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WWE SmackDown Results (11/13/26): Cena Gets Emotional, Surprise Return Leads to WarGames

Tonight's episode of WWE SmackDown saw Cena return to scout the next participant of the John Cena Classic.
Matt Black|
John Cena
John Cena | WWE

Friday night's episode of WWE SmackDown took place at the Amerant Bank Arena in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Last week's episode featured a huge main event in which Kevin Owens defeated CM Punk in a No Holds Barred match. It seemed to set up KO as the next in line to challenge Sami Zayn for the WWE Championship.

Check out the complete results from tonight's episode below.

WWE SmackDown results:

This week's episode kicked off with John Cena coming out to the ring to address the WWE Universe. Cena puts over the upcoming John Cena Classic as an opportunity for the stars of NXT to get their first exposure on Raw. Cena introduces Charlotte Flair as the latest participant in the John Cena Classic.

Charlotte Flair comes out to the ring and shakes Cena's hand before giving him a hug. Flair cut an emotional promo about trying to find a way to stand in the ring with Cena for the last 10 years, given the history between her and her dad and the number of world championships they've won.

Flair credits Cena with getting her career back on track two years ago, as she fought back tears. Cena puts over what Flair has done in WWE and tells her that she didn't have it easy; she just made it look easy. Cena believes that the person who will break his record of 17 World Championships will be her.

Booking Grade: 8.5/10

  • Genuine emotion from both Flair and Cena was nice to see
  • If fan voting is legitimate, it would be hard to imagine Flair winning the John Cena Classic
  • They probably overused a lot of inside terminology in this segment that probably went over a lot of fans' heads

Backstage in the General Manager's office, Nick Aldis spoke with Rey Mysterio, who teased that he was there tonight to recruit someone from the SmackDown roster for Team Mexico at Survivor Series. Cody Rhodes comes in and Mysterio excuses himself to go handle his business.

Aldis asked Rhodes where his head was at. Rhodes said he was focused on the traditional Survivor Series match for now, but after that event, he wanted to revisit the conversation about becoming the number one contender for the WWE Championship.

The WWE Tag Team Titles are on the line

In the opening contest of the evening, Bakusai challenged the MFTs for the WWE Tag Team Titles. The match ended when Nakamura hit the Kinsasha on Tama and went for the pinfall, only for the War Raiders to hit the ring and attack him, resulting in a disqualification.

Booking Grade: 6/10

  • Why attack both teams during a match instead of just attacking the winners afterward?
  • If you just attack after the match, you insert yourselves as top challengers instead of just being in the mix with the team already challenging
  • The match itself was very standard, as we've come to expect from these two teams working together

Cathy Kelley spoke with Finn Balor backstage. Balor hyped up his match tonight against Gunther, making it clear that we wouldn't be seeing the Demon tonight.

Back in the ring, Damian Priest went one-on-one with Axiom. The finish of the match saw Priest hit Axiom with the Razor's Edge to score the pinfall victory. After the match, Nathan Frazer tried to check on his partner, only to be beaten down by Priest as well.

Booking Grade: 9/10

  • Really fun match that was pretty much perfectly timed
  • Axiom got some fun hope spots in the match
  • Priest is seemingly being kept strong for a future title shot

Apparently all you have to do is complain to get into the John Cena Classic

Backstage, Fatal Influence confronts John Cena and verbally tears him apart for putting Charlotte Flair in the John Cena Classic instead of them. Cena thought about it for a moment, agreed with them, said they had ruthless aggression, and added all three of them to the tournament.

Back at ringside, Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae, and WWE Champion Sami Zayn came out to the ring. Zayn spoke about what happened last week at Crown Jewel between him and Roman Reigns. Zayn said he needed respect from Reigns, and he got it, putting over the fact that he got Roman to acknowledge him.

Kevin Owens interrupted to talk about what he went through last week and admitted that, regardless of how he won, KO believes Zayn deserves to be WWE Champion. However, Owens also believes Zayn is the reason he's not the WWE Champion right now and said he needs to be the one to take the title from him.

Johnny Gargano interrupted and said he deserves the next title shot and Zayn is working to get him one. Owens shoves Gargano out of the way, telling him this doesn't concern him. Gargano attacked Owens from behind with a microphone, but Owens eventually nailed him with a Stunner before telling Zayn his title reign is on borrowed time.

Booking Grade: 9.5/10

  • Kevin Owens always does a great job putting truth into everything he says and does
  • It's clear a match between KO and Gargano is happening before Owens gets his title shot
  • I'm not sure KO will be the next WWE Champion, but I certainly wouldn't mind it

The latest member of Team Mexico is...

Backstage, we see CM Punk watching the segment as Cody Rhodes comes in, and the two basically complain about not being WWE Champions right now. Rey Mysterio interrupts and introduces the newest member of Team Mexico, Rey Fenix. Punk gives Rhodes a list of names as suggestions to add to their team and tells him to keep an open mind.

Things headed back to the ring as Charlotte Flair took on Women's United States Champion Jacy Jayne in a non-title match. The finish of the match saw outside interference from Fallon Henley, Leiny Reid, Tatum Paxley, Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Michin, B-Fab, Jade Cargill, and a returning Stephanie Vaquer, whose distraction led to Flair hitting Jayne with Natural Selection to score the pinfall victory.

Booking Grade: 7.5/10

  • It's all about WarGames at this point
  • The match was good overall
  • It's weird this match was non-title

Cathy Kelley spoke with the Charlotte Flair-led WarGames team backstage. Stephanie Vaquer said Flair gave her a call to join the team, and she couldn't say no.

Tiffany Stratton explains her actions

WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton came to the ring to address the WWE Universe. Stratton dedicated her second title reign to her ex-BFF Chelsea Green, who immediately interrupted and made her way to the ring. Green said clearly they were never friends to begin with because Stratton knew how much Crown Jewel meant to her. Green said she'll sleep soundly at night knowing she's the Crown Jewel Champion and wants her ring back.

Stratton said Green stole her moment at SummerSlam when she was supposed to become champion, so she stole the moment back at Crown Jewel. Stratton told Green that if she wanted the ring, she could have it, then dropped it on the mat and told her she could enjoy the rest of her career in catering. The two women brawled, and Stratton picked the ring back up and decked Green with it, knocking her out.

Booking Grade: 9/10

  • Stratton gave a decent explanation for turning on Green at Crown Jewel
  • Green showed great emotion over being betrayed
  • Stratton shines as a heel on the microphone

Keep refreshing throughout the evening for the Takedown on SI's live coverage of tonight's episode of WWE SmackDown.

WWE SmackDown quick results:

Charlotte Flair WWE SmackDown
Charlotte Flair | WWE
  • Bakusai defeated the MFTs via disqualification when the War Raiders got involved
  • Damian Priest defeated Axiom
  • Charlotte Flair defeated Jacy Jayne in a non-title match
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Matt Black
MATT BLACK

Matt Black got involved in the wrestling media industry over two decades ago, covering WWE video games released by Acclaim, THQ, and 2K. He has been covering professional wrestling for multiple digital outlets since 2019. He is the former Senior Editor of WrestleZone and has extensive knowledge of the entire wrestling industry. In his spare time, Matt enjoys cheering for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Lakers. He's also a diehard comic book movie fan and doesn't pick sides when it comes to the endless debates of Marvel versus DC.

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