Friday Night SmackDown Review - December 12, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Champion Oba Femi Confronted Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes

Rhodes' appearance was advertised coming into this show, but Femi's was not. I probably should've expected him to show up ahead of their match at Saturday Night's Main Event, but it was a pleasant surprise, nonetheless. To my knowledge, outside of cameos in the crowd, I don't believe Femi has ever made a main roster appearance until now, but he looked like a natural out there sharing the ring with Rhodes. This was simple stuff yet very effective in building toward their upcoming clash and getting me more excited for it than I already was.

United States Champion Ilja Dragunov def. Tommaso Ciampa

I shudder to think what SmackDown would look like without these near-weekly United States Championship open challenges. Dragunov continues to knock it out of the park with excellent match after excellent match. They've been building toward this one for a while, and although Ciampa didn't feel like a legitimate threat to the title, they had a hell of a hard-hitting affair that I enjoyed immensely.

Solo Sikoa Interrupted Uncle Howdy

I couldn't tell you the last time we heard from Howdy in the ring, but I thought it was a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, his promo wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The crowd was quiet, but that could have been because they were listening intently. Sikoa's response from the Titantron was also rather basic. Sikoa established The MFTs want the WWE Tag Team Championship, so we'll see if the eventual match will deliver.

Je'Von Evans def. The Miz

Miz keeps complaining about not facing John Cena during his retirement tour, so he wound up in a match with Evans (who will be a part of Saturday Night's Main Event) on this show instead. This essentially served as a showcase for Evans and you'll get no complaints out of me. Evans is such a treat to watch and it won't take him long to get over with the audience once he's officially on the main roster. For those wondering, it seems like Miz's year-long storyline with Carmelo Hayes has been dropped without a proper payoff. Color me shocked.

WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill vs. Michin Never Got Underway

Cargill and Michin were apparently scheduled to have a match, but Cargill attacked Michin backstage beforehand, leading to Michin brawling with Cargill around ringside and ultimately getting laid out. I appreciate the attempt to not have Cargill squash Michin right away, but I don't know if this did much to get fans interested for an actual match between them since Cargill was the one who stood tall in the end. The angle wasn't very well done.

Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest def. Zelina and Aleister Black

I've largely liked the Priest vs. Black rivalry, but it's dragged on for so long now that I've just been waiting for a definitive conclusion so they can move on. This felt like it gave us that, but with Ripely pinning Zelina, maybe not. Either way, it was an entertaining mixed tag team main event and it was cool getting Ripley and Priest teaming up again for the first time since late last year when they were both exiled from The Judgment Day.

Overall Show

There was some focus on Cena's retirement match throughout the night, but not as much as I thought there would be. That's fine since I'm assuming we'll get plenty of that tomorrow night and an excessive amount of video packages would've made this show feel like filler. It turned out to be a pretty decent show with a quality main event, a must-see United States Championship match and fun appearances from Femi and Evans.

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