WWE Tribute to the Troops Review - December 6, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits, Daniel Bryan, Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio def. Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode, Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn, Elias and King Corbin

This was your typical 10-man tag team match where the heels were on offense for a bit before the babyfaces battled back and picked up the victory. While this was nothing out of the ordinary, it was still enjoyable for what it was and it was cool seeing so many different Superstars from SmackDown and Raw interact for the first time (Hardy and Street Profits, Bryan and Roode, etc). The highlight was that final frog splash from Montez Ford. This is no secret, but holy hell, that guy can get some height!

SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair def. Natalya and Bayley

Banks and Belair have never teamed before now, so that was a treat. I realize this was Tribute to the Troops, but I saw this as WWE's way of planting the seeds for when Banks and Belair inevitably meet for the SmackDown Women's Championship, hopefully at WrestleMania 37. They worked well with Bayley and Natalya and it was a quality contest on the whole. Banks and Belair are a great duo and could be even better rivals.

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre def. The Miz (Non-Title)

Miz and John Morrison coming out wearing Santa hats was probably the best part about this match because as a main event, this was pretty paint-by-numbers stuff. Miz has hardly been positioned as a threat to McIntyre in the last month on Raw, so this was more of the same with McIntyre mostly dominating Miz and putting him away in a matter of minutes. The outcome was obviously never in doubt, but it would have been nice had this lasted a little longer than it did.

Overall Show

I was bummed when WWE didn't televise Tribute to the Troops last year for the first time probably ever, so I'm glad it was brought back this year. That said, why didn't they just hold off on airing it a different day? By the time it aired, it was already over for me because I didn't know when it started. Plus, it got overshadowed by NXT TakeOver: WarGames IV later in the night. On the bright side, watching it after the fact allowed me to skip over the celebrity shout-outs and the Hardy concert. There was nothing wrong with them, but they just weren't for me and I have no clue who Hardy is. This felt like a standard WWE show due to it taking place in the ThunderDome without any fans, but at least they had troops tuning in on the screens in the arena. If you watch this show for the matches, then you'll be entertained, but there wasn't anything must-see (not that there needs to be considering what Tribute to the Troops is all about).