3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (21 Nov - Results & Review)

The lineups for every team involved in both WarGames matches on next weekend's Survivor Series 2025 PLE are now complete. WWE tidied things up during a double shot taping for SmackDown in Denver on Friday night. Violence is always expected to play a part in WarGames bouts, so it was interesting that Triple H saw fit to deliver then instantly squash that idea during the show.

In retrospect, maybe one angle involving Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre should've been left on the cutting room floor. It didn't do much to sell the latter as a rampant force who's going to take some babyfaces out for good come Survivors and the double cage main event. Put it this way: Minor details matter when it comes to build for WarGames.

On the women's side, both AJ Lee and Becky Lynch signed on for some PLE fun of their own, and SmackDown kept the John Cena tournament stuff ticking along. There was a shock result in the brackets to report on, but the main event (which looked excellent on paper) was a complete disappointment. Sorry, but it was.

Back on a more positive note, Ilja Dragunov's United States Title 'Open Challenge' segment improved on last week's offering, and there was a fun tag-team sprint that may/may not take Axiom's unmasking further.

In times of peace, prepare for war. Apparently, Trips and his writers didn't prepare much of anything for this year's WarGames. Oh well, at least the matches will be watchable once things get going, eh?

Here's all the good and bad from Friday's penultimate lead-in.