SmackDown Results – December 11th 2020

Written by Innes McVey • Published 12th December 2020
Sasha Banks & Carmella SmackDown Graphic - SmackDown results thumb

Keep up with all of tonight’s WWE SmackDown results as the show emanates from the WWE ThunderDome inside Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida with over a week to go till TLC!

Matches and segments announced for tonight’s show include:

Sasha & Carmella Sign The Contract For Their Title Showdown, Match Moved To Tonight

  • Adam Pearce hands Sasha the contract and as he begins introducing Carmella, Sasha notices the contract is missing before Carmella appears on the titantron.
  • Carmella says she makes the rules but she has signed the contract and getting someone to hand-deliver the contract to Sasha.
  • Carmella says she isn’t getting in the ring after Sasha mauled her last week as the contract is delivered to her.
  • Carmella says as soon as Sasha signs the contract, her days as champion are over but Sasha signs anyway.
  • Sasha demands the match happens tonight and Carmella agrees – The match is moved to tonight and Sasha gives Carmella a preview by beating up the person Carmella sent with the contract.

Analysis: Strong opener to the show that’ll hook people in by putting a TLC match on as the main event. It’ll almost certainly be a DQ or some other non-finish but it at least it means we’ll see Carmella compete and it’s a big title match to keep people watching.

Dolph Ziggler defeats Montez Ford via Pinfall in 8:31

  • Roode & Ziggler cut a pre-match promo and say that the Profits’ title reign will “go up in smoke” once they get their title opportunity.
  • A pretty even back-and-forth match to start before Montez threw Ziggler to the outside and Roode attempted to interfere. Dawkins headed him off though and solo cups rained into the ring as we cut to commercial.
  • Ziggler focuses on Ford’s knee and locks in several sleeper holds to keep Ford grounded, which Ford eventually fights out.
  • Ziggler attempts the Zig-Zag, but Ford throws him off and hits an enziguri. As he goes for From The Heavens, Roode attacks Dawkins on the outside.
  • This distracts Ford long enough for Ziggler to knock him off the top rope and hit the Superkick for the win.

Analysis: Fairly tame match which didn’t do much for this feud. It’s a fairly standard formula we’ve seen time and time again of the heels continually getting dirty wins before being beaten clean at the PPV, which I’d expect for this story at TLC. Hopefully, we can move onto some more interesting things for the Profits going to the Rumble – maybe including Cesaro/Shinsuke like they teased last week?

Sami Zayn defeats Big E via Count-Out in 10:39

  • Before the match, we see Zayn complaining about his lack of merch before Big E confronts him with his own new shirt. Big E says Sami should be worried about their match tonight rather than a shirt.
  • He gets Apollo Crews to show Sami a shirt they’d made for him though – a terrible hand-drawn one featuring a stick figure drawing of Zayn. Zayn tries to rip it up but can’t due to his hand injury before storming off in anger.
  • Big E generally overpowers Zayn throughout the match but Zayn picks up the advantage here and there using dirty tactics.
  • Zayn goes for a crossbody from the top but Big E rolls through, lifting Zayn into the position for the Big Ending but Zayn rakes the eyes. Zayn goes the Helluva Kick but Big E counters with a Uranage.
  • Sami feigns a hand injury but slaps Big E, which causes the former New Day member to chase him under the ring. Zayn comes out the outside and traps Big E under the ring long enough for him to roll back in to get the count-out win.

Analysis: Good match between Zayn and Big E though I wasn’t a fan of having another cheap heel win right after Ziggler & Roode did the same thing. At least Zayn’s tactic was a little more original but it’s still not great and didn’t make Big E look the best, especially during this great singles run he’s had lately.

Bianca Belair Reads Off ACTUAL Receipts To Bayley

  • Bayley wishes Carmella luck in the main event before moving to insult Bianca Belair.
  • Belair appears behind Bayley during her tirade and reminds Bayley she beat Natalya whilst Bayley didn’t.
  • She proceeds to pull out physical receipts and lists off all her accomplishments which explain why she’s the EST before Bayley storms off.

Analysis: If there was one way to recover from Natalya beating Bayley clean last week, this was it. Bianca pulling out PHYSICAL RECEIPTS to list off why she’s the EST was great – mainly because of how original it was and how well it fits her character. I’d like to see Bayley get some sort of win or advantage over Bianca heading into TLC next week though as her loss to Natalya was pretty damaging.

