12/25/2020: WWE Friday Night SmackDown Results and Review

Dec 31, 202011 min read

Updated: Apr 4, 2021

This show... wow.

When I say I was blown away by this show, I mean it.

As many professional wrestling fans know (and struggle with often,) the WWE is not exactly known for putting out a stellar product 24/7. Whether it's a lack of storyline continuity, the two-to-three-hour dedication of watching programming, or a general disinterest in the current "big" storyline - the WWE isn't always the most easily digestible brand in professional wrestling. However, this Christmas rendition of Friday Night Smackdown certainly delivered greater than most would have expected. Without further ado, let's dive into the action.

The show begins.

This episode of WWE SmackDown was taped on Tuesday, December 22, 2020. Somehow, I avoided running into spoilers before the show began - and as an avid r/SquaredCircle Redditor, that's pretty uncommon. Pyro is filling the WWE ThunderDome (I still can't get over that name) at Tropicana Field, Florida. Christmas trees surrounded the WWE ThunderDome as Michael Cole and Corey Graves welcome us to the show. As the steel cage lowers, it dawns on me that we're starting off SmackDown with the WWE Universal Championship match!

Steel Cage Match for the WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c.) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Kevin Owens

As per the rules of a steel cage match, the winner is determined via pinfall, submission, climbing out of the cage, or walking out of the door (remember this part for later...)

This match starts off hot and heavy. Owens is walking into this match the challenger, but his headspace is already victorious compared to Reigns. The last time Roman Reigns defended his championship against Kevin Owens, Reigns retained solely off the assist from Jey Uso. Owens knows that he can beat Reigns based on their last encounter; all he has to do is make it happen.

Reigns and Owens are purely laying into each other, holding nothing back. Owens got a lot of offense in on Reigns, followed by intentional camera shots of Paul Heyman looking distraught outside of the steel cage. One spot that caught me off-guard involved Reigns countering a pop-up powerbomb into a Rough Ryder (shoutout my boy, Matt Cardona,) and earning a two-count for it. I popped huge for seeing the Rough Ryder.

The match continues on with an intensity unrivaled by any other match on this card. Popup powerbombs, stunners, superman punches, and the rest of your classic maneuvers make an appearance in this match-up. One innovative spot occurred halfway through the match as Owens crawled to the apron (between the ring and the cage) to recover. Using the ropes for leverage, Owens attempted to pull himself up to his feet only to be caught in a guillotine choke from The Tribal Chief. However, Owens went on to utilize the ropes again and reverse this attempted maneuver with a choke of his own, hanging Reigns up on the ropes.

Owens and Reigns both attempted multiple cage climbs just to shoot each other down at the last second. More impactful maneuvers are performed until Reigns finally lays Kevin out with a Spear. 1... 2.... NO! Kevin Owens kicked out of the spear at two! Reigns, shocked by this, called for the referee to open the cage door - but Owens just will not die. Owens grabbed Reigns' foot to inhibit his exit. Owens, from a prone position, grabbed the door to the steel cage and slammed it into the face of Reigns until Reigns collapsed. Owens attempted to crawl out through the door only to be stopped by none other... then Jey Uso.

What's new? Jey Uso is back at ringside to help out his beloved Tribal Chief. The action intensifies at this point, as both men are throwing out finishing maneuver attempts. Spear attempts. Pop-up powerbomb attempts. Stunner attempts. Finally, after landing a Stunner on Roman Reigns, Owens crawled towards the door once more only to have his arm grabbed by Jey Uso who was still lurking at ringside. Uso then went on to handcuff Kevin Owens to the steel cage. Reigns then regained his composure and, realizing what had happened, regained his confidence. Reigns stepped over Owens, jaw-jacking with him on the way out, and made his slow descent down the steel stairs to exit the cage. As Reigns steps to the floor, Owens is handcuffed to the steel cage fuming. Owens screamed obscene lines at Reigns, the line landing the hardest being: "You're a little bitch."

Result: Roman Reigns retains the WWE Universal Championship via Cage Escape in 27 minutes.

Grade: A-

At the beginning of SmackDown, I was confused as to why the WWE would begin the night with the world championship match. However, it makes sense considering SmackDown aired directly after FOX aired an NFL game. Despite its place on the card, this match delivered in spades. While I loved Owens' reign as WWE Universal Champion in 2016, babyface Kevin Owens is an incredible contender to chase the championship against heel Roman Reigns. There were multiple times throughout the match in which I truly believed Kevin Owens would win, and the convincing nature of this performance made it even more compelling. This was a great final WWE Universal Championship match to close off the year 2020.

Let's have a women's tag team championship match!

The WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Charlotte Flair and Asuka, made their entrance as we get set for a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match! However, with this match being (seemingly) thrown together for the sake of having a title match, we have to build a story! What better way to do that than the typical WWE women's booking trope of throwing every competitor in the ring and giving them one-to-two minutes to say why they're better than their adversaries, right?!

