WWE SmackDown 11/14 Recap: Drew McIntyre Joins Team Vision To Lay Out Cody Rhodes

But instead of a huge push towards singles success, the episode’s ending segment established a larger feud amongst feuding faces and heels atop the men’s roster. Logan Paul eventually made his way out to the ring to help The Vision’s effort before The USOs made their group entrance (TOGETHER) to have Cody’s back as promised earlier in the night.

Drew McIntyre, the man who is typically inserted onto the heel team during WARGAMES season, entered the ring and revealed himself as Heyman’s SmackDown team member, much to the disliking of Aldis. The heels ended the show on top, with both USOs, and Cody stretched, as SD faded to black, and the narrative now depends on the faces finding that ‘final’ team member to join the effort and even the odds.

JOHN CENA SWEEPSTAKES

JEY USO VS THE MIZ—LAST TIME IS NOW’ Tournament: Round 1

Jey Uso advanced in the Cena Sweepstakes after defeating The Miz by pinfall in a very fun match. Miz has genuine history with Cena, and even though he has little chance to finish the tourney finals with his hand raised, he certainly makes more sense to stick around beyond round one. Still, if this entire tourney is about pushing the future, then obviously Jey is the benefactor—though it is worth mentioning that Miz and Jey are only 5 years apart in age.

The Miz hit his ‘Skull Crushing Finale’ for a near fall and even offered up his own ‘Cena impression’ as a sort of troll-ish nod.

LA KNIGHT VS ZACH RYDER—LAST TIME IS NOW Tournament—Round One

Superstars from ‘outside the company’ were promised for the John Cena tourney, and that promise was delivered in the form of Matt Cardona/ Zach Ryder. The man who revamped his career in the indies by being his most authentic creative version came back for his own possible “last time is now” moment as the Ryder character.

Knight took the victory, and it makes you wonder why they booked anyone in this spot at all, especially considering how commentary buried Ryder for “playing with toys,” which was somehow a troll of his very successful podcast and web series.

LAST TIME IS NOW TOURNAMENT MATCHUP ANNOUNCMENTS

Nic Aldis drew the names to continue the tournament’s first round:

CARMELO HAYES VS BRONSON REED

PENTA VS FINN BALOR

WHEN IT COMES TO THE WOMEN’S DIV… ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND WARRRRGAMES

The opening segment in front of the MVP Arena crowd was a ‘continuation’ of MNR’s finale in Boston that saw a cohesive effort from the faces of the women’s division after Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss lost the tag titles to The Kabuki Warriors—Auska has led the heel charge heading into SSWG. RAW faded to black, with the image of a unified face, front and center, united by a common enemy.

However, tonight’s joint promo — initially beginning with just Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky — skewed the story away from a fully functioning team unrealistically coming together with zero regard for past feuds. Instead, Flair eventually grabbed the mic and admitted to Bliss standing by Rhea and Sky center-ring that she ‘could not do it anymore’ in reference to playing nice with Rhea.

Flair went on to say that her rivalry with Rhea makes her untrustworthy, while, in true face fashion, simultaneously admitting that Rhea has every right not to trust her. She eventually stormed out of the ring with Bliss chasing after her. Then, later in the evening, Bliss was seen attempting to convince Rhea and Sky to remain patient and allow her to persuade Flair to rejoin rather than finding two new team members.

During this backstage segment, the faces were attacked as Sky seemed adamantly opposed to Bliss’s idea to ‘talk to Flair,’ and the heels capitalized on the dissenting team.

DRAGUNOV-AXIOM CONTINUE THE U.S. TITLE OPEN CHALLENGE SHOW

DIY was seen confronting GM Aldis, a familiar sight, regarding Ciampa’s opportunity to answer the open challenge call from the champion Dragunov. Dragunov, like the past couple of weeks, had another direction in mind with Axiom—Fraxiom has been trolling DIY over the last couple of weeks, and the tag team has been friendly with Dragunov.

The match was a banger and worth a full watch, as this open challenge continued its momentum and, once again, Dragunov successfully retained the title.

OTHER TIDBITS/IN-RING ACTION

• Sami Zayn called out Solo Sikoa after weeks of clashing with the MFT faction. The Solo-led group obliged Sami right away and attempted to cut to his core with talk of Sami’s ‘selfishness’ and pathetic nature. Solo is so used to setting traps that he did not foresee the one Sami set, which appeared to leave him alone but enabled the assistance of Nakamura, Rey Fenix, and The Motor City Machine Guns. The whole thing ended in a giant brawl just in time for a traditional Survivor Series match. It does make you wonder… what happened to the direction of Wyatt Sicks? Either way, Aldis booked the traditional 5v5 Survivor Series elimination match between the feuding factions for two weeks from tonight ahead of SSWG.

• Jade Cargill destroyed B-Fab in a semi-squash match, but the champ may have landed a new challenger in the aftermath of this singles affair. Michin came to B-Fab’s aid, then exchanged a tumultuous glance that further strained relations with the champ. This is likely a transitional feud before a larger one is presented.