WWE SmackDown Results, Highlights, And Grades For December 25, 2018

WWE SmackDown will air a special Christmas Day edition of the show, just one night after Vince McMahon announced on Raw that the Women’s Tag Team Championships are coming. So what will SmackDown have in store tonight? Will the Blue Brand up the ante?

Even before Vince McMahon and Co. made their announcement on Raw last week that changes would be coming to freshen up the product, WWE SmackDown was a real weekly highlight in the wrestling world. With a stacked roster, fresh matchups, and the insanely gifted SmackDown Women’s Division, the “Blue Brand” went from being “The Land of Opportunity” to resuming its status as one of the best weekly wrestling shows on the planet.

Unfortunately, WWE‘s changes included the removal of Paige from her position as GM, as she played an important part in making SmackDown must-see (or am I talking about her nemesis The Miz?) Paige may have a different role in store, and this will be a story to monitor in the coming weeks.

WWE officially announced a United States Championship match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev tonight, and if Rusev doesn’t win on the greatest Rusev Days of them all, I’m canceling my Network sub. (If you think I’m serious, there’s a Machka Kick for you…)

That match should be excellent, especially since we’ve seen what they can do in a full-lengthed battle. Remember their match at Fastlane? This one should be even better.

The Miz keeps trying to recruit Shane McMahon as his tag team partner, which would enable the “two-third best in the world” to unite with the man who is “one-third best in the world”. It ain’t happening, but we still have a few days left in #ShootYourShot2018, so Miz might as well.

After weeks of tormenting Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe will get his chance to send Hardy into a world of pain. Hardy has been through a lot this year, winning the United States Championship on Raw before jumping to SmackDown and surviving a Hell in a Cell match against the vindictive Randy Orton. But does Hardy have what it takes to defeat a perpetually pissed off Samoa Joe?

Last week, Mustafa Ali pinned the WWE Champion, Daniel Bryan, off of an 0-5-4 in a tag match. That should earn Ali an opportunity at Bryan’s coveted title, but will WWE give the fans this dream rematch with the title on the line? And could it even happen at Royal Rumble? Hopefully we get to learn more about where the newest member of the SmackDown roster stands.

Speaking of new members of the main roster, Nikki Cross will be on her way from NXT shortly, joining the likes of EC3 and Lacey Evans as main roster call-ups. Cross’s faction, Sanity, has found it difficult to find their footing on the main roster without her, so could Cross head to SmackDown Live and give Sanity the boost they need?

Tune in to WWE SmackDown tonight at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network for all the action, and hopefully this Christmas Day episode is even better than the solid effort Raw put together last night on Christmas Eve.