Friday Night SmackDown Review - December 10, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Brock Lesnar Attacked Sami Zayn

These two could have a weekly segment dedicated to them on SmackDown and I wouldn't complain. They have hilarious chemistry together and this was another extremely entertaining interaction from them. Zayn in the wheelchair was just great and Lesnar showing more personality was wonderful. Paul Heyman said that Roman Reigns was away in Samoa but will be back next week. The continued teases of Heyman and Lesnar reuniting have been very well done.

Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs def. Los Lotharios

The Nakamura and Boogs entrance is still very much over with the audience, but I maintain what I've been saying for weeks (and I know I'm not the only one) in that the Intercontinental Championship couldn't feel like any more of an afterthought at the moment. Nakamura is talented, but he's done nothing of note on this own. He and Boogs have been feuding with Los Lotharios for over a month and yet this was over in under two minutes, so who could possibly care?

Drew McIntyre def. Sheamus

We've seen this match more than a handful of times this year, though this was their first one-on-one encounter since coming over to SmackDown. Needless to say, they never cease to work well together and this was the usual hard-hitting affair from them. I'm sure it would have been even better with more time, but they made the most of what they had. For those keeping track at home, Cesaro beat Ridge Holland, Sheamus beat Cesaro, and now McIntyre beats Sheamus, all in the span of three weeks. In other words, no one really gets over.

Xia Li Saved Naomi From Sonya Deville, Shayna Baszler and Natalya

Naomi and Deville were once again scheduled to go one-on-one, but you had to know they weren't actually going to deliver it. Why not hold off until the Day 1 pay-per-view in a few weeks? Thus, I had no issue with them not delivering here, especially since it instead led to the debut of Xia Li, who made the save for Naomi. The cheers for her definitely sounded piped-in, but I hope she can get over because I really liked her most recent run in NXT.

Toni Storm def. SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair by Disqualification in a Championship Contender's Match

This feud has been a complete disaster and has done absolutely nothing to make Storm look like the star she should be. That's why I was shocked fans actually chanted her name during this match. Despite how badly booked this storyline has been, I had hope that their eventual encounter in the ring would be worthwhile. Sadly, this was way too short to be anything special, and although I can understand that if they're saving the rematch for Day 1, the disqualification finish was lame and only made Storm come off like even more of a loser. What a shame.

The New Day (King Woods and Sir Kofi Kingston) def. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos and Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match (Non-Title)

Unless I missed something, I don't think it was ever explained why RK-Bro were allowed to appear on SmackDown. They didn't even bother to use the dumb "Brand-to-Brand Invitational" excuse. Ratings would be my guess because this was pretty random otherwise, especially since New Day vs. Usos was already announced for Day 1. This was a top-notch main event where they worked a frantic pace and New Day pinning Usos made sense.

Overall Show

SmackDown has largely been a weak show since the Draft and Jeff Hardy getting released doesn't help matters. I'm loving the stuff with Lesnar and Reigns, but we need more to excited about on this show beyond that. The midcard feels like it's nonexistent, the tag team scene is fine but more teams are needed, and the women's division is all over the place. This was a better show than what we've been getting lately but far from a home run.

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