Friday Night SmackDown Review - December 18, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Universal Champion Roman Reigns and Jey Uso Attacked Kevin Owens

Owens opened the show cutting a promo on Reigns, and after Reigns responded with a promo of his own, Owens was ambushed by Reigns and Uso backstage. The promos were pretty standard stuff and didn't tell us anything new about either character or their feud, but they did effectively hype their upcoming clash at TLC. It also set the tone for the rest of the show with Owens looking for a fight against the heels.

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits def. Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode

I don't think I (or anyone else for that matter) ever saw Ziggler and Roode as threats to the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, but that doesn't mean this wasn't a well-wrestled match. Ziggler and Roode consistently deliver in the ring, but the problem is that they've never been positioned as a strong act with a string of wins. That worked against them here, but it was quality contest, nonetheless. Montez Ford holding onto Ziggler's tights while pinning him likely means the rivalry will continue (as opposed to the Profits turning heel which would be ridiculously dumb).

The Riott Squad def. Billie Kay and Tamina

Kay had another mystery partner this week, and somehow it was worse than Natalya last week. Anything involving Tamina gets an automatic thumbs-down from me. Okay, so the match itself wasn't completely terrible, but I can't say I'm invested in this rivalry between Riott Squad and Kay. Kay's pre-match promo was funny and I think she'd do well as the assistant to Adam Pearce, but she doesn't offer a ton in the ring and Riott Squad gain nothing from beating her multiple times. It's nice to have a third storyline in the SmackDown women's division, but it's not very interesting.

Carmella Attacked SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks

During her "champagne toast," Carmella promised to prove she was the best by beating Banks at TLC and becoming the SmackDown Women's Champion. Banks retaliated with something similar, and that was pretty much the extent of their exchange. They didn't say anything groundbreaking, but it was a solid segment. The match should be as enjoyable as their original encounter, but since a stipulation wasn't added, I was left wondering why they had their first face off last week and have it end in a disqualification win for Carmella. You'd think Carmella would want some sort of stipulation to ensure that Banks doesn't get herself disqualified again and retain her title.

Otis def. Shinsuke Nakamura

Nakamura and Cesaro beat Otis and Chad Gable last week, so this was the babyfaces' chance to get some revenge. Unfortunately, this felt like filler and accomplished nothing. Sure, Otis won, but it came at the expense of Nakamura, who was basically squashed in three minutes. Isn't that the same guy who won the Royal Rumble three years ago and competed for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34? I realize the blue brand needs more teams, but this mini-feud does nothing for me and I'm not sure who's supposed to be benefiting from it.

Big E Crashed the Sami Awards Hosted by Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn

Even though the Slammy Awards will be exclusive to WWE Network this year (and thank the lord for that), we still got them in the form of the "Sami Awards". The segment played out exactly how you'd expect it to with Zayn giving himself two different awards before Big E messed with the ballot for Superstar of the Year and had that awarded to himself. It was a fine way to further the feud and it's possible that Intercontinental Championship match could be a last-minute addition to the TLC card.

Bayley def. Bianca Belair

I'm slightly surprised that WWE would give away the first one-on-one encounter between these two and not save it for a pay-per-view. That said, this was entertaining and they worked well together. Bayley really needed a win after losing her last nine or so matches (?!), but I wouldn't have had Belair get pinned, just because she now can't bring back her "un-de-feat-ed" catchphrase from NXT. She's obviously not buried and will avenge the loss eventually, but it's weird that Bayley would lose to Natalya and then beat Belair. That's ass-backwards booking to me.

Universal Champion Roman Reigns and Jey Uso Attacked Kevin Owens

As you could probably tell, it wasn't a good night for Kevin Owens. He was left laying earlier in the evening, which made me think he'd get the better of Reigns and Uso in this final segment on the show so it'd at least appear that he had a shred of a chance of winning the Universal Championship at TLC this Sunday. Instead, Reigns and Uso literally buried him in a pile of tables, ladders and chairs. Yes, it put good heat on the heels, but Owens hasn't been made to look like much of a threat to Reigns in recent weeks and this obviously did nothing to change that. Unless Owens pulls out an upset at TLC, this was a strange call. I guess it showed that he was resilient because he refused to stay down and the angle came off great, but to promise that he'll take the title at TLC or "die trying" was a bit much.

Overall Show

While not great, this edition of SmackDown was a definite improvement over last week. The two advertised matches delivered, there were more talking segments than usual that served a purpose, and the hype for TLC was present as well, even if I'm no more excited for the event than I was previously. There were also a few questionable booking decisions, which knocked the show down a notch or two for me. The two hours were serviceable albeit a mixed bag.