WWE SmackDown 12/13/2024: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show that seemed about as ready as we are to get to Saturday Night's Main Event! Yes, it was the "SmackDown" go-home show for Saturday's big NBC special, and while the majority of the WINC staff found this episode fairly dull, we actually have something to say about pretty much everything this week, from the Women's United States Championship tournament semifinals to Braun Strowman's return to Roman Reigns challenging Solo Sikoa to Tribal Combat. We're going to look back on these days of almost full coverage very fondly when "SmackDown" goes to three hours in 2025.

As usual, to catch up on all the things that went down Friday night, check out our "SmackDown" results page. To check out what we thought of the show, however, is even easier — just stay right here! These are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 12/13/24 episode of "WWE SmackDown."

The Bloodline saga has been a personal highlight for the past few months so tonight was huge leap in the opposite direction for me, dropping the week-on-week progression and continuity of the story for a collage of filler segments disconnected from one another. First off, Jimmy Uso opened the show as he hobbled down to the ring to talk about his future – Royal Rumble tease and all – in a segment that was clearly to establish some form of ambush to write him off for a bit (owing to his broken toe). It would have been the optimum moment for Solo Sikoa and The Bloodline to get some form of vengeance for WarGames, but instead the spot was handed to Drew McIntyre. I guess it does make sense for McIntyre to do so, considering he is targeting Bloodline OGs and was purportedly making a visit to "SmackDown" as a result of the transfer window. But it doesn't really make sense for there to be an on-sight level of animosity between the two Bloodline groups for so long, for one member to be clearly vulnerable, and for there to have been no follow-through on their behalf. Especially when, as it would later be revealed, Sikoa and Roman Reigns are due to face off in Tribal Combat next month.

The challenge for that match itself was laid out by Reigns in a vignette that again didn't really hit in the same way it normally does. Reigns talked a lot about how he earned the ulufala – and thus Tribal Chiefdom – as opposed to Sikoa who had stolen it from him, with footage of Reigns' bestowal of the rite at Hell in a Cell 2020 as he recalled it. The issue is that this wasn't what happened, and came off as a blatantly shallow attempt to differentiate Reigns from Sikoa as a babyface, when in actual fact mere moments before he was "crowned" he had similarly cheated his family – choking Jimmy Uso out to force Jey Uso to quit – before receiving the ulufala. It's part of the wider issue when a Omega-level villain breaks good again in wrestling, rather than going to the lengths to convey an organic character change there is a reliance on just revising the history. Reigns is at the stage where he is getting babyface reactions, but there is very little to support the idea that he is an actual good guy outside of who he is facing, and therefore a risk of the narrative taking several steps backward for any and every step forward.

As for Sikoa, and to round off a hat-trick of ineffectual segments, he looked to address Reigns' words only to forget about the matter entirely as LA Knight emerged for their match. Knight himself had made some typically ignorant comments about the ulufala – and therefore, Polynesian culture – which did nothing to further the story, and then the match itself ended in disqualification before Apollo Crews and Andrade chased Sikoa and The Bloodline off. It just felt too random and hollow, a bad week for The Bloodline tale.

Written by Max Everett

Friday's episode of "WWE SmackDown" was en route to the inaugural episode of the rebooted Saturday Night's Main Event, but not without a pit-stop in Hartford for the Women's United States Championship semifinals. The women stole the show, but what really solidified their performances at veritable blue brand highlights were the victors of both hard-hitting semifinals matches. In less than twenty-four hours, Michin and Chelsea Green will be the first two contenders for the Women's United States Championship.

I love that two severely underrated women are the first to fight for the Women's US title — it is a front row lockout for the locker room's underdogs. Michin and Green are phenomenal performers who have kept the "SmackDown" women's division afloat, even without gold around their waists. While I don't want this match to be seen as a "thanks for doing such a great job this past year" consolation prize for either woman, it is impossible to talk about the significance of this particular match cast without acknowledging how positively impactful both finalists have been. Ladies, consider your efforts acknowledged.