Flair and Asuka cut a promo about how proud they were to be on SmackDown programming again, before being quickly shut down by an interruption from Bayley. Bayley cut's a promo about how 2020 was a "downer" year for everyone else in the world... except her. She then goes on to list her accomplishments from this year before being interrupted by the WWE SmackDown Women's Champion, Sasha Banks. Banks cuts a promo reminding Bayley who exactly it was that ended her 380-day championship reign. Bianca Belair comes down to ringside to remind everyone in ears distance that she is the "EST of WWE, the fastest, the toughest, the strongest," etc. Carmella then makes her entrance toting her sommelier, Reginald, down to ringside. She first refers to every woman in the ring as "witches," then corrected herself, later referring to them as "bitches." (When that happened, there was this funny moment where Charlotte covered Asuka's eyes like an overprotective mother coddling a child - great timing.) Doing her best Scarlett Bordeaux impression, Carmella makes vaguely sexual innuendos before Banks shoves Carmella to the ground. Now, it's time for the match.

Triple Threat Elimination Tag Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships: Asuka and Charlotte Flair (c.) vs. Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair vs. Carmella and Bayley (w/ Reginald)

This is the standard action that you would expect from performers the caliber of Asuka, Charlotte, Banks, Belair, Bayley, and Carmella. The pacing in this match started fairly slowly but picked up quickly thereafter. Part-way through the match, though, The Riott Squad, Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan, are seen backstage watching the match-up in the stereotypical "who watches television like that?" WWE style we know and love. Commentary references that they feel they deserved to be involved in this match, but no mention is made of The Riott Squad throughout the rest of the night.

You know how these matches go - lots of quick tags and high spots, and I loved every moment of it. After tons of back and forth action, in a moment that surprised me, Sasha Banks hit Bayley with a frog splash to pin her and eliminate Bayley and Carmella from the match.

After this, there is an interesting spot that I popped huge for involving Sasha, Charlotte, and Bianca. (Gosh, I hope we see a Charlotte Flair-Bianca Belair singles match in the near future.) Charlotte lands a big boot on Banks, then locked in then Figure-Eight Leglock. Despite her best efforts to fight out of it, Sasha Banks was bound to tap if she couldn't get to the ropes. With this in mind, Belair managed to throw her hair to Banks, like a lasso, to pull Banks towards the ropes and force a break in the hold. I lost my mind at this spot, I thought it was genius.

Afterward, Banks managed to pull herself up on the apron before getting knocked off by Asuka with a hip attack, sending her crashing into Reginald on the floor! Bayley begins to chastize Banks and Belair for the incident. Asuka and Charlotte then go on to hit a double knee/Natural Selection combination for the pinfall win.

Result: Charlotte Flair and Asuka retain the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships via Pinfall in 18 minutes.

Grade: B

This match was incredibly enjoyable and left me very sports entertained. The thing that sets the grades apart for me between the WWE Universal Championship match and the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match is the stories heading into it. For the Reigns-Owens match, there was a built-in story. It was the rematch, and they closed-off on that story with this match-up. For the women's tag team championship match, we have the champions, an already randomly thrown together pairing, contending against two other teams of randomly paired individuals. I don't understand how they came to the conclusion that Carmella and Bayley were suitable tag team partners. When have they interacted before? The random pairings confused me - but these performers made up for it with their work-rate. Overall, an enjoyable match!

The Street Profits are backstage.

WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions, The Street Profits, Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins, are backstage cutting a promo hyping this Christmas edition of SmackDown. Montez is holding a Christmas present! In the midst of the promo, we hear a commotion from beyond the camera's point-of-view. The Street Profits walk over to approach Sami Zayn, as he's yelling at a woman about how he has to defend the WWE Intercontinental Championship later in the night against Big E in a lumberjack match. Ford and Dawkins tell Zayn that they got him a Christmas present. Sami "The Grinch" Zayn's heart grew three sizes at this moment... until he opened the box. Inside this box was a shirt that exclaimed "I WAS THE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION." The Street Profits then go on to clown Zayn, leading to Zayn storming in anger. Dawkins is disappointed about Zayn leaving his present behind.

USO VIOLENT!

Making his way to the ring, Daniel Bryan leads the Titantrons filling the WWE ThunderDome in "Yes!" chants. Out of nowhere, Jey Uso attacks Bryan from behind. Jey throws Bryan around, leading referees and officials to pull Uso away. This then leads to a match between the two.

