3 Things We Hated And three Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s weekly review of “WWE SmackDown,” the show where absolutely all the things is pre-taped for the vacations! For individuals who don’t mind spoilers, it looks as if next week’s events may be significantly more interesting than what we got this time around, but that does not imply we will not find plenty to discuss, from the show-opening stuff involving Damian Priest to the fundamental event tag title match!

As all the time, should you missed the show and wish to catch up, make sure you try our “SmackDown” results page for all of your objective fact needs! This column, in contrast, is where the WINC staff breaks down the weather of this system that moved us most deeply, either in positive or negative ways. Which, to make certain, is merely a flowery way of claiming — listed here are three things we hated and three things we loved concerning the 12/19/25 episode of “WWE SmackDown!”

I’m well aware that I must recover at suspending my disbelief during these shows, nevertheless it’s just difficult while also working within the news aspect of the positioning, because I’m just so aware of things. Damian Priest just revealed last week in an interview that he’s been on a reduced schedule in WWE, resulting from being just a little banged up and sore after working so hard. Nonetheless, tonight, his feud with Aleister Black was not only continued, it looks just like the pair are headed toward one more hardcore stipulation match, likely a street fight.

Priest got here out to open the show, thank John Cena, and said his feud with Black and Vega was done after last week. That brought out Vega, then Black, who sneak up behind Priest and the pair began brawling. Priest pulled out a table from underneath the ring, Black hit him with a chair, then Black sent “The Archer of Infamy” through the table. If WWE wasn’t going to book them in a street fight, or something prefer it, I do not know why they’d’ve introduced weapons during this brawl. I assumed the table spot was a reasonably blatant giveaway.

The celebrities previously fought in a Last Man Standing match, which was memorable just about just for the ending, when Vega aligned herself together with her real-life husband and Black hit Priest with a fireball. This was back in October. You’ll think that might have been the tip of their feud, but even after last week’s not-so-great mixed tag team match where Priest teamed with Rhea Ripley against the couple, things are still going.

While I think about Priest’s abilities and I’m a fan of his, it seems weird to establish a stipulation match, right after Priest made that revelation. I suppose that wasn’t hard to guess, as there have been some points where he’s been off TV for awhile here and there, nevertheless it just seems odd. I hope meaning Priest is feeling higher, and I’d say I hope some form of hardcore match means the tip of this feud, but I do not think I’m getting my hopes up on that part again.

Written by Daisy Ruth

As 2025 winds down, one in every of the highlights in WWE the previous couple of months has been the ladies’s tag team division. The highlight really began just before Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss won the tag titles. Once they won them, they defended their titles eight times during their 100 day reign. Being the fighting champions that they were, Charlexa defended their titles on all three brands.

They used their reign to raise the division and faced six different teams (although they faced Judgment Day 4 times, with three coming on house shows). They dropped the titles to the Kabuki Warriors last month. The brand new champions defended their titles for the primary time tonight, but of their defense, they’d the WarGames to give attention to first. A brand new tag team has formed with Nia Jax and Lash Legend. The tag titles proceed to be the main focus in the ladies’s division and so they’re actually coveted. It’s not the identical two women competing for and even caring concerning the titles (see: the ladies’s U.S. Championship).

The ladies’s tag title picture is far more compelling than the boys’s. Fans steadily forget that The Wyatts are the champions resulting from how little they defend them. Tonight’s title match was their first since October. Before that, they were defended in August. Their first title defense in two months led to a no contest. The constant stop and begin with The Wyatts have made it hard to keep up interest in anything they do. 

Since we’re on The Road to WrestleMania, hopefully the Kabuki Warriors could have more title defenses to proceed to construct the titles up for matches on the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.

Written by Samantha Schipman

I’ll start this off by saying this can be a spoiler-free zone for next week’s episode of “SmackDown,” but from what I’ve seen, tonight’s match pitting the team of United States Champion Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes against #DIY’s Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano set things up perfectly for what’s to come back next Friday. That being said, nevertheless, I actually enjoyed this match tonight, in fact for all of the competitors involved, but in addition because I believe it was an excellent week to take a break from the USA Championship Open Challenge.

Sure, I really like the challenge and love seeing Dragunov defend the title, but this was natural progression after weeks of Dragunov’s story with Ciampa. I believe you may only do a certain variety of match for a certain variety of weeks before it gets old, so giving it a break for an episode is not a foul thing. Dragunov’s ran through all of his competitor, including all three of the opposite men within the match, anyway. And, while the “SmackDown” tag team division runs deep, it was nice to see, and I do not say this often, a thrown together tag team in the combination for only a match to maintain things interesting.

I also really loved this, since it drove the purpose of fan-favorite Hayes now being a babyface home. Dragunov even mentioned something about it moderately outright in a backstage segment, saying that being a cheat (or something or other) was something that Hayes used to do, which the guy former NXT Champion agreed.

The vital a part of this match was the tip, because it often goes, but for quite a lot of reasons. It was Hayes to get the pin on Ciampa and rating the victory for the babyface team, which was really, very nice to see. I expected Dragunov to get a definitive victory over Ciampa to place a bow on that, but I do not mind this in any respect, as someone who was fully on the “#WeWantMelo” train.

