WWE Smackdown 12/6/2024

WWE Smackdown 12/6/2024

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/wwe-smackdown-11292024.html

We are in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Corey Graves and Michael Cole are on commentary.

Cole and Graves talk about Wargames. Bronson Reed broke his foot and injured his ankle. Tanga Loa has a torn bicep. Jimmy Uso broke his toe.

We see various wrestlers arrive. Solo Sikoa bumps into Apollo Crews as they enter and Fatu superkicks Crews. Security then gets attacked. 

Cody Rhodes comes out to talk. He says it would be an honor just to compete on Saturday Night's Main Event but says it's not so simple due to Kevin Owens. Cody actually competed on the 7/28/2008 SNME.

American Made come out. Chad says the transfer window is almost open and Nick Aldis wants to bring him to SD. Chad says Cody was who he wanted to be. Chad talks about Cody being an unloyal friend to Kevin Owens like Otis was to him. 

Chad says Cody only cares about what everyone thinks of him. He says he even teamed with the one guy who made KO's life a living hell. He says Cody deserves whatever is coming to him.

Cody asks if the fans will be his friends. He says he's disappointed that Chad is saying all these things as he sees a lot of him in Chad. Cody brings up Chad failing and being called Shorty G. He says Chad is looking at Stardust. Cody says Chad has a lot to lose.

Cody implies that Chad cost Ivy and The Creed's things. Chad tells him to stop and says he'd whoop his @ss if he didn't have the suit on. Cody challenges him to a match tonight. Cody says he's got KO on his mind and that's no good for Chad.

Thoughts: Uh, this was a random one here with Chad hopping brands to talk to Cody.

Bianca Belair and Naomi talk in the back. Naomi says she needs to get through the triple threat before anything else tonight. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven come in. She says Bianca can focus on the Jade mystery now because she lost in the US Title Tournament and in Wargames. Bianca accuses Piper of taking Jade out. They argue. Bianca hits both girls and is put down pretty easy on a 2v1. 

Women's United States Title Tournament 1st Round - Naomi vs Tiffany Stratton vs Elektra Lopez

Naomi and Tiff fight. Lopez throws Naomi out. Tiff hits Lopez from behind. Lopez hits knees to the head and throws Tiff back. Lopez basement dropkicks Tiff. Naomi is knocked down from the apron. Tiff high kicks Lopez then shoulders her over.

Tiff basement dropkicks Lopez for 2. Tiff cartwheel backflip back elbows Lopez. Naomi top rope crossbodies Tiff. Naomi stomps on Tiff in the corner and nearly falls out of the ring over the top. Naomi drops Lopez down on her butt for 2. Tiff pounds on Naomi.

Naomi ducks a double clothesline and hits a double upkick. Naomi does a double stunner. Naomi tries to tope Tiff and gets hit. Tiff does an M. Bison stomp on her on the apron.  Tiff suplexes Lopez.

Lopez half-crabs Tiff. Naomi rolls up Lopez for 2 then gets a 2 count on Tiff. Lopez swinging side slams Naomi for 2. Lopez hits knees to Tiff's face. Lopez blue thunders Naomi for 2.

Naomi hip attacks Tiff and facebusters Lopez. Candice LeRae comes out and Naomi hits her. Naomi reverse ddt's Lopez then hits a split-legged moonsault for 2. Tiff kneeling springboard swantons Lopez then hits a double jump moonsault for the win.

Thoughts: It was just average here. We knew Lopez wasn't winning this. Naomi almost fell out of the ring on a botch. Tiff was basically the hometown girl here and got some extra pops for it.

We go to the back and The Street Profits have been attacked. Nick Aldis checks on them and says he doesn't know who attacked them. The Motor City Machine Guns go up to him as does Gargano. Nick says they can't wrestle tonight but Gargano says DIY can step in for them. Alex agrees to it and the match is set up. Aldis tells Gargano to tell Ciampa not to make him regret this.

