Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the only Friday night American wrestling show where you can see one title successfully defended three times in three weeks, and another title defended three total times (twice successfully) over the entire course of a record-breaking 134-day reign! Yeah, the WINC staff had some thoughts on Ilja Dragunov's and Chelsea Green's respective US title wins tonight though we might not be entirely as negative as you'd think! We actually have a lot to say about the women's division this time around, from Green's win to Lash Legend showing up to Jade Cargill hitting us with her old AEW line. As for the ostensible main event angle involving CodyRhodes, Aleister Black, Drew McIntyre, and Damian Priest ... yeah, sorry, we got nothing.
If you missed the show and/or you'd like to know more about the things we're not going to discuss here, you can as usual check out our "SmackDown" results page. If you want to know more about which matches and segments actually did make the WINC crew feel something, and why, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 11/7/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"
This week saw the latest installment of Ilja Dragunov's United States Championship open challenge as Johnny Gargano challenged for the title, albeit after his partner Tommaso Ciampa had been the one to answer the champion.
Ciampa had tried to get himself an opportunity at the title during last week's show, but he was shot down in lieu of FrAxiom's Nathan Frazer. And then this week he answered Dragunov, complained about the fact he had been shot down in lieu of Frazer, only to be shot down again this time in lieu of his tag team partner. It's certainly scraping the bottom of the barrel, and one has no idea where this is going as it pertains to Ciampa, but it yielded a fun little match between Dragunov and Gargano, so it did the job it was supposed to do.
Dragunov is a great choice of champion and continues to be one of the most compelling workers on the planet, and getting a guaranteed match from him every week is a sure promise of good action and that continues to be the case. The story and maybe the effort put into the actual creative end certainly leaves much to be desired, and Dragunov is certainly capable of and worth more than what he is currently up to. But as said, when supplied with good wrestling on a weekly basis from one of the world's best wrestlers, there isn't really much else to complain about.
Written byMaxEverett
I have to commend WWE for trying something a little different here with the promo that Jade Cargill cut on this edition of "SmackDown". The idea of Cargill coming to the ring to just say two sentences in order to leave an impact and send a clear message was a cool one, as it hasn't really been done too much. For that reason, it did leave a bit of a lasting impression but I still couldn't help feeling like there was still something missing from this promo.
Because Cargill is freshly the WWE Women's Champion, WWE had the chance to do just a little bit more with this segment to make it feel a little more rounded than I personally thought it ended up being. Whether it was a confrontation with another star to clearly set up who her first challenger would be or a promo parade (which I normally don't like but think could've worked here) with several members of the women's division airing their grievances with what Cargill had said, it would've added that substance here to make it feel like a bigger deal. It was almost there for me, but needed a little more to take it over the line.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
It's no secret how much I enjoy "WWE NXT," probably the most out of all three weekly WWE shows, and seeing Lash Legend appear on "SmackDown" tonight was such a nice surprise. It was even nicer to learn that it's seemingly her main roster call-up, as she's now officially litsted as a blue brand star on WWE's website.
While it may seem a little strange to bring her up to put her in a tag team with Nia Jax after Legend's original Meta-Four tag team partner Jakara Jackson was released back in May, I can't be too mad about it. I want to see Legend as a singles star, but if this is how she gets called up from developmental, then so be it. She can prove herself alongside a fellow powerhouse in Jax, and the eventual feud between them once they break up will be good.We saw that a little bit on "NXT" back in August, and I like how Jax brought that up tonight in their backstage interview with Cathy Kelley. Jax acknowledged that they had faced each other before, which is something WWE often choses not to do, and said she knew Legend was a "formidable opponent."
Jax and Legend can challenge WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair for the gold, and either they win, beginning the "Charlexa" breakup angle, or we get a feud between Jax and "The Boujee Bully" on the main roster pretty quickly. I just can't see Flair and Bliss losing just yet, so I'm okay with the former.
I also really like how "NXT" stars can just be randomly being called up here-and-there, rather than just after WrestleMania. It feels more organic. Legend hasn't been involved in anything really of note on "NXT," so this storyline makes sense for her to move up. If she had business to wrap up on "NXT," I still think this all would have worked. While Idon't know if I necessarily see huge things for Legend alongside Jax, it's a stepping stone to get her onto the blue brand, which I'm excited about, and the powerhouse pairing absolutely makes sense.