Moving on to the matches themselves, both of them were masterclasses in quality television wrestling. Michin and Tiffany Stratton opened the night in a match that contested Michin's scrappiness with Stratton's pure athleticism, and both ladies did not disappoint. Michin has never looked so good, and Stratton normally looks like a hundred books, so good for her. A match that I thought was going to be a contest in Stratton's favor was a veritable shock when Michin landed an Eat Defeat for the win. Sure, there was a bit of miscommunication between Michin and Stratton with that Prettiest Moonsault Ever dodge that led to Michin Instant-Recovering like a WWE2K wrestler, but otherwise, there wasn't a part of the match that I wasn't clued into. Their match set the bar pretty high for the rest of the show, and only this next match really matched what Stratton and Michin delivered.

What Green and Bayley's semifinals match lacked explosive action (at least, compared to Michin and Stratton's contest), they made up for in clever spots that set up Green to look like a veritable threat for the title. Seriously, Green is a comedy character — she has not been made to look like this big of a threat in basically forever. Bayley pushed Green to her limit, and with a little bit of help from Piper Niven, Green came out looking the best she had ever been, even with two missing fake lashes. They weren't five star affairs, but for television wrestling, they were both the best matches of the night.

Above everything, they did their job in establishing hype around the Women's US Championship tournament finals at Saturday Night's Main Event. People are rallying behind Green and Michin, and I'm sure whoever wins, it'll be a well-earned victory. If not, at least all four women have this collection of matches to be proud of. Well done ladies, and congratulations to Green and Michin!

Written by Angeline Phu

Outside of a few things, including both matches in the Women's United States Championship tournament, I thought "SmackDown" was a pretty lackluster show, especially as the go-home for Saturday Night's Main Event. One thing that stuck out to me as just straight up bad and unnecessary, however, was LA Knight's backstage promo about Solo Sikoa and the ula fala. Knight's pronunciation of "ula fala," while of course he was trying to be funny, was pretty cringe worthy, and I thought we could have done without this promo in general before his match against Sikoa. Knight isn't doing anything at SNME tomorrow, and getting beaten by the new Bloodline isn't doing him any favors, though he did technically get the win from a disqualification.

Usually Knight is spot on with his promos, but him running down Sikoa and his family and saying that he wasn't getting involved in their business just all seemed out of place when it comes to him going after Shinsuke Nakamura to get his rematch for the United States Championship. While Knight did get beaten up by Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, and Tama Tonga last week, I barely remembered it, outside of remembering how funny I found Nakamura just kind of slinking out of the ring when things got heated, black goo running from his mouth, was. So, overall, I could have done without this match, especially since it didn't have a clean finish, because the beatdown was completely put out of my mind anyway. Thankfully, Nakamura had a video promo tonight looking pretty awesome in his new dark samuri-esque gimmick, but WWE could have done something much more interesting between Nakamura and Knight, rather than throw the former champion in a match with Sikoa when he said he didn't want to get involved in his business.

Because, when I really think about it, Sikoa isn't really keeping Knight away from Nakamura. He just beat him down last week to establish dominance post-WarGames loss. The Bloodline could have beat down anyone, but just found a good opportunity, and Knight happened to be there at the wrong time. I didn't think this was something that needed to be dragged out to this week, but at least the new Bloodline still look pretty good coming out of their WarGames defeat.

Written by Daisy Ruth

With the staggering amount of video packages, interviews, and backstage segments that are featured across WWE programming, it can be hard to find one that stands out above the rest and is actually memorable. Both of the video packages from #DIY and Motor City Machine Guns managed to do that while still working to accomplish something and set up a singles match between Alex Shelley and Johnny Gargano.

