Another episode of SmackDown is in the books, meaning it’s time to look back at the show to identify the highs and lows of an episode that featured Gunther finally going one-on-one with Finn Balor.

The Good

Gunther

First of all, credit to Gunther for refusing to travel to Saudi Arabia. I won’t rehash what I’ve already written about Crown Jewel; suffice to say I thought it was a bad look for WWE to run a show there right now. His match with Balor had been built up for a while now—it was reportedly supposed to happen at Crown Jewel—and it was the best in-ring action on the show by a country mile. The finish was cleverly booked, with Gunther willing to take an unplanned shortcut when the ref was incapacitated to get the win. I’m sure we’re still getting a match with Balor’s “Demon” persona. WWE has struggled to book Gunther outside of title programs and, say what you will about Balor’s spot on the card in 2026, this at least feels like a proper feud.

Other Highlights

• Sami Zayn just continues to deliver on the mic and with his character work. Kevin Owens was excellent as well, and their relationship has such depth to draw from; it really adds another layer to storylines with them. Johnny Gargano continues to play his role effectively, too.

• I’m not sure how much of the Charlotte Flair and John Cena segment was genuine, but it came across as such. So, either it was well performed or a legit nice moment between the two.

The Bad

MFTs vs. Bakusai

At this point I feel like I’m beating a dead horse—though ideally not with Haku’s super important walking stick, which broke yet again on Friday night. Their match was decent at best, the crowd doesn’t really care about any of them, and the one thing they might have gotten excited for (a title switch) didn’t happen when War Raiders showed up and laid waste to everyone. With Fraxiom currently keeping the Damian Priest/R-Truth feud going while Truth recovers, this is the entirety of the SmackDown tag division. We’ll get a Triple Threat match at some point. Maybe 946 will get involved after Survivor Series. I don’t know. All that talk about revitalizing the tag-team scene in WWE has gone exactly nowhere.

Other Lowlights

• I find the way Cody Rhodes and CM Punk are behaving now to be really weird. Rhodes finally “pulled the trigger” and put down Randy Orton. CM Punk lost clean as a sheet in a No DQ match to Owens. Now, they’re both doing a semicomedy bit for Survivor Series? Shouldn’t Rhodes be hunting a title match? Shouldn’t Punk be furious he lost to Owens? We’ve gotten none of that in appearances on Raw and SmackDown.

• The follow-up to Tiffany Stratton and Chelsea Green was meh. Green’s booking continues to underwhelm, and she again was made to look like a fool.

The Ugly

Stephanie Vaquer

On paper, Flair and Jacy Jayne is an interesting match. Here, it was just a backdrop to more endless interference to lead to War Games. We knew going in that the heels had the numbers advantage, so another member was needed for the good gals. Enter…Stephanie Vaquer? Of all the women on the roster, I’m not sure they could’ve made a more random choice. Vaquer has spent basically the entirety of 2026 feuding with Liv Morgan and Becky Lynch on Raw over the WWE Women’s World Championship. She has zero connection to Charlotte, Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Tatum Paxley, or this feud. Why is she here? Why not have Vaquer face Morgan and let Lynch, who at least has history with Charlotte and Bayley, be the fifth member? This just all felt so remarkably lazy and poorly thought out. Vaquer deserves better.