This week’s SmackDown started as Bray Wyatt came out to the arena. He started to talk about the incident from last week where he attacked the cameraman. He apologized to the camera man as LA Knight appeared. He still accused him to be Uncle Howdy and the person that appeared two weeks ago as Uncle Howdy was someone whom Wyatt paid to dress like him.
Knight in the end challenged Bray Wyatt in a match at Royal Rumble. Bray Wyatt did not waste anytime to accept the challenge. We must say that LA Knight can gain massive heat, he is really good at it. Uncle Howdy appeared next and for the first time he entered the ring. He shocked the entire world when he hit Bray Wyatt with the Sister Abigail. Knight looked as confused as the rest of the fans. This storyline might be a little slow but it is getting quite exciting.
WWE SmackDown 30.12.2022 Results & Ratings
Match 1 – Solo Sikoa defeated Sheamus
The first match of the last show of the year was booked for eight minutes and it was a good match. Nobody in particular dominated the match but ultimately the undefeated streak of Solo Sikoa continued. Sheamus was distracted by outside chaos as Solo capitalised with a Samoan Spike and pinned him. After the match, The Bloodline started beating down Sheamus. Drew McIntyre came out for the help and saved him.
Match 2 – WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship – Ronda Rousey defeated Raquel Rodriguez to retain
This was a very good match. This was booked for a total of 12 minutes and overall it was a really fun match. Rodriguez dominated the most part of the match but her injured left arm what’s the biggest drawback for this challenge. Ronda kept on attacking her injured arm and at the end she made her submit with the Cross Armbar on the injured left arm.
After the match, Ronda Rousey was about to say something but the whole arena was surprised by the return of Charlotte Flair. Finally after a long time she has made her return and this time as a babyface. She enter the ring and challenged Ronda for the title. Shayna Baszler tried to prevent Ronda from entering into the next match but Ronda accepted the challenge.
Match 3 – WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship – Charlotte Flair defeated Ronda Rousey to become new champion
The match did not even go on for one minute, but it was pretty much justified. Ronda was tired after having a 12 minute long match and instantly she faced a giant opponent. Ronda attempted to convert a Spear from Charlotte to a Cross Armbar which Charlotte converted to a roll up and pinned her. Charlotte Flair is now a 13 times WWE Women’s champion excluding her NXT Women’s title reigns And The Divas’ title reign.
Backstage a number of wrestlers were seen having fun. There The New Day, Hit Row, Maximum Male Models, Madcap Moss and Ricochet. The discussion came to the part of Top Dolla’s infamous botch and everyone started making fun of it. Top Dolla coule not bare it for long as he pushed Ricochet in anger. The rest of the wrestlers stopped them from getting into a fight.
Imperium came out to the arena. They talk about the dominance of Gunther throughout the year as the Intercontinental Champion. They even presented a video package which showed the dominance of the Ring General. The video showed all the wrestlers that Gunther defeated to retain his Championship.
Braun strowman interfered them and demanded a title shot. Gunther tried to ignore him and leave. Braun attacked them and started beating all three men down. As all of them fell outside of the ring, Strowman attempted the Strowman Express but Gunther ducked it and threw him through the barricade.
Gunther hit Braun with a Steel Chair and then brought him back to the ring. He locked his hand which Braun was failing to get out of. The officials had to come out to stop him but Gunther still did not stop. Ricochet then came with the steel chair and he swung it toward the Imperium members. As Gunther was escaping the ring, Ricochet hit Gunther on the head with the chair, which was surely not supposed to happen. Quite clearly it was a botch and a little careless from Ricochet. Gunther looked really hurt, he was busted open, we hope he is okay.
Match 4 – John Cena and Kevin Owens defeated The Bloodline (Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns)
This was an amazing way to end this year. Of course, Bloodline would have been defeated here, everybody knew it, but they booked it pretty well. It took really long to get Cena into the match. Sami and Roman ganged up on Kevin Owens. But as Cena finally entered the match, it was all over for the Bloodline. Cena took Roman out with AA and Owens pinned Sami with the Stunner.
The match signified a lot. Owens getting the pin to earn a victory over the Bloodline was definitely a big deal. Surely he is not going to beat Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble but it made him a legit Contender. Finally losing a match with Roman Reigns being involved signified that the days of Bloodline are finally coming to an end. Of course, Roman was protected, but in the history books, it will be written as Roman Reigns lost the match. John Cena and Kevin Owens as the final SmackDown of 2022 and the final show of WWE of 2022 went off air.
Overall it was an amazing show. It was arguably the best SmackDown of the entire year. We got to see a huge title change, the shocking return of Charlotte Flair, John Cena finally being involved in a match on free television, and Roman Reigns had a match and lost, even though he was protected, everything was just so good. It was an amazing show.
But there were some downfalls about this week’s SmackDown. The biggest downfall was the careless chair swing of Ricochet which busted Gunther open. And with Charlotte Flair returning to action and winning the SmackDown Women’s title, it was pretty obvious that Raquel Rodriguez is now out of the title picture. So what was the point of burying the entire SmackDown women’s division to promote Rodriguez? It was a really bad booking. And what about the rest of the women? No mention of them either. We give the last SmackDown of 2022 a solid 3.5 out of 5.
Sportzwiki Ratings – 3.5/5