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WWE SmackDown Live comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Dec. 11, 2018) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring the go home show to the upcoming TLC pay-per-view (PPV) scheduled for this coming Sunday night in San Jose.
Advertised for tonight: Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka, The Bar vs. The Usos vs. The New Day in a rap battle, Mandy Rose vs. Naomi, and more!
Come right back here at 8 p.m. ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on USA. It will be below this line here. (REMINDER: NO GIFS OR PICS ARE ALLOWED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. OFFENDERS WILL BE BANNED.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR DEC. 11
And the wind that brought me down cannot stay. And the wind that carried me out carries me away, carries me away. Crush the dust in your hand, hold it to your heart. Promises mean nothing until we finally part, and in the meantime, I’m liveblogging this here pro wrestling show for you, folks.
The show opens with a hype reel for tonight’s advertised matches, Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair and Daniel Bryan vs. Mustafa Ali.
Daniel Bryan makes his entrance and gets on the mic.
He says he called us all sheep last week and he’d like to apologize... to the sheep, who don’t deserve to be compared to us idiots, and they’re not mindlessly destroying the earth with their endless consumption. So no, we’re not sheep, but more like parasites. And he’s not surprised, we all latched onto his success and lived vicariously through him, but guess what?
The old Daniel Bryan is dead and so is the Yes! Movement, and so now all us idiots reside on the couch in the House That AJ Styles Built. But he’s the WWE Champion and not AJ Styles, and at TLC he’ll crush AJ’s dream of becoming WWE Champion again, and at the end of the match, the WWE Champion will be the new Daniel Bryan.
Don’t believe him? He debates with a friend of his all the time and they don’t know whether we’re stupid or if we deliberately pull the wool over our eyes to avoid the facts. In fact, his pal said stupidity is the deliberate cultivation of ignorance, and that’s prettymuch Las Vegas!
Enter Mustafa Ali, also mic in hand.
He introduces himself and Bryan cuts him off to tell him he knows who he is and invites him in the ring despite their match tonight. Dan introduces Ali as the Heart of 205 Live and an incredible performer, in fact he sees a lot of himself in Mustafa and he wants to give him some advice. They don’t need to have a match tonight, see, because after this match, these people won’t care.
They’re too self-absorbed, xenophobic, and consumed with their mindless consumption, and the truth is these fickle people don’t deserve the match. Ali asks what happened to him, saying he inspired him and made it possible to believe he could be a WWE Superstar and everyone on 205 Live looks up to him as the underdog who could go toe-to-toe with any giant because of his heart.
He keeps talking about “the old Daniel Bryan”, and he’d want to fight, so that’s what Mustafa wants! Bryan shakes his head and glowers at Ali before asking what kind of car he drives. Ali says he doesn’t know what has to do with this but he drives an SUV. Dan says he’s a small little man, why does he need to ride an SUV, to which Ali says he’s got a family and BRYAN SLAPS HIM!
The American Dragon keeps firing slaps and calls him ignorant and Ali’s had enough! Firing forearms back, Frankensteiner, a dropkick sends him to the floor and Mustafa hits a somersault senton to take us to break!
Daniel Bryan vs. Mustafa Ali
The match is in progress and Bryan is in control, headbutt and a series of disdainful stomps before drawing Ali up by his hair and throwing him into the corner. Chest kicks follow, arm wringer, whip, up and over but Dan has it scouted and hammers him with another pair of chest kicks into a knee drop. Fishhook the nose, uppercut, pressing the attack with a spinning toehold!
Elbow drop to the knee, roll Mustafa over, setting up the Romero Special but again just fishhooking the nose and mouth, wrenching back on his spine! Let go of the leg grapevines, stomp to the back of the knee and the American Dragon poses before launching into the Yes! Kicks. Duck the buzzsaw, front kick to a superkick, northern superkick... NOPE!
Bryan rolls to the floor and Ali meets him with a baseball slide! Sidestep the plancha, Dan puts him face-first into the ringpost and we go back to break!
Back from commercial and the LeBell Lock is on but Ali gets the ropes! Tree of woe, chest kicks, into a baseball slide and Bryan’s on a roll. Setting him up top, climbing up after him... THE BACK SUPERPLEX IS YOUR FIVE MINUTE WARNING BUT MUSTAFA LANDS ON HIS FEET! Sidestep the running dropkick, big overhand chops, Dan puts Ali in the corner, across, backflip up and over gets the tornado DDT... NOT ENOUGH TO PUT THE AMERICAN DRAGON DOWN FOR THREE!
Dragging him over, Mustafa climbs up top, 054... NO WATER IN THE POOL! Bryan pulls him to the post and smashes his knee into the steel repeatedly! Back inside, chop block, pick the leg and fall back... THE HEEL HOOK IS IN AND IT’S OVER!
Daniel Bryan wins by submission with the heel hook.
Commentary shills for the WWE Network before Bryan goes back for another round and locks the heel hook on in the ramp!
Commentary then returns to the hype machine, running the card for TLC down.
Big E does the deal and the New Day make their entrance in suits to send us to break.
Back from commercial and the Bar and the Usos are already in the ring for their rap battle.
