It’s a festive SmackDown in a Nutshell, and it’s time for Holiday Havoc and season’s beatings!
Havoc, as in we have a Holiday Havoc match giving us Damage CTRL taking on Mia Yim, Bianca Belair, Zelina Vega and Shotzi.
AJ Styles is back, and he’s going to have a match with Solo Sikoa tonight.
Dragon Lee and the NXT North American Championship are getting shown off, as the champ defends against Butch.
Plus, with the Rumble looming, we have a big first show of the year in two weeks to be set up. WWE is taking a page out of NXT and giving us a couple themed main roster shows.
For SmackDown, that first show of the year becomes…New Years Revolution. So, while we head for the Rumble, the new year will get started with a bang.
But, before we get there, we’ve got gifts to unwrap and season’s beatings to administer, so…it is time for…
SmackDown In A Nutshell : Holiday Havoc And Seasons Beatings!
Let’s unwrap this Nutshell and see what happens!
Best Match of the night:
Dragon Lee and Butch was a really good match, and I wouldn’t mind that again.
Butch really needs to go back to being Pete Dunne…and he needs a win. A big one.
Kevin Owens and Carmelo Hayes was superb as well.
Liked both ending with shows of respect.
Styles and Sikoa was good too, with a nice (but busy) ending too.
Worst match of the night:
I hated nothing about tonight.
Crowd Chants of the Night:
Caught a few chants of “this is awesome” during the Havoc and the North American title matches, for sure.
Star of the Night
Dragon Lee and Butch…
Kevin Owens and Carmelo Hayes…
Lots of good stuff all around.
Spot of the Night:
This one looked bad.
But…Dragon Lee turned Butch’s Bitter End into a Destroyer? What a counter!
Jobber of the Night:
Was there one? I mean…maybe Lashley, just because he lost, but in theory, should have destroyed Santos.
Which is why Escobar had help.
Upset of the Night:
I can call Michin getting the pin over IYO SKY to wrap up the Holiday Havoc match an upset, can’t I?
Like, of her team…didn’t see Mia Yim getting the pin. Good for her.
This one just looked sick (just watch the whole clip, trust me).
Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:
Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn are back, revealing themselves in presents during the Holiday Havoc match.
Escobar has his new stooges, with Humberto Carillo and Angel Garza returning to the main roster.
The duo helped Escobar advance to the US title tournament final.
Thinking that one through…Owens and Paul would be good. Escobar versus Paul would be…odd…but does Rey factor into one of those matches?
I can’t remember how long Rey is legit out for…
Was Karrion Kross implying that the Authors of Pain will be back (we’ve heard they will be) and working with him? That could be interesting…
Botch of the night:
There was a corner spot during the Havoc match that just wasn’t that crisp. Otherwise, the match and the show seemed pretty clean.
Plus, being a taped show…anything really bad could have just been carefully clipped.
Commentary of the night:
Graves gave Kevin Patrick grief for referencing the same Christmas song twice in a short span of time. “There are 10,000 Christmas songs, you don’t need to use the same one twice”.
Or, something like that.
Cole said IYO would make a good reindeer.
LOL Moment of the night:
Wait…Roman Reigns is still using a pop socket? I thought those things went out of style a couple years ago.
Noteworthy Moment:
Nick Aldis set a triple threat match for the first SmackDown of 2024. One of AJ Styles, LA Knight or Randy Orton will face Roman Reigns at the Rumble.
New Years Revolution (the first SmackDown of 2024) is getting loaded.
And…shots fired from Nick Aldis at Roman Reigns. Roman told him he should have run stuff by the Tribal Chief…
Aldis wasn’t hearing it though, told Reigns he was an executive without feelings and just did not make the champ happy. That’s going to be fun.
Can’t help but think Aldis was foreshadowing when he noted how Solo dispatched Cena in a way not even Reigns had.
Styles seemingly turned heel last week when he attacked Knight, but he might be a ‘tweener.
However, when hugged by Mia Yim and asked by the Good Brothers if they were good…he was cold. So maybe not a ‘tweener after all.
Butch gets a shot at Pretty Deadly at New Years Revolution…but he needs a partner. Will he go Sheamus, or will he go Dragon Lee…or door number 3?
Overall lowlights:
If you forced me to complain about one thing, I would say…
Not the best to see Damage CTRL take a loss, especially having the women’s champ take the pin.
But…having that lead to Mia Yim and IYO SKY, for the title, at NYR? I am less upset by it.
Overall highlights:
This is the highest praise I can provide…but for a pre-taped show, it was still can’t miss.
Yes, I knew the outcomes ahead of time, because spoilers. And yet I watched it, from start to finish, and I don’t regret a minute of it.
Lots of good action, plenty set up for New Years Revolution. The show was fun from top to bottom.
After the final bell:
Taped ahead of time or not, the roster gave us a strong show yet again.
Happy to know that they get an extended break for the holiday. Collectively WWE have had a tremendous year.
Giving the rosters and involved crew a decent little break to be home for the holidays is a huge move.
Wrapping things up with Holiday Havoc and seasons beatings was fun…
And, ringing in the New Year with a PLE-level week of events? Yes please!
