WWE SmackDown - 12/12/2025: 3 Things We Loved And 3 We Hated

Tomorrow, the wrestling world bids adieu to John Cena, but despite the weight atmosphere this weekend, "WWE SmackDown" stopped into the Mohegan Sun in Wilkes-Barre, PA. As always with "SmackDown," there was plenty to love and plenty to hate. As always, we won't be dealing in results. That's already been taken care of on the results page.

Instead, we'll be discussing what worked and what didn't work on the December 12 show. The blue brand has its eyes on the future, with big wins for Je'Von Evans and Lash Legend, but some are concerned that they might be letting other future stars fall by the wayside. There was a great promo from Oba Femi that kicked off the show, but there was also a pretty middling main event. Overall, it was a mixed bag of a show, which leaves us plenty to talk about.

So no more introductions, it's time to let the Wrestling Inc. staff tell you what we loved and hated from the December 12, 2025, edition of "SmackDown."

Read more: R-Rated WWE Moments That Would Never Fly Today

Loved: 'The Ruler' fits right in on 'SmackDown'

I am a "WWE NXT" girlie through and through, and I think it's really cool that I get to witness the start of a talent's hopefully meteoric rise from the very beginning, and I'm glad that talent happens to be "The Ruler" Oba Femi. I was shocked at Deadline when he defeated Ricky Saints to become two-time NXT Champion and earn the shot at facing Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night's Main Event, but it was obviously a very excited kind of shocked. That's the match I'm most looking forward to tomorrow to be quite honest, and I didn't expect to see Femi on tonight's episode of the blue brand.

Femi is a certified star already, and this appearance in Wilkes-Barre, a relatively smaller area in Pennsylvania compared to the Pittsburgh or Philadelphia areas, helped solidify that. The fact the crowd was going along with the "Ooos!" in his entrance theme, the ones that usually ring out in the WWE Performance Center, a crowd of usually returning fans who get in for free, all familiar with "The Ruler," was pretty cool to me. If WWE brings Femi up to the main roster post-Royal Rumble, or to bring him up to help pad out the returning third hour of "SmackDown," I'm not exactly sure how they'd even begin to attempt to keep him heel. I didn't hear any boos, despite him getting in Rhodes' face.

If the face-off with the blue brand's champion wasn't enough, WWE also threw a video package about Femi in there tonight as well, giving me even more faith that he'll be handled well once he gets called up. If the main roster fans weren't familiar with Femi before, I'd certainly imagine they're at least intrigued. He showed everyone his presence is impressive alongside Rhodes, a mega star, tonight, so I really hope the interest in his in-ring work is there, as well.

While the content of the face-off wasn't much to write home about, with Femi pulling out a cliche "hustle, loyalty, respect" line, this was all more about his aura, as the kids say. Just seeing him in the ring with Rhodes reminded me how excited I am for this battle tomorrow, as I know Rhodes is going to make him look good. I loved the way WWE presented the NXT Champion tonight, especially with the extra little video package about him in there, and it was a big highlight of the episode for me.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Hated: Sol Ruca Is (Almost) Nowhere To Be Found

Je'Von Evans scored a win against The Miz to gain some momentum heading into his and Leon Slater's Saturday Night's Main Event match against AJ Styles and Dragon Lee. Oba Femi had a fun confrontation with Cody Rhodes to kick off the show ahead of their Champion vs. Champion match tomorrow night.

What about Sol Ruca before she faces Bayley in what WWE is calling the biggest match of her career, I hear you ask? Nothing more than an appearance in the audience along with Bayley sitting in another part of the arena.

WWE had a lot of different options in terms of things they could've had Ruca do on this show to gain some extra main roster exposure and get those who may not be as familiar with her behind her, whether it was a match where she emerged as the victor, similar to Evans, or some sort of promo segment. On the flip side, if WWE had wanted to do something with Bayley and had her and Lyra Valkyria booked to take on Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez in a dark match regardless, then they should've just put it on the air. It would've also provided an opportunity for Ruca to be present at ringside, get into a confrontation with Bayley afterwards, or both, seeing as there was still plenty of wiggle room to have made it happen on the show.