While the videos may have been aesthetically presented with a similar eye-catching black and white filter, they still managed to be distinct from each other stylistically. Gargano may be known as a career babyface, but he proved that he's just as great and effective as a heel while Tommaso Ciampa reminded everyone just how great of a heel he is. Furthermore, Gargano's explaining that he turned his back against the Motor City Machine Guns last week having the same reasons as Ciampa and had been bitter since losing #DIY lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to The Bloodline on August 2 in his own hometown of Cleveland, Ohio contextualized the turn and helped to make more sense of it.

On the other hand, there was a grit to Motor City Machine Guns' video with Shelley and Chris Sabin getting their point across quickly and effectively. It made the entire storyline between them and #DIY feel that much more personal rather than just something all about the WWE Tag Team Championship, and had an element of realness that is often lacking in modern day professional wrestling.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

At this point, I don't even know if being the first chosen in the WWE draft means anything anymore.

Carmelo Hayes cannot catch a break. He's had a rough 2024, with several clean losses to Andrade, several more losses in his campaign for the United States Championship, and just a few dirty wins to his name. So, when he was set up to face a mystery opponent on Friday's episode of "WWE SmackDown," things were not looking great. The odds for the known-party are bad enough when they're up against some mystery opponent (because are you going to bring out a surprise wrestler and book them to lose), but with Hayes' track record, I would've preferred to bet money on the second coming of Christ than a win for Hayes.

While his win-loss record is embarrassingly low, I did not expect him to make things even worse with what could only be considered a squash, courtesy of Braun Strowman. Typically, this is the part where I put a disclaimer that I love the "opposing party," or the wrestler that actually came out on top in a feud or moment that I dislike. That is not the case tonight. If you want to bring in Braun Strowman for some kind of soccer-trade, Superstar Shake-up procedure, then have him show up literally anywhere else. Maybe he can be the surprise third pick in some qualifying Triple Threat (who is Shinsuke Nakamura defending that US title against again? Oh, literally no one), maybe he can confront Cody Rhodes for the WWE Universal Championship after this is all over, or he can take a page out of his arch nemesis Bronson Reed's book and just start plowing through people with no regard for allegiance, alignment, or international law. He did not need to squash Carmelo Hayes in order to look strong. Carmelo Hayes is way too good to be treated this way.

Frankly, I'm sick of the way WWE is treating Hayes, and I would not be surprised if he quit WWE and moved to the competition. I would not be surprised — hell, I don't even particularly have faith in the competition, but I genuinely believe that they would treat Hayes better than what WWE is doing with him right now. Even in his match with Strowman, Hayes proved that he was far too talented to be squashed by the guy whose main gimmick is — let me check my notes really quickly — being really big. When Hayes went in for a cover on Strowman, Strowman did a cute little kick-out, but Hayes flew towards the ropes like he was Amelia Earheart. He *flew.* He made Braun Strowman look like a million bucks — my goodness, he's made everybody he works with look like a million bucks — and he's getting repaid with squash losses and no wins in who knows how long.

A man who was once the first round draft pick is now getting treated like the first on the chopping block. What a shame.

Written by Angeline Phu

I already waxed optimistic this week, at great length, about why Kevin Owens might win the WWE Championship, so there's no need to repeat that here — though I'm admittedly warier now that he touched the title belt while coming away from the go-home "SmackDown" with the upper hand. Regardless of all that, though, I really enjoyed the closing segment Friday night. I was happy to see a moderated promo segment turn into a backstage pull-apart brawl, and as always Owens' brief comments were on point, particularly his line about Cody being more entertaining as Stardust. I think Cody has had people subtly reference the Stardust character in a previous feud or two, but this feels like the first time somebody has really thrown it in his face the way Owens has. When he showed up backstage for the brawl and it turned out he was wearing an old Stardust shirt, I absolutely died laughing.

I liked this segment because it was short and to-the-point, which works because there's really not much left to say. This Rhodes/Owens feud has been excellent, one of the best things WWE has done all year, and this was just a really simple, effective closing angle. I'm really looking forward to the match, and whether Owens wins or loses, his new heel character has already proven to be an absolute revelation. Here's hoping it finally leads him back to the world title.

Written by Miles Schneiderman