New Day introduce themselves and our combatants before pledging to win the tag titles on Sunday themselves. They explain the rules-- keep it clean, no funny business.
The Bar (Cesaro & Sheamus) vs. the Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) (Rap Battle)
The Bar to start, singing the bassline to Under Pressure and turning it into Ice, Ice Sheamy. Their bars are a reworking of the Vanilla Ice song, now about how much better they are than the Usos, word to your mother. They drop the mic and pass.
The New Day rate their effort as a picture of a trash can.
The Usos up now, and of course they have original bars about how the Bar have nothing to say and they got cheated last time but they’re ready now and they’ve already beaten the Ninja Turtles so now they have to beat Bebop and Rocksteady. They’ve seen Sheamus’ movies and his acting was booty, and also the WWE Universe thinks he looks stupid. They ask if Sheamus stays out of the sun on purpose and talk about the battle of Brogue Kick vs. superkick and introduce us to their friend Mr. Turnbuckle.
They interview Mr. Turnbuckle about how it felt when he pushed Cesaro’s teeth down his throat, and they call themselves the bar but they’re the star and they’ve been running since 2009 without injury. Tag team of the year, they’re not done, and they welcome the Bar to the Uso Penitentiary. The Bar attack, the Usos run them off and stare the New Day down but the Bar come back and clear our two babyface teams out, hitting the spike White Noise on an Uso to punctuate!
Cesaro gets on the mic and declares that they are the Bar.
No winner is declared for the rap battle.
We go backstage with Asuka for a promo. She says she thought nobody was ready for Asuka but she was wrong and she made one mistake-- she stopped kicking Charlotte Flair, and on Sunday she will not stop until she wins the title. And tonight, Charlotte won’t be ready for her.
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, commentary hypes up Las Vegas a bit.
The Miz is in the ring with the WWE World Cup Tournament to Determine Who is Best in the World trophy and demands that Shane McMahon come out and hear what he has to say. He asks not to be made to beg and says the crowd doesn’t want to see him beg, which of course gets a “Beg!” chant. Miz gets on one knee and begs, saying it’s not just about career, it’s about life choices and more.
Enter Shane McMahon. He asks if Miz is doing okay and the A-Lister says this is the only way to get through to him and they could be great together if he’d just give him a chance. Last week he said if he interviewed Daniel Bryan, he’d owe him one, which Shane denies. Miz asks for one more chance to tag and prove that they can be the best tag team in the world.
McMahon says the whole thing with the trophy is starting to get weird, and Miz says it’s not about the trophy, which is just a symbol. Shane asks him to explain and the A-Lister says this is something he’s never told anyone, and it won’t be easy, but he’ll say it-- no, he’ll SHOW him, and he calls for a referee. Former DGUSA/Evolve head referee Jason Ayers comes down and Miz brings out the Vegas Boys, Chip and Chad, for a match.
Best Tag Team in the World (Shane McMahon & the Miz) vs. Vegas Boys (Chad & Chip)
Chip and Chad blindside Shane but he fights back with those trademark punches! He dumps one of them and turns to face the other, hammering him with punches in the corner! Whip across, leaping back elbow, a punch for the other dude and McMahon is fired up! Float-over DDT goes sideways but he gets enough of it and follows it with a punch! Shane grabs a triangle choke...
Best Tag Team in the World win by submission with a triangle choke from Shane McMahon on Chip and/or Chad.
Miz raises Shane’s hand and celebrates like they just won the tag titles together, and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Paige is chewing Jason Ayers out for refereeing a match without her consent, to which he explains that Miz said she agreed to the match.
The Vegas Boys roll up with an invoice claiming that Miz said Paige would give them $5000 each. She rips the invoice up and shoos both them and Jason away.
Randy Orton makes his entrance and gets on the mic.
He extols the virtue of the steel chair and its manifold uses before asking for tape to roll. The technician in the video truck takes a beat longer than you’d expect and we see footage of him EVIL’ing Rey Mysterio three weeks ago. He says that’s good but he can do better, and this is footage of him brutalizing Rey with a chair from TWO weeks ago.
He questions Mysterio’s acceptance of a chairs match against him on Sunday, which leads him to believe that Rey thinks he’ll get his revenge, but Rey’s a victim-- his victim, and once a victim, always a victim. All the boys in the locker room will be worried about TLC, but Mysterio has to concern himself with R... K... OH SHIT REY’S HERE WITH A CHAIR AND WAFFLING THE VIPER WITH IT!
DROPKICK VAN DAMINATOR! 619! ORTON RUNS OFF!
Becky Lynch is shown walking backstage when she runs into an interview.
The Man says in her first match back she has to road test both her face and her head in one of the most dangerous matches in WWE, against not one but two opponents, and two of the best, so no, she doesn’t have an advantage... but she loves it because fighting against the odds is what she does and she doesn’t care if it makes the doctors twitchy. On Sunday, she’ll remind the world just how much chaos she can bring when The Man comes around.
Commentary hypes up a tag match as next and we go to break.
Back from commercial in time for entrances.
Jeff Hardy & Rusev vs. Samoa Joe & Shinsuke Nakamura
My cable dies for a few minutes and when it get it back up Nakamura’s shrugging off an attempt at the Accolade only to run into it...