Written by Daisy Ruth

It has been some time since Cody Rhodes was in AEW and getting booed out of buildings for, amongst just a few other issues, refusing to show heel. He left the promotion at the peak of that animus, coming to WWE and continuing to play the role he all the time desired to play as the corporate quarterback. He became WWE Champion, the anointed babyface dethroning Roman Reigns after over a thousand days as Undisputed Champion. After which he did it again earlier this yr, recapturing it from John Cena after losing it at WrestleMania. Throughout that whole time, he has been the champion doing things the “right way.” When he did lose to Reigns and Cena, it was due to that code of ethics. 

But now there appears to be a shift in direction. Rhodes has been unable to flee Drew McIntyre for the past few months, even despite fending him off in two title defenses, notably breaking his code to plant McIntyre onto the title belt to win the most recent bout. And what has been shown over recent weeks has been a pattern of McIntyre goading and attacking Rhodes, getting attacked by Rhodes after which playing the victim, resulting in Nick Aldis attempting to play peacekeeper; Rhodes then accuses Aldis of pacifying McIntyre while McIntyre accuses Aldis of treating Rhodes as his Golden Boy. 

But as this frustration boils over and Rhodes’ title reign appears to be suffering a Glaswegian Groundhog Day, he turned his attention to Aldis during this week’s “WWE SmackDown” for some very uncharacteristically pointed words. Aldis tried to reprimand the champion for hampering his peace negotiations with McIntyre, telling him he is not above the law and dictating that he’s forbidden from getting physical with him during next week’s show. 

“Or what?” Rhodes asked, only to be told that he could be stripped of his title, thus frightening a rant from Rhodes; he said that Aldis will need to have forgotten who it was he was talking to, reminding him that he’s “QB1” and as long as he’s WWE Champion, then not only is he “The law” but Aldis works for him, not the opposite way around. It was a extremely egotistical promo from Rhodes, and could have been the primary promise in quite a while that he’s undergoing some type of character development. 

Rhodes has all the time been likened to Homelander from “The Boys” and in some ways McIntyre has been his Billy Butcher, relentlessly pursuing him and tarring him with the concept that he can’t be as pure as he professes. So to see that come out and on the very least tease a brand new direction for this already very long storyline, that is greater than welcome.

Written by Max Everett

For what I might call a really boring, sub-par, and uninspired edition of “SmackDown”, it is very fitting that the WWE Tag Team Championship fundamental event between The Wyatt Sicks and MFT fall right into that.

At the start, there’s absolutely no reason in any respect for the referee to have called off this match in the primary place. Yes, there was an enormous brawl that broke out on the skin but at the identical time, it’s turn out to be such a daily occurrence for things like that to occur in WWE matches. Perhaps more importantly, though, it shouldn’t have happened in a match where a title was on the road and The Wyatt Sicks routinely retained moderately than having a definitive winner. It will’ve been way more sensical for the referee to have ejected everyone else from ringside or for a stipulation to have been put in place for everybody else to have been barred from ringside (which given the rising tensions between the 2 teams is sensible on this context) and a brawl to have broke out after the match as a substitute.

The ending was the fundamental thing that did spoil the match for me, however the motion itself still wasn’t something that I discovered to be super engaging to observe. It wasn’t anything greater than an ordinary tag team bout, and something was missing to make it feel like a special or big match. I discovered my mind wandering throughout the competition and watching the time on my clock wind down, that are two things that are not great to be doing while a fundamental event match is on. I just didn’t really take care of this one in any respect, and the referee stoppage was a complete disappointing letdown.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Outside of what’s already being covered extensively by my colleagues, there was nothing truly alarmingly egregious about this week’s show. Nonetheless, does that mean the show was good as an entire? Not by any stretch of the means. 

There comes a natural lull in the corporate that boasts there isn’t any off-season at the tip of the yr, and it really does exhibit the proven fact that possibly it may benefit from an off-season. Because at no point during this time do the ticket prices decrease or is there any type of candor in saying, “Hey guys, we’re just a little short on content and inventive right now of yr, we could use a break.” Slightly, the corporate pushes through with sub-par episodes of “SmackDown” like this week’s with a pretense that it’s must-see TV and the most well liked ticket on the town. 

The fundamental event led to no-contest, not that the match itself was anything to jot down home about beforehand. There was a heavy reliance on vignettes, which wound up being among the more compelling points of the show, and a really slow-burn that when again communicated a scarcity of ideas – even those which can be there are stretched thin to attempt to fill the three hours of TV that they themselves opted to air. Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes’ feud has been happening for months and it’s getting hard to pretend that is not because there literally is not any one else left. 

Ilja Dragunov abandoned the weekly open challenge to wrestle in a tag match with Carmelo Hayes against #DIY, again, because they’ve run out of options. Nia Jax and Lash Legend beat the tag team champions in a non-title match only to then have a fight with Charlexa because… you may never guess why – there aren’t any other options. Giulia defeated Alba Fyre in lower than 4 minutes so she could earn a rematch for the title she lost in under two minutes to Chelsea Green. And since Green won that title, the ladies’s midcard title on “SmackDown,” she has defended it only once – on “WWE NXT” against Sol Ruca. 

What, pray tell, is the reasoning for Giulia to must earn her rematch for a title being defended on the developmental brand? Could it’s… bear with me, that THERE ARE NO OTHER OPTIONS. And why are there no other options? Could it’s that they’ve released half of the talent and neglected to develop the opposite?

Written by Max Everett