WWE SmackDown Live was broadcast from U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 12, 2017 at 8:00PM on the USA Network.
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Daniel Bryan will be the 2nd guest referee for Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens at Clash of Champions
Well this is a big deal.
Zayn and Owens were out trying to start the "Yep!" movement, a knockoff of Bryan's own movement a couple of years ago. They even had flyers and everything!
Bryan wasn't as amused, as he injected himself into the display and berated the two for trying to make the movement about themselves. At the same time, Bryan still tried to play fair, and announced that he would be the second guest referee — in addition to Shane McMahon — at the Clash of Champion match where Owens and Zayn are fighting for their jobs against Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura.
WWE SmackDown Live main event: Kevin Owens def. (pin) Shinsuke Nakamura (w/ Randy Orton and Sami Zayn ringside)
Daniel Bryan was also on commentary. He spent the match advocating on why he will be a fair ref at Clash of Champions.
Owens and Nakamura were having a good back-and-forth match before Owens clocked the referee with a forearm. Bryan then got up from the commentary desk to take over as referee, where he was notably late to get into the ring to call a Nakamura pin attempt. Owens kicked out at 2, and then some shenanigans ensued with Orton and Zayn getting in the ring.
Eventually Owens hit Nakamura with the pop-up powerbomb, and Bryan counted the three-count for the pin. Commentary openly questioned if Bryan is really out to call the match fairly, or if he really is going to help out Zayn and Owens at Clash of Champions.
Charlotte Flair def. (DQ) Ruby Riott (w/ the Riott Squad)
Short match before the Riott Squad eventually became an issue, along with Natalya, who was ringside doing commentary. Flair tried laying everyone out ringside, but then Natalya hit her from behind to cause the disqualification.
The Riott Squad attempted to incapacitate Charlotte using the ringsteps before a returning Naomi laid out all three members of the faction. The three retreated up the ramp, only to be ambushed again by Carmella, Tamina, and Carmella.
Baron Corbin def. (DQ) Dolph Ziggler
Two straight DQs? What is this, WCW?
Bobby Roode was on commentary for this one, and it took him about a full minute to interfere and lay out both Ziggler and Corbin with the Glorious DDT. Made sense based on what happened last week with Ziggler doing this, but really? We got two disqualifications within the span of about 10 minutes, and that's not really fun.
Rusev & Aiden English def. (pin) The Usos (Jimmy & Jey)
WHAT???
These two teams had a bit of a confrontation with The New Day and Benjamin & Gable prior to the match, all setting up the fatal four-way tag match at Clash of Champions. The New Day and Benjamin and Gable were all ringside for the match, but surprisingly, no one got involved, as English & Rusev actually got the win on what will prove to be a magnificent Rusev Day.
AJ Styles opened the show before being interrupted by the Singh Brothers
Styles was touting his match at Clash of Champions, where he is defending his title against Jinder Mahal. The Singh Brothers interrupted to tell AJ that they were no longer affiliated with Jinder after a beatdown a couple of weeks ago, and "Uncle Allen" invited the Singhs to the ring to hug it out.
They did hug it out... but Styles revealed that he knew the Singhs were still with Jinder during WWE's tour of India a week ago, and gave the brothers a quick beating in front of Mahal to send one last message before Sunday's title match.
Best of the rest of WWE SmackDown Live
- The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper & Rowan) beat two poor souls called Colin Delaney and Joe Monroe. This included Rowan throwing Delaney OVER THE TOP ROPE FROM OUTSIDE THE RING TO INSIDE.
- In good news, the Bludgeon Brothers take on the Fashion Police (Breeze & Fandango) at Clash of Champions!
- Jinder (with the Singh Brothers) attacked AJ backstage late in the show. Guys getting attacked backstage seems to happen a lot in WWE, maybe they should hire some security.
- Zack Ryder vs. Mojo Rawley was announced for the Clash of Champions kickoff show... yay?
Build to WWE Clash of Champions
WWE SmackDown Live results: 12/05/2017
WWE SmackDown Live results: 11/28/2017
WWE SmackDown Live results: 11/21/2017
Fallout from Survivor Series
