3 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (17 Oct - Results & Review)

Monday's episode of Raw saw Seth Rollins get dumped from his own faction amidst an injury-related flurry of booking changes and redirection. Come Friday night, WWE boss Triple H was forced to get his thinking cap on again, but there was talk of Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre taking place anyway despite conflicting reports that he'll be on the bench until some unknown point in 2026.

It turns out the 'Samoan Werewolf' is injured, so the writers had to come up with a hasty 'whodunit' and book Cody Rhodes like mid-2000 Ric Flair on WCW Nitro by having the champ wrestle "in his street clothes". The finish WWE went with on SmackDown has split opinion amongst fans already, but it looks like a Cody vs. Drew rematch is on the early format sheets for Saturday Night's Main Event come 1 November.

SmackDown also boasted a Women's Tag-Team Title match that's worth seeing, and a stunning United States Title change involving comeback king Ilja Dragunov. Hopefully, he's set to continue the great work now-former champion Sami Zayn was doing with his 'Open Challenge' segments every week - those led to some sparkling matches, and there's little doubt that Ilja could follow suit with aplomb.

Downsides came in the form of repetitive booking in the tag ranks, and WWE bizarrely rubbished their own Crown Jewel Championship gimmick less than one week after hyping it up as important. Why the company does things like that is anyone's guess. It's a rotten way to build then trash fan excitement, and it's why few take the international belts seriously to begin with.

Here's all the good and bad from Friday's effort.