SmackDown recap & reactions: Big Champion

Big Money Drew here, and wishing everyone a very Happy Holidays!

Let’s get right into this pre-taped Christmas episode, which I was able to watch spoiler free! (It was hard but I did it!)

The Intercontinental title match main event was made a Lumberjack match to Sami Zayn’s chagrin. He blamed Daniel Bryan since he always said the Intercontinental championship should be defended all the time.

It would appear that Zayn had a deal worked out with the heel lumberjacks, since every time Big E was sent to the outside, they would pile up on him and attack. Sami dove onto Big E after the heels set him up in front of the announce table.

Sami tried for a Helluva Kick but Big E slammed him down on the mat. Sami did a sunset flip powerbomb for a near fall! E speared Zayn through the ropes and all of the lumberjacks started brawling with each other. Zayn tried to take advantage and run away, but they got him back into the ring.

Big E big splash and big ending put Sami Zayn down and Big E is the NEEEWWWW Intercontinental champion! All of the babyfaces celebrated with E in the ring. What a wonderful ending to Christmas Day.

I am elated that E is the new Intercontinental champion. He deserves it so much. He’s the rightful champion right now and while WWE didn’t jump start this push as soon as New Day were split, I’m happy that they finally got to this conclusion. It would have added a little extra awesomeness if they had Woods and Kingston there to celebrate with him. They had Raw superstars as lumberjacks!

Semantics. Big E is the new deserving champion, and this, plus a segment we’ll talk about in a bit, may have telegraphed what WrestleMania is going to look like in a few months. And while it’s not what I originally predicted or wanted, the story for it makes a whole lot of sense.

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Please never end this feud

Reigns and Owens immediately started punching each other as the bell rang. Reigns slammed Owens into the cage and did a Samoan drop with urgency.

Reigns countered a pop up powerbomb with a leg drop and I swear I’ve never seen that before! Owens kept that babyface fire throughout this match, getting right back on Reigns when he caught a breath. Owens’ pop up powerbomb connected and got him a near fall. He caught so much breath in fact, that he did a beautiful fisherman’s buster!

Owens kicked out of a Superman Punch and that got Reigns angry. He locked the Guillotine in as he got Owens between the cage and rope, but Owens grabbed Reigns’ head and countered! Roman’s sell of getting choked out by the top rope was phenomenal. KO climbed up the cage, but Reigns stopped him. KO superkicked him on the top rope and went for a Swanton but met Reigns’ knees.

What a sequence at the end, where Owens was juuuust outside the cage but Jey Uso got involved once again and handcuffed Owens to the cage, and Reigns slowly walked down the steps to retain. Owens called him a little bitch and you could feel the emotion behind that. That’s how good Owens is at this pro wrestling thing.

Both men are very good at this professional wrestling thing. And Jey Uso is an asshole who must be put down. Everyone in this story is killing it. The way they did the end of the match looks like this feud isn’t quite over yet, either. Good! I need more!

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The Rest

Charlotte and Asuka defeated BayMella and Sasha Banks and Bianca Belaire – Charlotte and Bianca had a really awesome minute and a half where they did a double drop kick and a double kip up at the same time and mocked each other. Immediately I want more of these two and everyone else can clear out, but sadly I can’t get what I want. Bayley had a near fall on Asuka and both she and Carmella gained up on her. Both women did a great job isolating Asuka until Asuka got comeuppance.

Asuka tagged Bianca and everything broke down, until Bianca tagged Sasha in and she eliminated the BayMella team! Charlotte locked the Figure 8 on Sasha and Bianca used her long hair to pull Sasha to safety! That was an awesome spot! Sadly, Reginald and Bayley got involved and that led to Charlotte pinning Bianca. This was a fun match and The Riott Squad were shown watching this backstage. Sooo looks like Charlotte and Asuka will be making another appearance on SmackDown soon.

Daniel Bryan defeated Jey Uso – The asshole Jey Uso attacked Bryan before the match and dominated him for a few minutes. Bryan got some momentum back, but Jey hit a Samoan Drop and stopped it. Every time Bryan tried to rally, Jey halted his momentum. Bryan launched Jey over the top rope and then did a suplex from the top rope. Bryan took advantage of Jey tweaking his left leg and targeted it with kicks. He had Jey in a Yes! Lock and then transitioned into a leg submission, but Jey got to the bottom rope.

They both brawled and Bryan did the running knee to win. This was a great victory for Bryan in a well wrestled match for both men. While I don’t want Owens to be done with the bloodline, I don’t really want Bryan to be done with them either. Though it might be since Bryan announced himself as an entrant into the 2021 Royal Rumble. Originally I wanted Big E winning the Rumble but I don’t think they could go wrong with Bryan and Reigns at WrestleMania, either.

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This was one of the best SmackDown shows I’ve seen in a number of weeks. It also had maybe the best cage match I’ve ever seen on it, and Big E winning the IC title.

Grade: A+

I’m too happy, y’all. It’s Christmas I loved this show.

What were your thoughts, Cagesiders?

**For Original Source – Click Here**