Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show where absolutely everything is pre-taped for the holidays! For those who don't mind spoilers, it seems like next week's events might be significantly more interesting than what we got this time around, but that doesn't mean we can't find plenty to talk about, from the show-opening stuff involving Damian Priest to themain event tag title match!
As always, if you missed the show and need to catch up, be sure to check out our "SmackDown" results page for all your objective fact needs! This column, in contrast, is where the WINC staff breaks down the elements of the program that moved us most deeply, either in positive or negative ways. Which, to be sure, is merely a fancy way of saying here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 12/19/25 episode of "WWE SmackDown!"
I'm well aware that Ineed to get better at suspending my disbelief during these shows, but it's just difficult while also working in the news aspect of the site, because I'm just soawareof things. Damian Priest just revealed last week in an interview that he's been on a reduced schedule in WWE, due to being a little banged up and sore after working so hard. However, tonight, his feud with Aleister Black was not just continued, it looks like the pair are headed toward yet another hardcore stipulation match, likely a street fight.
Priest came 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 started 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 like it, I don't know why they would've introduced weapons during this brawl. I thought the table spot was a pretty blatant giveaway.
The stars previously fought in a Last ManStanding match, which was memorable pretty much only for the ending, when Vega aligned herself with her real-life husband and Black hit Priest with a fireball. This was back in October. You would think that would have been the end 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 have faith in Priest's abilities and I'm a fan of his, it seems weird to set up 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, but it just seems odd. I hope that means Priest is feeling better, and I'd say I hope some kind of hardcore match means the end of this feud, but I don't think I'm getting my hopes up on that part again.
Written by Daisy Ruth
As 2025 winds down, one of the highlights in WWE the last few months has been the women's tag team division. The spotlight really started 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 elevate the division and faced six different teams (although they faced Judgment Day four times, with three coming on house shows). They dropped the titles to the Kabuki Warriors last month. The new champions defended their titles for the first time tonight, but in their defense, they had the WarGames to focus on first. A new tag team has formed with Nia Jax and Lash Legend. The tag titles continue to be the focus in the women's division and they're actually coveted. It isn't the same two women competing for or even caring about the titles (see: the women's U.S. Championship).
The women's tag title picture is much more compelling than the men's. Fans frequently forget that The Wyatts are the champions due to 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 ended in a no contest. The constant stop and start with The Wyatts have made it hard to maintain interest in anything they do.
Since we're on The Road to WrestleMania, hopefully the Kabuki Warriors will have more title defenses to continue to build the titles up for matches at the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.
Written by Samantha Schipman
I'll start this off by saying this is 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 next Friday. That being said, however, I really enjoyed this match tonight, of course for all the competitors involved, but also because I think it was a good week to take a break from the United States Championship Open Challenge.
Sure, I love the challenge and love seeing Dragunov defend the title, but this was natural progression after weeks of Dragunov's story with Ciampa. I think you can only do a certain type of match for a certain number of weeks before it gets old, so giving it a break for an episode isn't a bad thing. Dragunov's ran through all of his competitor, including all three of the other men in the match, anyway. And, while the "SmackDown" tag team division runs deep, it was nice to see, and I don't say this often, a thrown together tag team in the mix for just a match to keep things interesting.
I also really loved this, because it drove the point of fan-favorite Hayes now being a babyface home. Dragunov even mentioned something about it rather outright in a backstage segment, saying that being a cheat (or something or other) was something that Hayes used to do, which the fellow former NXT Champion agreed.
The important part of this match was the end, as it usually goes, but for a variety of reasons. It was Hayes to get the pin on Ciampa and score the victory for the babyface team, which was really, really nice to see. I expected Dragunov to get a definitive victory over Ciampa to put a bow on that, but I don't mind this at all, as someone who was fully on the "#WeWantMelo" train.
Written by DaisyRuth
It's been a while since Cody Rhodes was in AEW and getting booed out of buildings for, among a few other issues, refusing to turn heel. He left the promotion at the height of that animus, coming to WWE and continuing to play the role he always wanted to play as the company quarterback. He became WWE Champion, the anointed babyface dethroning Roman Reigns after over a thousand days as Undisputed Champion. And then he did it again earlier this year, 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 because of that code of ethics.