Jeff Hardy & Rusev win by pinfall with the Machka Kick from Rusev on Shinsuke Nakamura.
Shane McMahon is shown walking backstage and he yells at Miz, taking the trophy from him and telling him he’s crossed a line paying dudes to attack him. Miz said yeah he crossed the line but he triggered McMahon’s superior instincts and brought that Best in the World out of him. In the A-Lister’s entire career he was never considered Best in the World until Shane came along, and he extends a hand, but McMahon just walks off.
We go to break on a hype reel for tonight’s Mixed Match Challenge.
Back from commercial we get a new vignette for Lars Sullivan where he calls TLC a minor tremor compared to the catastrophic earthquake when he comes to WWE.
A video package for AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan follows and AJ is interviewed backstage afterwards.
He says he’s biding his time, because no one wants to beat the hell out of Bryan more than him, but if he did, he wouldn’t be able to compete at TLC, so he’s counting down the days, hours, and minutes. The new Dan isn’t new at all, he’s the real Bryan, but there’s only one AJ Styles, who will do whatever it takes to get the WWE Championship back.
Asuka makes her entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, commentary hypes Las Vegas up again.
We go backstage with Charlotte Flair for an interview.
She says she knows what’s at stake on Sunday but also that Asuka said she was going to break her, but the Queen doesn’t break, she breaks undefeated streaks, and tonight she’s giving the Empress and the Man a preview of TLC, where they’ll bow down to the queen, wooo.
Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair
Circling, Asuka sidesteps a boot, Mongolian chop, off the ropes for the hip attack but Flair catches her into a waistlock! Reversed, roll through, looking for a kneebar but Charlotte posts to her feet, wheelbarrow into a back suplex! Slightly hobbled, Flair wades in with chops, Asuka ducks and lands a German suplex! Fired up, off the ropes, sidestep, caught up and the Mafia kick connects this time!
Headed up top, moonsault... THE KNEES ARE UP AND THE ASUKA LOCK IS ON! Charlotte posts on her hands and crawls, trying to deny completion of the hold, and she gets to her feet and falls back to shake the Empress off only for her to go right back to the hold! Hands clasped, but Flair rolls into the ropes and we go to break as she gets the break.
Back from commercial, they’re slugging it out with forearms, on their knees and rising to their feet. Asuka pulls ahead but a backfist is blocked, jockeying for position and she gets the octopus hold locked on! Wrenching back on the arm, Flair gets her on her back but Asuka turns it into a crucifix driver... NOPE! Fujiwara armbar applied, Charlotte rolling to try and alleviate the pressure but Asuka turns it into a triangle choke!
Flair posts to her feet, forearms, repeated pins but Asuka won’t let go and hammers her with palm strikes! Charlotte deadlifts her... AND DROPS HER DOWN WITH THE SITOUT POWERBOMB FOR TWO! Flair clutching her arm and Asuka clutching her head, both women down and out, Charlotte crawls over and slaps her, telling her she’ll never break her!
Drawing her up, Asuka with the double leg, jackknife reversed into the figure four leglock, Flair trying to bridge back but she can’t seem to hold it and the Empress rolls over and reverses the pressure! They get the ropes and force the break and Charlotte grabs a toehold to soften her up. Kicked away, she keeps the foot, stepover knee drop to the knee and back to the toehold!
Brawling, hammering forearms on the mat, Flair gets two off a cover and drags Asuka to the ringpost, smashing her knee into it! Back in for a cover, only two, spinning toehold countered into an inside cradle for two! Charlotte throwing chops, Asuka catches one, fireman’s carry takeover into a kick to the back but her leg is screaming agony! Off the ropes, Flair hits the spear but eats a Codebreaker as a counter and Asuka’s the one to get a nearfall out of it!
Asuka laying chest kicks in, Flair blocks one but eats a rolling solebut after and Asuka shifts to forearms, lefts and rights, into Kawada kicks, fired up, off the ropes... AND THE SPEAR LANDS TRUE THIS TIME BUT CAN’T PUT THE EMPRESS OF TOMORROW AWAY! Flair drags her into position and heads up top... MOONSAULT, THE KNEES ARE UP, FLAIR THINKS FAST AND LANDS ON HER FEET TO PICK THEM INTO THE FIGURE FOUR BUT ASUKA’S ONE STEP AHEAD AND GRABS THE ASUKA LOCK! CHARLOTTE BAILS THROUGH THE ROPES AND THEY BOTH FALL TO THE FLOOR!
Flair’s got a kendo stick and wallops Asuka with it, leaving referee Charles Robinson no choice...
Asuka wins by disqualification.
Becky Lynch gets up from commentary and Charlotte attacks her, too! More kendo stick shots for Asuka and Lynch attacks her from behind and puts the Queen into the steel steps! Kendo stick in hand she gives Flair some of her own medicine! Asuka with a rolling solebutt and she throws the champ over the announce table! The Empress grabs the kendo stick now and wails on Queen and Man alike!
Asuka stands tall on the announce table, kendo stick raised high.
That’s the show, folks.