3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (14 Nov - Results & Review)

Paul Heyman's masterplan was one of the highlights from this week's up and down SmackDown. Blue brand GM Nick Aldis was left reeling as The Vision's mouthpiece revealed that he'd drafted in the suspended Drew McIntyre for the heel WarGames team at Survivor Series. That show-closing bombshell did give Friday night some juice, but questions remain about the validity of both double cage matches on the card come 29 November.

The women's one, in particular, is seriously poor. Here, WWE tried to add some drama into the mix between Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley, but the whole thing is painfully uninteresting. This might well be one of the weakest WarGames lineups ever, to be honest. Even The Dungeon Of Doom from WCW's Fall Brawl 1995 pay-per-view will be shaking their heads.

Elsewhere, Zack Ryder wrestled his first match for WWE since March 2020, Jade Cargill has been turned into Ryback, there was more fun in John Cena's 'Last Time Is Now' tournament, and Ilja Dragunov worked another 'Open Challenge' segment for his United States Title. Sadly, that didn't quite live up to more recent efforts.

There was a bland face to face involving Sami Zayn, his buddies, Solo Sikoa and the MFT group too.

Reports are doing the rounds that SmackDown will return to the 3 hour format seen earlier this year come January 2026. That's worrying, because Triple H's creative team isn't showing a lot right now. WWE are back to booking around a calendar and punting stipulation matches out to the fit the month/PLE rather than because they make sense.

Here's all the good and bad from Friday night.