Kevin Owens Calls Out Roman Reigns, Fights Off Jey Uso, Reigns Attacks Backstage

  • We see a recap of last week’s events and Kevin Owens makes his way to the ring. Jey asks Roman backstage if he can go get him and Roman gives him the go-ahead.
  • Owens brings in a table, a ladder and two chairs into the ring. He tells Roman that the Universal Champion is better than he’s ever been but he does not fear him. Owens calls out Reigns for using Uso to fight his battles for him and introduces Reigns to his friends that’ll help him win at TLC – including ‘Chairs’, ‘Table’ and ‘Ladder’.
  • Owens climbs the ladder before Uso attacks him from behind with a chair. Jey tries to go for a Uso Splash through the table but Owens fights backs, delivering a Pop-Up Powerbomb on Uso through it instead.
  • Roman makes his way to the top of the ramp and Heyman tells him to do things on his time, not Owens’, before leaving. Owens hobbles after him with a chair.
  • After commercials, Kayla tries to get a word with Owens before Roman beats him down. Roman talks to the camera as if addressing Owens’ family and says if they don’t talk sense into Owens, then Roman’ll be the one to take food from it.

Analysis: Another fresh twist in the Owens/Roman story. We see Heyman actually advising Roman for the first time which allows the Tribal Chief to beat down Owens backstage afterwards. Roman threatening Owens’ family saying he’ll take the food off their table if they don’t talk sense into “daddy” was bone-chillingly great and gave me Orton/HHH WM 25 vibes. Hope we get a response from Owens’ family or an even more aggressive streak out of Owens next week.

The Riott Squad defeat Billie Kay & Natalya via Pinfall in 3:55

  • Riott Squad showed off a united front, hitting various tag combination moves on Kay & Natalya.
  • The heels managed to isolate Liv in the corner but Kay accidentally hit Natalya, allowing Riott Squad to hit a double knee strike/Riott Kick combination for the win.

Analysis: A pretty nothing match that didn’t really do much other than getting all four on the episode. Billie’s resume character lately has been great and honestly, I’d rather she just stick to a pure character role for a while – think Austin Aries on 205 Live. Just have her do commentary for a week alongside occasional skits because the stuff she’s been doing has been hilarious and I don’t see its longevity petering out anytime soon!

Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro defeat Chad Gable & Otis via Pinfall in 3:32

  • Before the match, we see an Instagram video of Gable & Otis’ training with Gable throwing objects at Otis, who was blindfolded. Cesaro & Shinsuke beat down on Gable in their corner early on but Gable manages to tag out to Otis who takes down both of his opponents.
  • Otis goes for the Caterpillar but Gable gets him to tag instead and tries to go for a dive but Cesaro counters into the Swing. Nakamura tags in, who hits the Kinshasa and picks up the win.
  • After commercials, Gable says it was a great learning lesson and says Otis wasn’t meant to tag him in when he asked. Gable says he’s showing him what to do by showing him what not to do.

Analysis: Wish this had gotten just a couple more minutes because the few moments we got of Chad Gable and Cesaro in the ring together were glorious, though I get that wasn’t the point. I was expecting a manager/student-type relationship between Otis & Gable but not against them teaming, especially in SmackDown’s tag division that DESPERATELY needs some new blood. Gable manipulating Otis through his teachings could be a really fun dynamic over the next couple of weeks, just hope they stretch it out for a while rather than having the inevitable turn come quick.

Carmella defeats Sasha Banks via Disqualification in 11:04, Sasha Retains The SmackDown Women’s Championship

  • Carmella gained control early on after hitting a Facebuster onto the ring apron before we cut to commercials.
  • Banks hit a Meteora into the corner for a near-fall before Carmella managed to half-lock in the Code of Silence, which Banks countered into the Bank Statement.
  • Carmella’s assistant threw a champagne bottle in the ring to distract the ref before pulling Banks out to break the hold. Banks chased him before beating down Carmella in the corner, ignoring the referee’s 5-count and causing a disqualification loss to her opponent.
  • Banks locked in the Bank Statement on the assistant after the bell but Carmella broke it up and dragged Sasha to the outside where she hit her with an ice bucket and a bottle of champagne. The show closed with Carmella being announced as the winner as she celebrated by spraying champagne everywhere.

Analysis: The match itself was pretty fun whilst it lasted but the finish was a little lame, even for those expecting a DQ. Sasha really didn’t have much of a reason to continue lashing out at Carmella like she did – I feel like it would have been slightly better for her to have locked in the Bank Statement on the assistant and having that cause the DQ. Carmella cracking the bottle off Sasha’s back looked good but afterwards, she had to awkwardly shuffle around for a minute or two before she was announced the winner. A good angle to advance the feud but it did go a bit long to the point it felt a little awkward.

And that was the December 11th 2020 episode of SmackDown!

Unfortunately the weakest SmackDown in a while for me. The Reigns/Owens & Belair/Bayley segments were fun but the amount of dirty and non-finishes on the show just took me out of enjoying any of the matches and the rest of the segments felt a little flat. With next week being the go-home to TLC, hopefully, the feuds pick up a little bit.

Keep up-to-date with all the fallout from SmackDown, as well as all the latest WWE news generally, right here at Inside The Ropes.