But now there appears to be a shift in direction. Rhodes has been unable to escape 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 latest bout. And what has been shown over recent weeks has been a pattern of McIntyre goading and attacking Rhodes, getting attacked by Rhodes and then playing the victim, leading to Nick Aldis trying 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's not above the law and dictating that he is forbidden from getting physical with him during next week's show.
"Or what?" Rhodes asked, only to be told that he would be stripped of his title, thus provoking a rant from Rhodes; he said that Aldis must have forgotten who it was he was talking to, reminding him that he is "QB1" and so long as he is WWE Champion, then not only is he "The law" but Aldis works for him, not the other way around. It was a really egotistical promo from Rhodes, and may have been the first promise in quite some time that he is undergoing some form of character development.
Rhodes has always been likened to Homelander from "The Boys" and in many ways McIntyre has been his Billy Butcher, relentlessly pursuing him and tarring him with the idea that he cannot be as pure as he professes. So to see that come out and at the very least tease a new direction for this already very long storyline, that's more than welcome.
Written byMax Everett
For what I would call a very boring, sub-par, and uninspired edition of "SmackDown", it's very fitting that the WWE Tag Team Championship main event between The Wyatt Sicks and MFT fall right into that.
First and foremost, there's absolutely no reason at all for the referee to have called off this match in the first place. Yes, there was a massive brawl that broke out on the outside but at the same time, it's become such a regular occurrence for things like that to happen in WWE matches. Perhaps more importantly, though, it shouldn't have happened in a match where a title was on the line and The Wyatt Sicks automatically retained rather than having a definitive winner. It would've been far more sensical for the referee to have ejected everyone else from ringside or for a stipulation to have been put in place for everyone else to have been barred from ringside (which given the rising tensions between the two teams makes sense in this context) and a brawl to have broke out after the match instead.
The ending was the main thing that did ruin the match for me, but the action itself still wasn't something that I found to be super engaging to watch. It wasn't anything more than a standard tag team bout, and something was missing to make it feel like a special or big match. I found my mind wandering throughout the contest and watching the time on my clock wind down, which are two things that aren't great to be doing while a main event match is on. I just didn't really care for this one at all, and the referee stoppage was a total disappointing letdown.
Written byOlivia Quinlan
Outside of what is already being covered extensively by my colleagues, there was nothing truly alarmingly egregious about this week's show. However, does that mean the show was good as a whole? Not by any stretch of the means.
There comes a natural lull in the company that boasts there is no off-season at the end of the year, and it really does demonstrate the fact that maybe it could benefit from an off-season. Because at no point during this time do the ticket prices decrease or is there any form of candor in saying, "Hey guys, we're a little short on content and creative at this time of year, we could use a break." Rather, the company pushes through with sub-par episodes of "SmackDown" like this week's with a pretense that it's must-see TV and the hottest ticket in town.
The main event ended in no-contest, not that the match itself was anything to write home about beforehand. There was a heavy reliance on vignettes, which wound up being some of the more compelling aspects of the show, and a very slow-burn that once again communicated a lack of ideas even the ones that are there are stretched thin to try and fill the three hours of TV that they themselves opted to air. Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes' feud has been going on for months and it's getting hard to pretend that's not because there literally is no one else left.
Ilja Dragunov abandoned the weekly open challenge to wrestle in a tag match with Carmelo Hayes against #DIY, again, because they have 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'll never guess why there are no other options. Giulia defeated Alba Fyre in less than four 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 women's midcard title on "SmackDown," she has defended it just once on "WWE NXT" against Sol Ruca.
What, pray tell, is the reasoning for Giulia to have to earn her rematch for a title being defended on the developmental brand? Could it be... bear with me, that THERE ARE NO OTHER OPTIONS. And why are there no other options? Could it be that they have released half of the talent and neglected to develop the other?
Written by Max Everett