Written byDaisyRuth
I'm happy that Chelsea Green is getting her flowers, that hasn't changed from either the first time she won the Women's United States title or this time, defeating Giulia on Friday night's "WWE SmackDown." She deserves it, and she is a great choice to hold the title and perhaps inherit it from a champion who could be moving onto bigger things. However, that doesn't mean I'm happy with the way everything went down, partly for the aforementioned reasons.
In 134 days as champion, Giulia defended her title a grand total of three times, the third being Friday's defeat to Chelsea Green, with her instead aligned with Kiana James and trying to offer protection to Tiffany Stratton as WWE Women's Champion. Her opponents were the former champion she defeated in June, Zelina Vega, as well as Michin before Green, and there's not much that could be discerned from Giulia's reign aside from that.
That's just not good enough; one of the best wrestlers in the world between bells, winning the title and defending it in what amounts to less than an hour's worth of wrestling. Green is picking up a title that hasn't really seen much change since she held it the first time, so it will be interesting what the future holds for her with the title once more, but it is somewhat concerning that so little had been done with Giulia during her time as champion, especially moving forward without it.
Written byMax Everett
All hail your new Women's US Champion, Chelsea Green (again). Green succeeded in her quest to be the first and fourth person to hold the title. Just last week, Green won the AAA Mixed Tag Team titles with Ethan Page. Page is also the NXT Men's North American Champion. I love that while they're holding a AAA title, these Canadians also hold the US and North American titles simultaneously. Green and Page have a lot of chemistry and are the perfect people to hold these titles. They're going to be even more obnoxious as double champions (complimentary).
Green was the perfect choice to be the inaugural women's US Champion. She set the tone as the champion and assembled the Secret Hervice. Although this reign won't have Slaygent P, she still has Slaygent Fyre. They've been looking for someone to fill in for Piper Niven since she was injured and now's the perfect time to speed up the process. Since Green lost the title, the title has lost a lot of its importance. Giulia should've elevated the title to the next level, but her reign was not good (as my colleague will expand upon). With the title back around Green's waist, she can rebuild its prestige and make the US title great again.
Written by Samantha Schipman
I thought this on Monday after "WWE Raw," but tonight solidified the thought in my head. Or, rather, I guess the confusion. I'm so confused as to what, or what's not, going on for Survivor Series, in terms of the WarGames matches, and both shows this week did absolutely nothing to fix that for me. The only solid information we really have on either the men's or the women's match comes for the former, with The Vision's Paul Heyman, Bron Breakker, and Bronson Reed on the poster for the show. I'm assuming the "Brons" are the main members of a heel WarGames team, but I truly have no idea who would be teaming with them if that's the case.
The teams, or even the direction of any potential team-ups, are very unclear on both shows, but any "SmackDown" involvement is even more fuzzy. There was speculation online that maybe it would be the Wyatt Sicks, though there are only four of them, against the MFTs, but, now, the entire tag team division is just brawling, despite the Wyatts hanging around the MFTs all spooky-like backstage. Though, they have faced off in the ring a few times. There's also former United States Champion Sami Zayn's involvement and his ongoing feud with Solo Sikoa, so I guess Zayn could team with the Wyatt Sicks to make things even against the MFTs if that's where they're going. But, again, you have the Motor City Machine Guns, Rey Fenix, and Shinsuke Nakamura all involved in this story somewhere as well, or at least in the various brawls around it.
It doesn't seem like Undisputed WWE ChampionCody Rhodes is set to be in the match, either, as it looks like he might be teaming up with Damian Priest to take on Drew McIntyre and Aleister Black, if he's not just facing McIntyre again at the premium live event. Overall, with just over three weeks until Survivor Series, I'm completely clueless as to who the men's WarGames teams are going to be. Hopefully WWE gets the ball moving on Monday, but it seems like a lot of focus on upcoming shows is going to be the "Last Time is Now" tournament.
I suppose the rant on the possible women's team is a rant for another day, but I could at least see the vision for them before Rhea Ripley got injured, and I'm not exactly sure the blue brand's women were going to factor into that match anyway. It feels like WWE is kind of phoning it in for Survivor Series this year, and for the show that's often considered the least exciting of the "Big Four" events, that's not a good look.
Written byDaisyRuth
