WWE: Smackdown Live Full Results: December 26, 2017
Dec 27, 2017 at 4:13 PM
WWE closed the televised programming of 2017 on a bigger note with last night’s edition of Smackdown Live. We expected to witness a WWE Championship match against an anonymous challenger. Furthermore, updates on the US title were also needed to be addressed. Check out the results from the show hosted at the All-State Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
Daniel Bryan kicked off the show with the announcement that in the main event of the night, AJ Styles will take on Kevin Owens reigniting a bitter feud from this year. He also informed that an eight-man tournament would be held to crown a new United States Champion to replace Dolph Ziggler. His promo was cut short with Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable who joined in the ring to demand a tag team title opportunity which they never got in a 2-on-2 match.
Chaos soon broke out with The New Day, Rusev-Aiden English joining them inside the ring. The GM then announced a triple threat tag team match with the winner getting an opportunity to the tag team championships. The crowd was raucous, chanting Rusev Day during this entire match.
However, in the end, it was the team of Benjamin & Gable who picked up the win with a double team powerbomb combo.
Shane McMahon was seen irate with the announcement that Kevin Owens was getting a chance to take on the WWE Champion after all those things he had done. Daniel Bryan disagreed him saying the crowd wants to see another match between the two bitter rivals from 2017.
The Bludgeon Brother had a rematch with team Breezango from the Clash of Champions PPV. They were seen in the dominating mode, once again by punishing both their opponents throughout the match. Just when the finish seemed nearby, The Ascension ran down to make the save for Breezango. They attacked Harper & Rowan to make the contest disqualified and ran away with breeze and Fandango.
Ruby Riott squared off against Naomi in a singles contest. The other members of the Riott Squad were there to provide the distraction for Naomi. So, it was easy to for Riott to take advantage of that and pick up the pinfall via a Riott kick. After the match, the trio attacked Naomi and Charlotte Flair who was out to make the save. Surprisingly, Natalya appeared with Lana, Tamina, and Carmella as a backup. The Riott Squad decided to step back from the ring.
Two singles matches took place in the United States Championship-first round tournament. In the first one, Bobby Roode defeated Baron Corbin countering a chokeslam attempt from the latter one and rolling him up. In the second match, Jinder Mahal took on against Tye Dillinger with the Singh Brothers still backing him up. Jinder looked even stronger with this dominant win with a Khallas on Dillinger.
It was a non-title match between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles in Smackdown main event. Sami Zayn was providing distraction constantly which is why Shane McMahon came out and ordered the referee to eject him from ringside, immediately. It created chaos in the ringside area, and Owens took full advantage of it by rolling up Styles and get the pinfall. Owens & Zayn celebrated to end the last episode of Smackdown Live of 2017.