Jey Uso vs. Daniel Bryan

The referee asks Bryan if he wants to compete in this match still. Valiantly, Bryan agrees to the contest. The bell rings, and Jey is a house of fire. Jey hits maneuver after maneuver. Uso hit a really intense suicide dive, leading to Bryan getting whipped into the steel steps. Finally, Bryan manages to make a small comeback that leads to a complete back and forth between the two competitors. At one point, Bryan hits a suicide dive in retort to the one dealt with in the first minute of the match.

At one point, Uso starts selling the ankle pretty hard, leading to Bryan targeting the ankle and leg of Jey Uso throughout the rest of the match. A lot of leg-based offense, including a single-legged Boston crab, applied to Uso. Uso manages to make a comeback and hits an Uso Splash off of the top rope, but wasn't able to capitalize immediately due to the ankle pain he was suffering. A couple more strikes from Uso then lead to Bryan ducking a superkick attempt, landing the Running High Knee, and pinning Uso for the win.

Result: Daniel Bryan wins via Pinfall in 15 minutes.

Grade: B+

This match was obviously entertaining. Bryan plays the sympathetic babyface incredibly well, and Uso is very convincing as an aggressive heel (which is especially impressive considering his ability to play a sympathetic babyface in the same breath.) I was happy to see Bryan pick up a victory, but I'm curious as to where Jey Uso can go from here. It seems like no one within the Samoan Dynasty can pick up a victory on their own.

Kayla Braxton interviews Daniel Bryan

Next, Kayla Braxton catches up with Daniel Bryan. After a turbulent 2020, Braton asks Bryan what's next. Bryan then announces that he is entering the 2021 Men's Royal Rumble match, as he's never won a Royal Rumble before. Sami Zayn then approaches Daniel Bryan, randomly blaming him for the match-up made between Zayn and Big E for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Zayn told Bryan that he is excited for him to lose the Royal Rumble match and that when he does, he will be there to laugh. Bryan remarks: "I guess Santa didn't give him a PS5... is that what the kids are into?" Oh, Daniel, never change.

Lumberjack Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship: Sami Zayn (c.) vs. Big E

Starting off, I love Big E's new theme - and thank God they brought back the white powder in his entrance. It fits his persona completely. This match starts off hot, and within the first couple of minutes in the match, Big E manages to fall to the outside. The heels surrounding the ring for this lumberjack match begin to wail on Big E as Zayn cheers the actions on. Suddenly, Zayn is recognizing his strategy for winning this match - the more he can keep Big E on the outside, the less damage he has to do himself.

Being thrown to the outside for the third time, Big E begins to fight back against the heel lumberjacks. Zayn notices Big E making a valiant effort and hits a move that I missed watching Zayn perform - the Tope con Hilo. Ladies and gentlemen, I am a Tope con Hilo mark, brother. Zayn dives out of the ring leading to a commercial break.

Back and forth, throws to the outside, and many rule reminders from commentary eventually lead to a spot where Big E had Zayn set up for his patented suicide spear. Big E hits the suicide spear, crashing along with Zayn to the outside. This leads to the babyface and heel lumberjacks coming to blows for... some reason? It wasn't truly evident to me why the lumberjacks began to fight, but that's the WWE for you.

In the midst of the brawl, Big E rolls back into the ring. Zayn, however, is heading in the opposite direction. Amongst the commotion, Zayn attempts to escape the situation until one of the lumberjacks, Apollo Crews, manages to chase Zayn down and tackle him on the stage (very impressive speed from Crews!) This led to multiple lumberjacks lifting Zayn on their shoulders and tossing him in the ring, feeding him to Big E on a silver platter. Big E lands a belly to belly suplex, a running splash, and the Big Ending for the win!

Result: Big E wins the WWE Intercontinental Championship via Pinfall in 13 minutes.

Grade: A-

Wow, what a match. This is the best way they could have ended WWE programming in 2020 - let alone the best way they could have ended this episode of Friday Night SmackDown. I love Big E. If you're a wrestling fan in 2020, odds are you do too! The result of this match was incredibly cathartic, and I am in love with the ending of this show. The show ends with Big E being lifted on the shoulders of Otis and Chad Gable, and the SmackDown roster singing the praises of their new WWE Intercontinental Champion. As for me? I was right there with them. Big E celebrated as the show fades to black with a huge "Merry Christmas" from the WWE.

Final Grade: A

This is, by far, the best episode of SmackDown in 2020. This episode was filled with action-packed matches. Every match felt important by the end of the night, even if it didn't appear as such near the beginning of the show. I'm interested to see where The Tribal Chief goes from here, and if Kevin Owens is out of the title picture. I'm interested to see if something develops further between Belair/Banks or Bayley/Carmella, and I was happy just to see the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions on television (that's seemingly a first for those titles.) They're seemingly building up Bryan for something big, and that's going to be fun to watch. Big E is one of my favorite wrestlers in the business right now, and watching him win some championship gold? Now that is showing me the power of positivity.