Paige has been removed as the Smackdown Live General Manager! Mustafa Ali pins Daniel Bryan!
And call off the searches, we’ve found Andrade “Cien” Almas, Gallanderson and Sanity.
I am Luke Owen, press the thumbs up and leave a comment I can reply to. And vote in the
poll above my head to let me know what you thought of the show - where you can choose
from: SmackDamn, SmackTastic, Smack Bang in the Middle, SmackDowner and A Smack in the
Face. This is the 18th of December 2018 edition of Smackdown Live… in about 4 minutes.
The show opened with a continuation of the McMahons being the new decision makers in
WWE - by telling ALL THE SMACKDOWN ROSTER HANGING OUT BACKSTAGE that they will also
be making changes to Smackdown Live with new faces and fresh matchups. He also made the
announcement that, because this is the new era of no general managers, Paige has been
removed from her position - with some reports saying she’s destined for Kick Off show
panels with David Otunga and Booker T. I’m sure she’s thrilled.
Becky Lynch opened the show proper when she came out to call out Ronda Rousey for her
actions at TLC. This brought out Charlotte Flair who told Becky to get in line as she
should be the next contender to Asuka’s Women’s Championship, which brought out
Asuka to celebrate with her newly won title. Vince McMahon came out to tell both Flair
and Lynch to get over what Ronda did at TLC as she was well within her rights to do what
she did - adding that Lynch is always acting like she’s entitled to something she’s
not. I knew he was behind that Millennial Man nonsense. Naomi came out and said she
wanted to shot at Asuka - which Vince made official.
And that led to the Mega Powers of Asuka and Naomi exploding - and we got something a lot
of us have been waiting for a lot of 2018: Naomi being given the chance to have a decent
wrestling match. We all know she’s capable of it, but she’s been sat on the sidelines
all year long. This was a good TV championship match that got really good by the end - with
Naomi scoring a great nearfall off the Rear View. Asuka hit a Codebreaker on a springboarding
Naomi and got in the Asuka Lock for the win. This was a really hot start to the show, and
an excellent first step for Asuka’s reign as Smackdown Women’s Champion.
Rusev was interviewed backstage and reminded everyone that he is a handsome hunk with a
great beard, while United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura looked like Sonic the Hedgehog.
So long as he doesn’t look like the new movie version *shudders*. Nakamura cut a promo
later in the show saying Rusev was nothing more than a goofball on Total Divas, and it
was announced that Shinsuke will defend his title next week on the Christmas Day show.
Jeff Hardy came out to the ring to get an apology from Samoa Joe - but Joe instead suggested
he stage an intervention. This was more great stuff with Joe, who then got shut down by
Jeff who pointed out that Joe is just insecure because he’s been in WWE for nearly 2 years
and has yet to win a title. Which is more of a damning indictment of the WWE booking
team than anything else. Hardy laid out Joe with a Twist of Fate - and it was announced
they will face each other next week.
Earlier in the show, Miz approached Vince McMahon backstage asking for his blessing
to be in a tag team with his son, Shane. This was a really funny segment…
…And it led to a very short tag match between Miz & Mandy Rose against the formidable winners
of Mixed Match Challenge R-Truth and Carmella. If you’re wondering why Mandy Rose is there,
it’s so Truth could mistake her for Maryse. Miz won the match in around a minute by hitting
Truth with the Skull Crushing Finale. It was also announced that next week Miz will host
a MizTV segment with Shane McMahon.
The Usos came out to cut a promo saying that although they didn’t win at TLC, they still
ran Smackdown - but before they could call out The Bar they were interrupted Luke Gallows
and Karl Anderson - a team that hasn’t been seen on TV since August. Anderson essentially
echoed what I said in the TLC WrestleRamble review: New Day, The Bar and The Usos are
all great team but we’ve seen them wrestle each other 1,000 times this year and it’s
time for a change. Which confirms that WWE watches our videos, of course. This led to
a really good match between both teams with lots of blind tags and electric action. The
Bar came out to distract The Usos, but before they could do any damage SAniTY ran out from
the crowd and laid out both teams. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to see this team
back on TV. Not to be outdone, The Bar continued the beatdown on Gallanderson and Usos to remind
everyone they were the tag champs. This felt like the first time in ages that the tag division
was being taken seriously - and it was a wonderful sight.
And the tag action continued as the team of Daniel Bryan and Andrade “Cien” Almas
took on AJ Styles and the new member of the Smackdown roster Mustafa Ali. Yes that’s
right - they announced that Ali was joining Smackdown full-time - which gives hope for
the rest of the 205 Live roster and we won’t have to see so many talented guys get ignored
by a the majority of the WWE audience. There is no reason why Buddy Murphy isn’t on Raw
tearing it up with the upper midcard. And while these four had a really good match,
the MVP was this guy in the crowd that had a sign saying, “yes this sign wasted paper”.
That is an excellent sign. Bryan also cut a promo on Fresno saying it has the highest
pollution rates in all of California - which oddly got a cheer from the crowd. You do know
that pollution is bad, right? Anyway this match was mostly Bryan and Almas working over
Ali - but really picked up in the final few minutes - and saw AJ hit Almas with the Phenomenal
Forearm and Mustafa Ali pin Daniel Bryan with the 054. Yes you heard that right, Ali pinned
the WWE Champion Bryan. In just one move and win, Mustafa Ali feels like a big player on
the Smackdown brand. Granted he landed very hard on Bryan and audibly apologised to him,
but all reports are that Bryan is fine and didn’t complain about the spot backstage.
I was up all last night being very, very sick - so it was an absolute joy to wake up this
morning and watch a very fun episode of Smackdown Live. And unlike Raw, this did feel like a
different show. The tag division suddenly seems fresh, we saw Naomi step up to the plate,
and a possible new main eventer made in Mustafa Ali. This was a thumbs up all round - so this
week’s Smackdown Live is a very high SmackTastic.
Oli and I were less than thrilled with Monday’s Raw which promised lots of change but didn’t
really feature any. Click the WrestleRamble video on screen right now to check it out.
I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling.