{"id":109871,"date":"2020-12-18T09:28:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T15:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=109871"},"modified":"2020-12-18T09:28:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T15:28:13","slug":"wwe-friday-night-smackdown-primer-12-18-final-tlc-hype-ziggler-roode-want-gold-no-hugs-for-bianca-carmellas-champagne-toast-sami-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2020\/12\/18\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown-primer-12-18-final-tlc-hype-ziggler-roode-want-gold-no-hugs-for-bianca-carmellas-champagne-toast-sami-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER 12\/18:  Final TLC Hype, Ziggler &amp; Roode Want Gold, No Hugs for Bianca, Carmella\u2019s Champagne Toast, Sami Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-182714136\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER<br \/>\nDECEMBER 18, 2020<br \/>\nTAMPA, FL. IN THE AWARD WINNING, CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, THUNDERDOME CREATED ESPECIALLY FOR THE WWE UNIVERSE AT TROPICANA FIELD<br \/>\nAIRS ON FS1 NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST<br \/>\nBY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR<\/h3>\n<p><em>Announcers: Michael Cole and Corey Graves<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>AIRING ON FS1 TONIGHT<\/h4>\n<p>As a result of the Pac-12 Championship game between Oregon and USC airing on Fox tonight, Smackdown will air on FS1.<\/p>\n<h4>Match Results and Segments from Last Week<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Smackdown Women\u2019s Champion Sasha Banks and Carmella hyped their match at TLC to open the show, which led to them having a match for the title in the main event of Smackdown.<\/li>\n<li>Dolph Ziggler defeated \u00bd of the Smackdown Tag Team Champion Street Profits Montez Ford.<\/li>\n<li>Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn defeated Big E via count out in non-title match,<\/li>\n<li>Kevin Owens addressed his challenge to Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship in a TLC match at the upcoming aforementioned named PPV. Reigns\u2019 cousin Jey Uso attacked Kevin until he came back. Roman came out with his council Paul Heyman when Paul talked him out of attacking Kevin once Jey was neutralized.<\/li>\n<li>The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott &amp; Liv Morgan) defeated Natalya &amp; Billie Kay.<\/li>\n<li>Cesaro &amp; Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Chad Gable &amp; Otis after a video was shown with Gable training Otis.<\/li>\n<li>King Corbin acknowledged Steven Cutler &amp; Wesley Blake as his \u201cKnights of the Lone Wolf.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Carmella defeated Smackdown Women\u2019s Champion Sasha Banks via DQ when Sasha failed to break a referee\u2019s count. Carmella attacked Sasha after the match and smashed a champagne bottle on her.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Items Advertised by WWE<\/h4>\n<p>Tonight\u2019s edition of Smackdown will be the last WWE TV before TLC this coming Sunday, the final PPV\/network event of 2020. Thus far two matches are advertised, which we knew from watching last week\u2019s episode. I was Wade Keller\u2019s co-host on the post show. If you haven\u2019t listened to that episode, I encourage you to do so along with listening to episode #1 of my PWTorch VIP podcast WWE Then and Now. I had Pro Wrestling Torch columnist Greg Parks as my cohost, and we broke down the first TLC PPV from 2009 and the relevancy of that show today. We then looked at the major stories from last year\u2019s show and how the characters involved have progressed over the past year. That said, here\u2019s what\u2019s advertised for tonight:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Street Profits to battle Dolph Ziggler &amp; Robert Roode in SmackDown Tag Team Title Match.<\/li>\n<li>Bayley to take on Bianca Belair.<\/li>\n<li>Smackdown to host Carmella\u2019s Champagne Toast.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t miss The First Annual Sami Awards on SmackDown.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Smackdown Tag Team Championship: The Street Profits (champs Montez Ford &amp; Angelo Dawkins) vs. Dolph Ziggler &amp; Robert Roode<\/h4>\n<p>Dolph Ziggler &amp; Robert Roode are going to look to cash in recent victories and try to capture their first Smackdown Tag Team Championship by taking on the Street Profits, currently in their \u201cfirst\u201d reign. The Profits became Raw Tag Team Champions back in March but exchanged the titles with New Day when the Profits were drafted to Smackdown and the New Day were drafted to Raw. Ziggler &amp; Roode held the Raw Tag Team Championship from September of 2019 for a month. They recently defeated the Profits in a non-title match in addition to Ziggler\u2019s victory over Ford last week.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s Roode &amp; Ziggler in a WWE exclusive:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ziggler &amp; Roode encourage The Street Profits to keep joking: SmackDown Exclusive, Dec. 11, 2020\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QZ-MqlptMUI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis: If either of the tag team championships meant something, it\u2019d be worth making a prediction. I could see the Profits retaining since they lost the non-title match and Ziggler\u2019s win, but it could go the other way. It really doesn\u2019t matter.<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Bianca Belair vs. Bayley<\/h4>\n<p>Bianca Belair goes one-on-one with former Smackdown Women\u2019s Champion Bayley tonight. Two weeks ago, Bayley tapped out to another former champion in Natalya when she applied her signature Sharpshooter with Bianca on commentary. Here\u2019s a little trash talk on Twitter between both women:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/BiancaBelairWWE\/status\/1339032912650510341?s=20<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1886870313\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis: Talk about defining down a champion that held a title for over a year. I don\u2019t know what a victory over Bayley does for Bianca if Bayley is tapping out to Natalya, who loses to everybody. It\u2019s sad to be so negative about this feud because it should just be the bee\u2019s knees, but it\u2019s not. Bayley might as well have never held the title the way they\u2019ve treated her recently.<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Carmella\u2019s Champagne Toast<\/h4>\n<p>Raise your glasses folks! Tonight, Carmella will have a champagne toast ahead of her challenge of Sasha Banks for the Smackdown women&#8217;s championship. They had a match on Smackdown last week that ended in a DQ when Sasha refused to break a hold. They were originally supposed to only sign the contract, but during the signing Sasha dared Carmella to come to the ring and get the title \u201ctonight.