Bianca Belair vs Piper Niven

BB has taped up ribs here. BB leapfrogs her and rams her in the corner. She hits corner spears. BB running corner spears her then hits corner punches. Piper pulls on the hair and BB dropkicks her. Piper splashes her for 2.

Piper bangs BB's head off the buckles. BB boots Piper. Chelsea Green trips BB then Piper black hole slams BB for 2. We go to PiP break and return. Green helps Piper pull on an abdominal stretch.

Piper hiptosses BB then sentons her. Piper sentons BB for 2. Piper bearhugs her. BB hits forearms on Piper. Piper headbutts her. BB gets on Piper's back with a sleeper. Piper throws her over. Piper misses a splash. 

Piper's head is banged off the buckles. BB top rope crossbodies Piper for 2. BB corner spears Piper then his corner punches. BB hits a big spear for 2.

Piper does a stiff backdrop on BB. Piper runs at her and takes a spinebuster. BB handspring moonsaults on her but Piper gets her knees up. Piper misses a corner cannonball.  Piper hits a sitout powerbomb for 2. Piper goes up top and gets hit. Green gets on the apron and BB throws her in.  BB hits a KOD on Piper, sending her onto Green. BB then gets the win. Cole says Green got buried after for some reason.

Thoughts: Piper worked the ribs for the first half of this then forgot about it. It went a little longer thani t needed to but BB had some good moments here and the finish looked good. It was okay overall but it had a chance to be great.

We get a video on the Nakamura vs LA Knight feud.

BB walks in the back and we see Aldis talking to Dominik Mysterio. Naomi and BB talk. Naomi says she's sick of LeRae and Tiffany. Byron comes up to them and says Piper did not attack Jade. Naomi says it could have been Liv, Nia, Raquel, Tiffany, LeRae or others. Bianca and Naomi say it's over when they find out who did it.

Shinsuke Nakamura comes out. LA Knight then comes out with a mic. He says SN is a sorry example of a US champ. He says he's the real deal, not SN. He says he wants his rematch now. LA Knight puts his sunglasses on and calls them his mist blockers. He wants to stomp SN in the ring. Andrade then comes out.

Andrade says he's here for SN. LA says SN is in debt and he's here to collect. Tama Tonga then pulls Andrade down from the apron. Jacob Fatu then attacks LA. Solo Sikoa comes out as well. SN spits out black goo and backs off. Andrade and LA take samoan spikes from Solo.  

Solo gets on the mic. He says this is to anyone who thinks The Bloodline is injured or weak. He dares anyone to step up and take a shot as they will lay them out every single time. Solo says he's tired of people not taking him seriously. He says he's still the tribal chief and the head of the table. He says he still has the necklace too. Solo says to acknowledge him and the segment ends.

DIY talk in the back. JG says he got them the title match to fix things. Ciampa says they should have gotten the title match months ago. He says JG still hasn't given him an answer but they will find out soon enough.

KO does a twitter video from his car. He says he was told he had to be here as Cole will interview him. He says it sucks. He says he doesn't want to ever be in Minnesota, yet alone for a Cole interview. He says he's not going in the building since he's been told he couldn't go in to SD before. He says Cole has to come find his car to interview him. Cole asks if KO really expects him to do this.

WWE Tag Titles - The Motor City Machine Guns (c) vs DIY

JG = Johnny Gargano

Ciampa bangs Sabin's head off the buckles then stomps on him. Sabin goes up and over then armdrags him. Sabin hits a Japanese armdrag. Ciampa knees him in the gut then Sabin does the same. Ciampa takes a sequence ending in a baseball slide for 2.

Alex chinlocks Ciampa. Ciampa double throat thrusts him. Ciampa holds Alex and tells JG to take his shot. JG just armlocks Alex. Ciampa tags himself in. Ciampa is thrown out and takes a double kick from the apron. 

We go to PiP break and we return. Ciampa reverse ddt's Alex for 2. Alex jawbreakers him. Ciampa facekicks JG on accident and calls him stupid. Sabin is tagged in. He lariats Ciampa over and atomic drops him. Sabin PK's him then PK's JG from the apron. Sabin top rope crossbodies Ciampa for 2.

