After a prolonged absence, I’m baaaack (again). No doubt I’ll go missing for weeks on end once the Christmas break is over. Welcome to the most must-see Vulture Hound weekly review in history; welcome to… The SmackDown Review.
In a change to proceedings, Daniel Bryan was in the ring to announce that because Dolph Ziggler vacated the United States Championship, there would be a tournament to determine a new champion. After announcing the first match of Bobby Roode vs Baron Corbin, he was interrupted by Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable who are starting to emerge as slight heels, despite the pair being arguably the best technical tag team on SmackDowns roster. Rusev and Aiden English then appeared, and so did the New Day, who all said they wanted another shot at the tag titles. So, Daniel Bryan made a impromptu Triple Threat Tag Team match to determine the new No. 1 contenders.
In the match, Gable and Benjamin came out on top after Gable pinned Big E from a bulldog off the top rope.
The other bits:
– The Bludgeon Brothers once again defeated The Fashion Police. This time, it was won by disqualification after the Ascension ran in to save the Fashion Police from a continued beatdown. It seems as though the Ascension are well and truly the best friends of Breezango, as they got themselves into a rematch with the Harper and Rowan next week.
– Ruby Riott defeated Naomi in singles competition. Naomi also received the obligatory beatdown after the match before the Riott Squad were chased away by the rest of the Smackdown women’s locker room.
– Bobby Roode defeated Baron Corbin with a roll up in the first match in the US Championship tournament.
– Jinder Mahal dominated Tye Dillinger in the second of the US title tournament matches. Mahal advanced after pinning Dillinger following the Khallas.
The night’s main event was a match between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles. Throughout the night Shane McMahon was certain that Sami Zayn would interfere and cost AJ the match which has caused further tension between Shane and Daniel Bryan. Of course, Sami was at ringside for the match, but after attempting to interfere, Shane McMahon came down and had the referee eject him from ringside. This still caused a distraction which Owens used to roll up Styles for the victory.