WWE ultimately chose a route that felt incredibly lazy and underwhelming, especially when compared to Evans and Femi. This was a major wasted opportunity, and while it was still disappointing to see, it wasn't exactly something I would call shocking, considering WWE's booking of the women's division.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Loved: NXT talent leave an in-ring mark

WWE has been attempting to follow in the steps of John Cena on the eve of his final wrestling match with their current push of "NXT" stars and recent main roster call-ups. I reckon they're doing a halfway decent job.

After some recently disastrous "NXT" call-ups, the performances of Lash Legend, Je'Von Evans, and Carmelo Hayes were a sight for sore eyes. That's not to say that all of "NXT" was represented well: Oba Femi and Sol Ruca, two "NXT" Superstars who are slated to go toe-to-toe with the company's biggest names, were relatively sedentary on Friday, with Ruca's two seconds in the audience being the night's biggest "NXT-"related offense. They'll get their moment at "Saturday Night's Main Event," though. Overall, "WWE SmackDown" had an excellent show from "NXT's" hottest stars.

Friday's opening match saw Tommaso Ciampa and Ilja Dragunov — two names who are, interestingly enough, also heavily tied to "NXT —" contest Dragunov's United States Championship. The match was hard-hitting and intense, but the night's real treat came following Dragunov's victory, when Hayes bolted out of the entrance ramp to save Dragunov from Ciampa and Gargano. Is a post-match save the most exciting thing in the world? No, but when Hayes cleared half of the ring to neutralize Gargano, the sight drew out the only physical reaction I had throughout the entire show. That's saying something.

Legend and Evans took some very necessary wins over established main roster talent tonight, with Legend scoring a clean(-ish) victory over five-time women's champion Alexa Bliss while Evans made short work of former world titleholder The Miz. Legend's work was far from polished — nowhere near Evan's work, anyway — but she looked absolutely dominant in her match with Bliss, and far from Nia Jax's simple henchman. Evans held his own against the seasoned Miz and put his name on the blue brand map with an incredible Top Rope Cutter in the match's final moments. Until recently, nobody thought Legend would be much of anything. Evans just lost his fourth "NXT" Championship match on Tuesday. It would have been disappointing, but somewhat expected of WWE to bury these rising stars in favor of their established main roster players. Instead, WWE gave both of these blossoming in-ring performers some much-needed wins. These wins don't come easily from WWE, especially for incoming performers. They were not wasted on Legend and Evans.

WWE created "NXT" to build their future stars. To date, so many current main eventers have come out of the program, but that is only because WWE has invested time into them on the main roster. It's time that WWE goes back to that successful formula, and puts some momentum behind "SmackDown" and "WWE Raw's" newest faces.

Written by Angeline Phu

Hated: Jade Cargill needs a serious feud

We are going on a full month now with no serious challengers for Jade Cargill, and with the way "SmackDown" went tonight, it's kind of starting to get old, no matter how much I like Cargill, especially as a heel. I know there are a lot of things, quite a few negative, that can be said about her in-ring ability, but as champion of the blue brand, she's got to start doing something. Since winning the title, Cargill's only faced B-Fab and Alba Fyre, and neither of those matches was for her championship. She's just been a bully backstage, but no one, outside of Michin (alongside B-Fab), has really stepped up to do anything about it. And, with the way things went for her with the Women's United States Championship, I hate to say it, but Michin isn't exactly the most believable challenger for the WWE Women's Championship.

If WWE is going to put Michin in front of her, they should really just go with it and at least attempt to make her some kind of believable, though that would require them giving her victories before she faced Cargill for the gold. What happened tonight just wasn't it for me, even if Michin did get back up and come out to the ring to go face-to-face with Cargill after she was initially taken out in the back by the champion. Maybe this is WWE's idea for a serious feud for the champion, as maybe the powers that be believe this proved Michin's tenacity or something, and we're headed toward a premium live event match, or maybe next month's Saturday Night's Main Event, even though Michin got flattened by Cargill in the ring in quick fashion. I guess Michin getting taken out before a match, rather than actually having the match they were apparently meant to have tonight, is ever-so-slightly better than her taking a loss.