Ciampa takes forearms from both then an enzugiri + flatliner combo for 2. Ciampa neckbreakers Alex for 2. Alex is sent out, JG throws him in. Ciampa complains and JG says they can't win out there. They shove each other. JG tells him to get out of here. Ciampa says DIY is dead. Alex cradles JG for 2.

JG takes a flatliner into the 2nd buckle. The ref is distracted by Ciampa. JG low blows Sabin in a surprise. Alex is shocked by this and JG superkicks Alex. JG laughs and tags in Ciampa. Sabin takes a meet in the middle and is pinned.

Thoughts: It was a solid match with a good swerve here. I did not see DIY going heel and was all ready to right about how they were splitting up. Where things go from here is a different story though. I don't know if DIY can pull off being a heel team. 

Cole says he has to go interview KO in a car. 

DIY celebrate in the back. Candice LeRae comes in and joins them.

Cole heads out to the parking lot and finds KO. KO tells him to get in the car. Cole asks how long they will keep this up. KO says he has been told he's not welcomed to the arena many times so this is a strike. KO calls Cole the #1 Cody fanboy and doesn't buy him doing an unbiased interview.

KO brings up Cody teaming with Roman and asks Cole which one of them left and came back? Cole says The Uso's and Sami thought it was a good idea for Cody to help out Roman. He says he doesn't care what The Uso's think and says they are always Roman's pawns. KO says Cody betrayed him and says Cody stabbed him in the back. Cole says KO is being petty and should look in the mirror and realize it's all him. Cole says KO is the problem. KO then kicks him out of the car.

Thoughts: It wasn't anything groundbreaking but an in-car interview was something unusual and added something to this.

 Gunther shakes hands with Nick Aldis in the back. Carmelo Hayes comes up to him and stares at him. Melo says Nick doesn't have time to talk to him. He says Nick needs to figure out where Melo fits in with the transfer portal. He says Monday Night Melo sounds good. Nick says him going to Raw doesn't sound like the worst idea. He says he has something special in mind for Melo. Melo turns away and Nick is gone.

Cody Rhodes vs Chad Gable

The crowd chants, "You Suck" to Chad's theme ala Kurt Angle.

They lock up and Cody backs him up in the corner. Cody side headlock throws him. Chad headscissors him. Chad chop flurries him and goes up and over. Cody does a drop down punch on him. Cody delay gordbusters him. Ivy Nile distracts Cody on the apron. Chad dragon screws Cody then bangs his ankle off the post.

We go to break and return. Chad hits chops in the corner then forearms. Chad ankle locks him and sends him into the buckles. Chad chop flurries him then top rope flying headbutts him for 2. They go up top and Cody top rope reverse superplexes him.

They trade punches. Cody powerslams him and his leg gives out. Cody hits a disaster kick. Cody hits a cody cutter/ Julius Creed pulls Chad out then The Creed's and Ivy are ejected. Cody backrolls Chad for 2. Chad clips him.

Chad ankle locks him. Cody runs up the buckles and hits another cody cutter. Chad ankle locks him. Cody loses his shoe and takes a german. Chad misses a top rope moonsault and Cody hits a cross rhodes on him to win.

Thoughts: I liked the action but not so much the logic. Chad could have worked the ankle a bit more and Cody cold have sold it more. They did work together better than expected and Chad really channeled Kurt Angle here.

KO comes in the ring after. He stomps on Cody's ankle and refs come to break their fight up. KO goes out and Cody topes him into the rail. They fight each other outside. The officials try to separate them as the show ends.

Overall thoughts: I liked the show as a whole. The tag title match was the best thing on here. I liked some parts of Chad/Cody but not all of it. The women's match was average. It's too early to wonder about where the Bloodline angle goes from here and with the injuries, I don't know if WWE even knows. I liked the ending of the show as well. I'd give it a 6 out of 10 and thought it was a good show.