Moments From WWE SmackDown November 14 2025

WWE SmackDown Ratings Rise with Zack Ryder's Return and McIntyre's Attack

Originally posted on The Sportster | By Kellie Crawford | Last updated Nov 19, 2025 4:07 PM ET

SmackDown ratings ticked up: Nov 14 drew 1.158M viewers and a 0.27 demo, up from Nov 7's 1.141M/0.26.
SmackDown finished second on cable, trailing Clemson–Louisville college football (2.564M, 0.53 demo).
LA Knight beat Zack Ryder in the Last Time Is Now tourney; McIntyre attacked Cody and joined the WarGames team.

WWE SmackDown has seen an increase in its viewership and ratings since its infamous Halloween episode that saw a record low for the blue brand. Two weeks ago, on November 7, saw an increase, and now last week’s (November 14) episode shows it wasn’t a fluke.

SmackDown Finishes Second On Cable

Programming Insider released a report on the ratings for last week, and in the report, it was revealed that the November 14 episode of SmackDown drew 1.158 million viewers on the USA Network. It’s up from the week before (November 7) with 1.141 million viewers.

The 18 to 49 demographic got a 0.27 rating, whereas the November 7 episode was 0.26. Now, the great news for SmackDown is that it finished second on cable again. It was only behind the college football game between Clemson vs. Louisville on ESPN. The viewership for the football game was 2.564 million viewers. It also scored more than double SmackDown's demo rating — 0.53.

What Happened During The Show?

While fans didn’t exactly know Zack Ryder was going to be on last week’s show, they did know that LA Knight was going to face a mystery opponent. WWE is in the midst of the Last Time Is Now Tournament, which was created to see who is going to be facing John Cena on December 13. It will be Cena’s final match. Knight would defeat Ryder and go on in the tournament. Ryder is currently wrestling in TNA and in the indie scene as Matt Cardona. This was his first WWE match under the Ryder name since March 2020.

Though Ryder wasn’t the only thing that happened on the show. It ended with Drew McIntyre attacking Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and joining Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, and Logan Paul for the WarGames match at Survivor Series on November 29. This past Monday’s episode of WWE Raw saw Brock Lesnar join the group, while Roman Reigns joined the team of Rhodes, WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk, Jimmy Uso, and Jey Uso.

Also, during the show, United States Champion Ilja Dragunov defeated Axiom in a U.S. Title Open Challenge, while WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill defeated B-Fab. The other Last Time Is Now Tournament match was a win for Jey Uso, who defeated The Miz in the first round match. It’s worth mentioning that the upcoming first round tournament matches for the November 21 SmackDown episode include Penta versus Finn Balor and Carmelo Hayes versus Bronson Reed. So there aren’t any mystery opponents this time around, but it should still be interesting…

This article first appeared on The Sportster and was syndicated with permission.

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