Remember when WarGames was a giant deal?
Perhaps I’m just becoming jaded with WWE’s current product (and whether it is, I believe it’s impressive I managed to hold on for 4 and a half years), but this yr’s WarGames builds have been hit and miss, with things erring on the “miss” side on “WWE SmackDown.” Friday’s episode of the blue brand saw developments for each men and girls’s WarGames matches, and while there have been some redeemable qualities and interesting story beats, I am unable to help but feel like this episode of “SmackDown” did nothing to assist the stale air surrounding 2025’s WarGames season.
The night began with an, admittedly, huge development in the ladies’s WarGames scene, when Charlotte Flair walked out on Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, and, most notably, tag partner Alexa Bliss. While this, in theory, greatly changes the landscape for the ladies’s upcoming WarGames construct, it is the execution I find to be lacking. SKY’s “WARGAMES!” cry was cute and, truthfully, fitting, considering her history with WarGames, but aside from that, “SmackDown’s” opening women’s segment felt really contrived. RHIYO was cute, but shallow. Bliss, someone who’s renowned for her microphone skills, cut a particularly juvenile and stunted promo against Lash Legend, Nia Jax, and The Kabuki Warriors. Flair walked into the ring with not a lick of uncertainty to be present in her dazzling grin, but by the point she took the mic, she cut a promo concerning the history of bad blood between herself and Ripley: an argument that’s, on the surface, logical, but one which crumbles while you realize that almost every woman in that ring has argued, quarreled, or straight-up warred against the opposite before. This story beat worked — and will proceed to work — in theory, but not in practice. If the women need to sell us this story, I will need some more sauce (especially from women like Ripley, Bliss, and Flair, who’re known mic employees).
Drew McIntyre made a press release together with his WarGames declaration (on The Vision’s side), but I am unable to say the identical for Jimmy Uso. The second Uso twin took to a backstage segment to informed Cody Rhodes that he had “just got off the phone with CM Punk,” and now was officially in WarGames. I get that it’s Jimmy Uso, and that we, respectfully, don’t need a number of fanfare from him, but for those who’re not going to make him a vital player in WarGames, why add him in any respect? Give that position to someone more over than Jimmy is.
Perhaps I’m just becoming jaded with WWE’s current product, but overall, neither of those matches have been increase to anything. Much less a William Regal-style “WARGAMES!” screech.
Written by Angeline Phu