Albany, New York, was treated to a “WWE SmackDown” in the middle of 2025’s WarGames season Friday night. Aside from the moment in our recap headline, there’s not much else you need to know.
Rumors surfaced today that “WWE SmackDown” will return to its three-hour format in 2026. Watch the start of this show to see just one reason why that will be a tremendously awful idea.
I will do anything you want, Triple H. I’m begging you. Don’t do this to us.
OK. With that specific note out of the way, I will say that the show’s opening rounded out better than I expected, but was strangely awkward regardless. Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky made their way to the ring to address their rinse-and-repeat WarGames match that Ripley initiated this past Monday on “Raw.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but we literally had seen the same thing before, specifically with Ripley at the helm, shouting out the match.
“Rhiyo” couldn’t have been happier to be out there and assemble this team that really made no sense other than having their common enemies. Specifically, it was a history-breaker between Ripley and Charlotte Flair, with the latter and Alexa Bliss making their way to the ring. Thankfully, WWE decided not to ignore history.
Everyone hugged in the ring except for Flair and Ripley, which was a nice subtle touch until Flair proclaimed she “can’t do this.” She played into the history with Ripley, saying how they can’t trust each other, noting the depth before she bailed out. All the while, Sky acted bewildered in the background, which was hilarious because, obviously, she shouldn’t be shocked.
Nonetheless, I’m glad the sanctity of history was respected here, even though it was an awkward ending to the segment, having Flair just waltz away with the others left in the ring.
Later in the night, Nia Jax’s squad attacked the faces backstage just because. Whatever.
A stunning development has unfolded, folks. LA Knight is back in the win column and advancing through the John Cena retirement tournament. He’s digging his way out of the ground slowly but surely, although I don’t expect it to last.
Even though it shouldn’t have been too surprising, since he had a mystery opponent. But in that mystery opponent, we saw the WWE return of Matt Cardona, AKA Zack Ryder. Although he wasn’t his just his recently Indy god-ified real-name self, a Ryder return is cool to see, and you could tell he was loving the moment.
These two put on a solid match and meshed pretty well. The Rough Ryder counter off Knight’s missed elbow drop sold me a ticket, considering how the “Megastar” has been booked in recent months. But he ultimately got the job done with a sweet powerbomb into the BFT.
We’re going to enjoy the Knight wins whenever they happen, and a good little surprise is always welcomed.
I’m not even going to spend much time on this because we’ve seen it countless times. A main event DQ. How original.
Bron Breakker and Logan Paul attacked Cody Rhodes, giving him the win against Bronson Reed in their Universal WWE title match. This all came after Rhodes couldn’t resist randomly giving Reed a title shot backstage out of a sense of fighting spirit. His consistent character trait of doing this needs to eventually cost him the title.
All the WarGames members outside of CM Punk showed up after to ignite a brawl, and align Drew McIntyre to The Vision’s side which is also illogical. The Paul Heyman history McIntyre shares from his Bloodline hatred would have you assume this was impossible if WWE respected its viewers who watched long-term. But all that was scrubbed from on-screen memory, of course, so who am I kidding?
1. Jey Uso (unsurprisingly) defeated The Miz with the spear-Uso splash combo for the pin. The winner doesn’t make me love this, but again, it was expected, and they put on a decent match with some solid moments. The Miz even broke out John Cena’s five moves of doom, as he failed to advance in this retirement tournament match.
2. Ilja Dragunov defended his U.S. title against Axiom in yet another open challenge banger. This match was another that you’d expect to be as good as it was, but it admittedly felt a little shorter than it could have been to reach the heights of Dragunov’s previous matches.
3. Jade Cargill squashed B-Fab, essentially ripping off Wardlow’s old powerbomb gimmick before she hit Jaded in under five minutes. This is a case of better late than never, because WWE simply waited to book Cargill like AEW did a dominant force. It feels funny because it came off a random heel turn, but it remains effective for what it is.
1. Sami Zayn returned to continue his feud with Solo Sikoa for, honestly, no good reason. It feels like a completely directionless, uninspired and lazy way to get these wrestlers back on TV, including involving the Motor City Machine Guns, Rey Fenix and Shinsuke Nakamura. Everyone involved (outside of MFT) is great, but I couldn’t care less about this combination.
Thankfully, there won’t be a third WarGames match added to the slate, but there will be a big tag team match before Survivor Series.
2. WWE messed up the latest Cena retirement tour match announcements for two reasons. Firstly, Reed was never going to take the title from Rhodes, but announcing his tournament match against Carmello Hayes before the match spoiled it entirely. The other match? Penta vs. Finn Balor.
Really, Triple H? After we’ve seen Penta continuously feud with The Judgment Day in recent months? These were both misses, especially since Hayes will surely keep floundering around the mid-card with another loss.
3. Aleister Black and Zelina cut a vignette promo on Damian Priest. Cool. So this feud has become one with no end in sight despite the perfect ending in their Last Man Standing match.
Shuffle. The. Roster.
“SmackDown” deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for its incredible ability to maintain such boring, peacefully uninteresting levels of intrigue. I give this show a Crown score of: 2/10.