A Room with a Review: SmackDown 12/27/19

Posted: December 28, 2019/Under: Belts/By: Richard Phillips

Apparently they do these SmackDown things every Friday? I guess I’ll keep covering them, including this 12/27/19 edition from Detroit, MI.

We start with Elias, recapping the year in WWE and promoting tonight’s show. Remember when he was booed for five minutes straight? Those were the days.

We’re starting with the Triple Threat match to determine who will face The Fiend. The first person down the ramp is the New/Old Daniel Bryan, yessing the whole way. Next is King Corbin, who can’t help but cut a promo on the way, saying he should face The Fiend because he beat Roman Reigns twice. Roman’s music hits and Corbin gets dumped off his sedan. Reigns knocks the King around a little before Corbin is able to escape through the crowd. Time for a commercial to sort things out!

Backstage, Corbin is complaining to “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce, who apparently does not have Fit Finlay level agent authority. Will the match be postponed?

Don’t you dare be sour! Clap for this 6-man tag and feel the power! It’s The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) and Braun Strowman vs. Cesaro, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Sami Zayn. They’re letting Sami wrestle! Nakamura tags in Sami and he gets some punches in on a prone Kofi. After getting thrown to the outside, Kingston gets forearmed over the announce table by the Swiss Cyborg. Time for another commercial.

Back from commercial and Cesaro is still putting it to Kofi. I’m excited to see Ref Jess from NXT doing this match. I’m glad they aren’t relegating her to women’s matches. An S.O.S from Kingston to Shinsuke almost leads to a hot tag, but Cesaro cuts him off. Kofi finally gets the tag to Strowman and he literally runs roughshod, chasing Zayn around the ring until he gets kicked by Nak. After getting hit by a pancake tray (don’t ask) and a Strowman power slam, Nakamura takes the loss. After the match, Kofi and Big E make Strowman dance. I’m pretty sure he busted out the Big Wiggle at one point.

For the third time in forty minutes, we get to see Roman beat up Corbin. Kayla Braxton is reporting that Corbin refuses to compete in the Triple Threat, so the match will now be just The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan.

It’s time for Mandy Rose and Otis backstage. Mama Dozer made Mandy a fruitcake to say thanks for giving her boy a ham. Carmella heads to the ring (with pyro) and we go to commercial.

We’re back from commercial and Cole proposes a double-date between Mandy and Otis and Corey Craves and Carmella. I’d watch that episode of Ride Along. It looks like Mandy is calling this match, which shows the growth she’s made over the years. After trading pinfall attempts, Carmella gets the win after a superkick.

Sheamus is back and continues to cut promos in poorly lit areas. He starts talking about doors, which makes me think he’s stuck in Aleister Black’s room.

Daniel Bryan is in the ring and it’s time for his now one-on-one match against The Miz. After a couple of minutes, King Corbin’s cart carriers crash the canvas and the contest is canceled. Cut to Corbin and Kayla in Gorilla and Corbin declares that he wants back in the Triple Threat. Of course, this is being aired on the Titantron, so Miz and DB decide to storm up the ramp and take out Corbin. More commercials!

It’s time for A Moment of Bliss and it looks like Alexa has Nikki Cross wearing the same pants as her. Their guest this evening? The Sassy Southern Belle, Lacey Evans! She’s so sassy! And southern! They show a clip of Sasha Banks taunting Lacey’s daughter from last week. Lacey proceeds to invoke that daughter heat to make herself more of a face. Evans says she’s watched Alexa’s show enough to know not to turn her back, so she heads to the ring to start her tag match against Sasha and Bayley. They announce her partner, Dana Brooke, who gets dragged out to the stage by the heels. Lacey comes up to help and a brawl ensues. Referees come from the back as we…go to commercial.

The tag match starts as we come back from commercial. Sasha and Bayley are toying with Dana and taunting Lacey. Amazingly, Sasha did a meteora and Cole didn’t freak out. Lacey gets the tag and comes in like a studio apartment on fire. Brooke almost gets the win with a rollup, but Sasha kicks out and applies the Bank Statement for the win.

Backstage, Dolph Ziggler puts the moves on Mandy. He stomps on the fruitcake Otis gave her and all of Twitter is mad because he did it while wearing Jordans. He resumes wooing (not in the normal wrestling way), but gets interrupted by King Corbin, who needs him right away. Bah gawd, that’s commercial’s music!

We come back to a Mustafa Ali promo. 2019 didn’t go his way, but he says he will be a champion in 2020. I hope so, as Ali seems like a legit good dude.

In the ring, the Triple Threat has started. They were kind enough to not make us watch all of the entrances again. After some fighting outside the ring, Miz is selling his left shoulder and Bryan is selling his left knee. Corbin is a really good base for Miz and DB to work off of. He hits an End of Days on Miz, but it gets broken up by Bryan. Bryan hits the Knee Plus, but Ziggler comes in and hits him with a superkick and rolls Corbin on top. Before the ref gets to three, Roman Reigns pulls Corbin out of the ring and knocks him into the crowd. And it’s time for our second commercial break of the match.

Cole tells us that Corbin and Reigns have brawled out of the arena, so it’s back to just Miz and DB. Miz hits a top-rope shin breaker, going back to the leg that Bryan was selling earlier (storytelling!) and softening him up for the figure-four. Bryan is able to get Miz in an armbar, pulling on the shoulder Miz injured earlier (more storytelling!). Miz taps out to the LeBell lock and Daniel Bryan will face The Fiend at Royal Rumble.

It’s time for Firefly Fun House! Bray asks if Bryan will do whatever it takes to win, including letting The Fiend in. He (and the entire crowd in Detroit) respond with a rousing Yes! Yes! Yes!

This episode was okay. I’m still not sure how I feel about starting, middling, and ending the show with the same match, but everything else seemed to be moving their respective stories along. What did you think of the show? Let me know in the comment section below.

Also, if you haven’t already, please check out my Raw and NXT recaps.

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