerable to the Wyatts. Maybe it would have been better to just proceed with the Wyatts-MFT feud with a match between the factions, but the ending at least accomplished what it set out to do, and that's to be appreciated.

Written by Max Everett

WWE teased me with a perfectly good match between Tommaso Ciampa and WWE United States Champion Ilja Dragunov. It sounds like it could be a killer title match. Any other week, I'd simply be excited for the fact that somewhere down the line, two former WWE NXT Champions are gonna tangle for the title of John Cena, Lex Luger, and Blackjack Mulligan, but this isn't any other week. This is Survivor Series weekend, and there are currently four– Did I say four? Yes, count them, four. One more time for emphasis: Four matches on the Survivor Series card.

Are you really going to tell me that WWE can't fit one more match onto the show that will be taking place in a baseball stadium? I'm not asking for an AEW-style marathon, but surely one more match could fit on that show.

No, no, it apparently can't. If they could fit more matches onto the card, then surely the Traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 match would be on the freaking Survivor Series PLE. It's unconscionable to have such a thin PLE, War Games Matches or not. Let Ciampa and Dragunov off the chains for 15 minutes. Set The Wyatts loose on the MFTS for a 20-minute elimination match. I can only watch so many ads for WWE podcasts and cheap cellular data plans.

WWE is conditioning fans to expect the bare minimum, and it's making me feel like Goldilocks. Surely, there's a wrestling promotion out there that can split the difference between AEW's 7-hour epics and WWE's barebones supershows. 

Written by Ross Berman.