ConfirmedWWE

Balor vs. Gunther Set for SmackDown Tonight After Crown Jewel Miss

Summary: WWE announced Finn Balor vs. Gunther for SmackDown tonight, Friday, Nov. 13, at 8 PM ET on USA Network. It is the match left off Crown Jewel on Nov. 7. We found no WWE explanation.

WrestlingNews.com Staff · 3 min read

The quick version

  • WWE announced Finn Balor vs. Gunther for SmackDown on Friday, Nov. 13, at the Amerant Bank Arena in South Florida, 8 PM ET on USA Network, per Fightful and Ringside News.
  • The match was built on TV but never made the Crown Jewel card on Nov. 7. WWE has not said why. An unconfirmed report says Gunther decided against the Saudi trip.
  • John Cena and WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton are also advertised. WWE's own SmackDown page, as we read it, lists those two and not the match.

WWE has announced Finn Balor vs. Gunther for tonight's SmackDown, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, per Fightful and Ringside News. The show starts at 8 PM ET on USA Network. Ringside News says WWE announced it on its official X account with the line "LET'S RUN IT BACK." We did not open that post. This story is built from Fightful's and Ringside News' reports, WWE's SmackDown page and our own earlier coverage.

What is set for tonight

Fightful's updated card for the show:

  • Finn Balor vs. Gunther
  • WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton to appear
  • John Cena to appear and discuss the John Cena Classic

WWE's SmackDown page for Nov. 13 lists the Cena and Stratton appearances. The text we read did not mention Balor vs. Gunther, so the match rests on Fightful and Ringside News for now. Ringside News gives the venue as the Amerant Bank Arena in Fort Lauderdale. WrestlingNews.co lists the same arena in Sunrise, Florida.

How the match got here

Balor brought back his Demon persona on the Oct. 30 SmackDown and took out Gunther, per Fightful. On the Nov. 6 SmackDown, Gunther demanded the "real" Balor and left the ring when Balor came out without the paint. See our SmackDown results.

The match did not appear on the Crown Jewel card on Nov. 7. We found no WWE explanation. Ringside News says Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that WWE had already filmed segments for the match and that Gunther decided against traveling to Saudi Arabia. That is an unconfirmed report. WWE and Gunther have not commented. See our rumor story. On Nov. 9, Trick Williams pinned Gunther in a dark match after Raw, per F4W Online. See our dark match story.

What it means for the card

Our reading: WWE is using SmackDown, not a premium live event, for the payoff. Our opinion piece argued the match should keep building on SmackDown. It also puts the match on the same night as the next John Cena Classic invitation. See our Cena Classic story.

What we do not know

  • Whether the match has a stipulation, or whether Balor appears as the Demon.
  • Whether the result sets up anything for Survivor Series on Nov. 28.
  • Why the match was moved from Crown Jewel. WWE has not said.

Results will follow in our SmackDown recap after the show.

How we know

Source: Fightful (Ishaan Sharma) for the announcement and the card; Ringside News (Steve Carrier) for WWE's post on X and the Meltzer report it relays; WWE.com's SmackDown page for the Cena and Stratton appearances; WrestlingNews.co for the Sunrise listing. We read each page. We did not see WWE's X post, did not watch the show and did not contact WWE. The Meltzer report is labeled as unconfirmed wherever it appears.

Finn BalorGuntherWWE SmackDownJohn CenaTiffany StrattonCrown Jewel

Sources

How we credit sources: Editorial standards.

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