I don't know if WWE is waiting for the calendar to change to 2026 to begin to establish a challenger for Cargill, or if they're waiting for Tiffany Stratton to get back, whenever that may be, or maybe all the other women who could be in contention are involved in the tag team division right now, but I am left wondering tonight if I'm the only one getting a bit tired of Cargill as a champion with nothing to do, with no real serious contenders for the gold to be seen until Bianca Belair's broken finger joint heals.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Loved: Dragunov vs. Ciampa's in-ring made me briefly forget about the dumb story

I've used this column to love Ilja Dragunov's open challenge before. Dragunov's matches are consistently the high point of "SmackDown". That was no different tonight when he finally caved and allowed Tomasso Ciampa a shot at his U.S. Championship. For NXT Black and Gold fans, we're well aware of what Ciampa can do in the ring (something he doesn't get to do much of anymore). He may have a few more years of wear and tear on his body, but he still can hang with the likes of Dragunov. At some point in the later part of the match, Dragunov's nose was busted open, and his face matched his trunks.

The match was an excellent back-and-forth, and then WWE did what they love doing: had an interference. Johnny Gargano hopped up on the apron in an attempt to distract the ref so that Candice LeRae could land a cheap shot on the champ. It backfired, though, as Dragunov rolled Ciampa up for the pin. The interference is in line with the story they've been telling with Dragunov repeatedly denying Ciampa a shot at the title. He doesn't like how he's gone about it. Of course, when he finally got the shot, Ciampa was close to beating him a couple of times. When he couldn't get the job done after a couple of attempts, Gargano and LeRae stepped in to try and help him. Gargano looked befuddled at the fact that it backfired. The story surrounding this match has been mediocre, which made me not care that the match was finally happening. Dragunov and Ciampa made me forget about the story outside the match for about 15 minute,s and I enjoyed the match itself. Then, shenanigans happened and annoyed me. I wouldn't be mad if they ran the match back with a stipulation that bans outside interference.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Hated: Not Really A Main Event

One would be inclined to say that this week's "WWE SmackDown" was another example of phoning it in for the go-home to a big show, but this has been a recurring theme specifically with the blue brand over the past however many months: there was legitimately no reason to tune into the show, and the main event was yet another predictable, boring, and actually quite choppy match.

Rhea Ripley reunited the Terror Twins alongside Damian Priest for a mixed tag team match with Zelina Vega and Aleister Black, as one could have surmised was the plan when Vega was first factored into the Priest-Black feud – a feud that started in September, over three months ago, may one add. And to be honest, while the actual storyline, if that is what it can be called, has been the most diluted of weak sauces, the match itself never stuck out as something that could have been bad.

Leave it to WWE to try, however, and the match itself was both boring and messy in the worst versions of those flavors. Obviously, it's hampered by the fact that it's a tag team match that, by design, forces both members out of the ring with a tag, thus eliminating any sense of explosiveness or spontaneity that makes tag team wrestling compelling to begin with. But then, even then, neither set of competitors really clicked with the other, or had the chance to, owing to the format.

To be clear, a mixed tag team wrestling match presented as two simultaneous singles matches running parallel to one another is always going to be limited. But even then, it wasn't a case of limitations getting in the way of a really stomping match. It was just a hastily thrown together paper-chain of spots, the seams were there for all to see, and literally no one in their right mind thought Black and Vega were walking away with the win here.

Moreover, they were effectively squashed. They didn't get much offense in that hadn't seemed to have hurt Ripley any more than it had hurt Vega. Black pulled Ripley off a pin just to stare at her before getting headbutted. It was Looney Tunes levels of sticking it to the bad guy. Neither Priest nor Ripley needed this feud. Black and Vega really didn't need a feud designed for them to lose so convincingly. Nothing actually happened on this three-month treadmill to nowhere, and there's not even a guarantee that this is the end of the feud. It should be. But that in itself is never a guarantee. After all, it shouldn't have taken this long to get here in the first place.

Written by Max Everett

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