WWE SmackDown Notes: Carmelo Hayes & Penta Advances in The Last Time Is Now Tournament, Charlotte Flair & AJ Lee Joins Team Ripley and Becky Lynch Joins Team Kabuki Warriors Women’s WarGames Teams, Full Bracket Revealed for The Last Time Is Now Tourn.

WWE
Nov 21, 2025

Carmelo Hayes & Penta Advances in The Last Time Is Now Tournament

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colordao featured two First Round matches for The Last Time Is Now Tournament.

This tournament will determine the official challenger for John Cena’s retirement match at the December 13th WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event show.

The first match was Carmelo Hayes defeating “Big” Bronson Reed.

The second match was Penta defeating Finn Balor.

As a result of their victories, Hayes will be facing off against Gunther and Penta will be facing off against Solo Sikoa in the Quarterfinal Round of The Last Time Is Now Tournament.

Charlotte Flair Joins Rhea Ripley’s WarGames Team

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured Charlotte Flair officially agreeing to join Rhea Ripley’s team for the Women’s WarGames match at Survivor Series WarGames 2025.

This was intially setup over recent weeks shows over Flair initially backing out of being on Ripley’s team due to her issues with their past bad blood and still not trusting her calling her a snake and saying Ripley feels the same about her. During this past Monday’s RAW show, Flair ran out to the ring to save Alexa Bliss, IYO SKY, and Ripley after the Kabuki Warriors, Nia Jax, and Lash Legend had attacked them.

During tonight’s show, Bliss led Flair backstage to a room where Ripley and SKY were in leading to Flair being upset over seeing Ripley again but agreed to having a meeting with Ripley to hash things out.

In a follow-up segment, Ripley and Flair was seen talking together and agreed to put the past behind them and Flair agreed to be on Ripley’s team for their Women’s WarGames match.

Full Bracket Revealed for The Last Time Is Now Tournament

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured the full bracket being released for The Last Time Is Now Tournament.

It was also announced that due to Sheamus’ recent shoulder injury and him being pulled from his scheduled Quarterfinal Round match against LA Knight, Knight will now be facing off against a mystery opponent at next week’s show.

AJ Lee Revealed As Final Member of Team Rhea Ripley & Becky Lynch Reveal as Final Member of Team Kabuki Warriors’ Women’s WarGames Teams

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured AJ Lee and Becky Lynch being revealed as the final members of the teams for the Women’s WarGames match at Survivor Series WarGames 2025, which takes place on November 29th at Petco Park in San Diego, California.

During the show, Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, Alexa Bliss, and Charlotte Flair came out to the ring. Ripley grabbed a microphone and talked about each member of her WarGames team and their upcoming match against the Kabuki Warriors, Nia Jax, & Lash Legend. Ripley then talked about how they are still at four people and you need five for WarGames. Ripley then revealed Lee as the final member of her team. This led to Lee’s music playing and her prancing out to the stage. This then led to the Kabuki Warriors, Jax, and Legend running out from the crowd and attacked Ripley’s team. After pulling a Jeff Hardy moment being oblvious over what was happening in the ring, Lee stopped her prancing and ran towards the ring. Before Lee could finish her run, Lynch ran out and ambushed attacked Lee at ringside laying her out.

The Kabuki Warriors, Jax, and Legend continued their attack on Ripley, SKY, Bliss, and Flair that ended after Jax hit an Anialator onto Ripley and bounced around a bit for added punishment. Jax, Legend, and the Kabuki Warriors celebrated as Lynch got into the ring and shook hands with Asuka revealing herself as the final member of the Kabuki Warriors WarGames team.

Current card for WWE Survivor Series WarGames 2025:

  • WWE Intercontinental Championship – “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio vs. John Cena (c)
  • WWE Women’s World Championship – Nikki Bella vs. Stephanie Vaquer (c)
  • Men’s WarGames match – CM Punk, Jey Uso, Cody Rhodes, Jimmy Uso, & Roman Reigns vs. The Vision (“Big” Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker), Logan Paul, Drew McIntyre, & Brock Lesnar
  • Women’s WarGames match – Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, Alexa Bliss, Charlotte Flair, & AJ Lee vs. Nia Jax, Lash Legend, Kabuki Warriors (Kairi Sane & Asuka), & Becky Lynch
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