\u201d Carmella talked about playing chess and Sasha spewed out a bunch of lines in a mostly incoherent useless segment that by definition of the word, was better than two weeks ago. That\u2019s setting the bar REALLY low.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not the first time they\u2019ve had celebratory segments for Carmella. They had two Mellabrations in 2018 after she defeated Charlotte Flair for the Smackdown title. Here are those segments, the first of which was interrupted by Charlotte and the second by Asuka:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Carmella throws a &#039;Mellabration for her SmackDown Women&#039;s Title win: SmackDown LIVE, April 17, 2018\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8WOStutnhm4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Asuka crashes Carmella&#039;s Royal Mellabration: SmackDown LIVE, May 15, 2018\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_5GDZZMvybg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis: I probably should have been harder on the segment on the post show last week, but as I mentioned it was better than two weeks ago, but that doesn\u2019t mean I thought it was good. It\u2019s sad to say, but Carmella is better in her role than Sasha is in hers. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re putting the title on Carmella, but I can\u2019t rule it out. I can see Vince being more into Carmella carrying the title around in this version of her (which isn\u2019t really different from that) than Sasha being champion. He\u2019s never shown a desire to keep the title on Sasha for an extended period of time.<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>The Sami Awards<\/h4>\n<p>Next week on the WWE Network, WWE will host the Slammy Awards for the first time since 2015. The first Slammys were held in 1986 and was an on-and-off tradition with the most consistent period happening from 2008-2015. Here\u2019s a link to WWE\u2019s website and in particular the page in which they list the award categories and the eligible wrestlers:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/Slammy Awards\">https:\/\/www.wwe.com\/shows\/wwe-slammy-awards\/article\/the-slammy-awards-return-wednesday-dec-23-on-wwe-network<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn has an issue with the Slammys and indicated as such on Twitter:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Slammy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Slammy<\/a> Awards are good fun, but clearly very biased to highlight corporate favorites.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why tomorrow night on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Smackdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Smackdown<\/a>  I will host the FIRST ANNUAL SAMI AWARDS!<br \/>The always honest \u2018Champion of the People\u2019, will present awards that reflect the true will of the people! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ci41EQ807K\">https:\/\/t.co\/Ci41EQ807K<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sami Zayn (@SamiZayn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SamiZayn\/status\/1339755268775751681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 18, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Does Sami\u2019s t-shirt introduced last week get consideration for \u201cMerch of the Year\u201d if there were such a category?<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1637902136\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I like how Big E &amp; Apollo Crews tried to mock me last night and instead it resulted in me getting the greatest merch shirt in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WWE<\/a> history. <\/p>\n<p>Available now: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aNdwivK98t\">https:\/\/t.co\/aNdwivK98t<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QxFD0z4rM9\">pic.twitter.com\/QxFD0z4rM9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sami Zayn (@SamiZayn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SamiZayn\/status\/1337839269918994433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 12, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis: I want a Sami Award. Actually, we should have awards here at the Torch. Would it be a Wadie Award? Maybe a Torchie?<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Other Expectations and Final Thoughts<\/h4>\n<p>It\u2019s amazing how the Roman Reigns story is covering for a lot of bad writing on Smackdown. It\u2019s not all bad because I think Sami Zayn is providing great material and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s appreciated enough. They\u2019re not featuring the women in the best light and the tag division is a joke, I\u2019m sorry. Overall, I still look forward to Smackdown because of Roman and Sami. Kevin Owens is holding up his end as well although I didn\u2019t think his segment was extraordinarily strong last week. He still made me feel like the Universal Championship was important to him. Roman addressing Kevin\u2019s family saying he puts food on their table was just pure gold. Most important, let\u2019s look to see how they set up the final show before TLC.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1442792634\"><div id=\"pwtor-1426520714\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER DECEMBER 18, 2020 TAMPA, FL. IN THE AWARD WINNING, CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, THUNDERDOME CREATED ESPECIALLY FOR THE WWE UNIVERSE AT TROPICANA FIELD AIRS ON FS1 NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST BY FRANK <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2020\/12\/18\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown-primer-12-18-final-tlc-hype-ziggler-roode-want-gold-no-hugs-for-bianca-carmellas-champagne-toast-sami-awards\/\" title=\"WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER 12\/18:  Final TLC Hype, Ziggler &amp; Roode Want Gold, No Hugs for Bianca, Carmella\u2019s Champagne Toast, Sami Awards\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":109879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,52,4403,27,5893,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-opnionandanalysis","category-smackdown-primer","category-specialists","category-tvprimers","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2020\/12\/20201217_SD_MatchPreview_SamiZayn_FC_Clean-01afb173e9a765f55008eed1741b639d.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109880,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109871\/revisions\/109880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}