Winners, News And Notes On December 9, 2022

WWE SmackDown advertised the return of Kurt Angle, who is set to celebrate his 54th birthday in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pa. SmackDown also advertised Sheamus and Butch vs. The Usos for the WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championships.

The birthday celebration saw Kurt Angle and Gable Steveson reprise the Milk-O-Mania gimmick by spraying down Alpha Academy with a milk hose.

Last week’s broadcast of WWE SmackDown on FS1 garnered 902,000 million viewers.

WWE SmackDown Results | December 9, 2022

• The Usos def. The Brawlin’ Brutes | Undisputed Tag Team Title Match
• Legado Del Fantasma and The Viking Raiders Battle to a No Contest
• Ricochet and The New Day def. IMPERIUM
• Liv Morgan and Tegan Nox def. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler

WWE SmackDown Ratings

• December 9, 2022 | 902,000 (Aired on FS1)
• November 25, 2022 | 2.166 million
• November 18, 2022 | 2.232 million
• November 11, 2022 | 2.264 million
• November 4, 2022 | 2.131 million

• WWE SmackDown Venue: PPG Paints Arena (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
• WWE SmackDown Tickets Distributed: 6,968
• Available Tickets: 497

AEW Rampage Record-Low Ratings | PWB

WWE SmackDown Winners and Match Card

The Usos def. The Viking Raiders

Pittsburgh can be a hit-or-miss crowd, but they were fired up for this show. Judging by how they enthusiastically counted along with the dual 10 Beats of the Bodhran from Sheamus and Butch was an indication.

This was a great Tag Team Championship match. Even though The Usos winning was academic, fans really got into this one.

Backstage Kurt Angle introduced Gable Steveson to Braun Strowman. I love introducing Steveson through Angle, who really should be his manager. Another, more heartwarming, backstage birthday segment saw Jason Jordan, Angle’s storyline son. Jordan gave Angle a handmade drawing from father to son.

LA Knight Calls out Bray Wyatt

LA Knight is perfect for this feud with Bray Wyatt because he’s a great talker and all these cryptic, Easter-egg-filled Bray Wyatt segments need a narrator.

LA Knight was interrupted by a distorted Bray Wyatt vignette, featuring Uncle Howdy, of course. When Knight went looking for Wyatt, the announce team feared for his life like he had just challenged Mike Tyson in his prime.

Legado Del Fantasma def. The Viking Raiders

All the highlights of this match came on commentary, when Wade Barrett praised Zelina Vega for cosplaying as Aliyah. Michael Cole pressed Wade Barrett for his knowledge on Aaliyah and Barrett was able to name one Aaliyah song to prove him wrong.

This match didn’t really get going before Hit Row hit the ring and attacked both stables. Unfortunately, and despite their talents, this is a feud between three stables that nobody cares about just yet.

Ricochet and The New Day def. IMPERIUM

If there’s one thing a segment with Ricochet and GUNTHER can use, it’s charisma, and The New Day has it in spades. As expected, fans were far more into The New Day than they were Ricochet or GUNTHER, who was showered with “what” chants.

GUNTHER is doing the Blackpool Combat Club gimmick of being a 2-Dimensional professional wrestler, and he’s a heel in WWE (rightfully so). The New day, of course, are the Sports Entertainment babyfaces.

Ricochet got the win over IMPERIUM, though GUNTHER wasn’t pinned, and I fully expect GUNTHER to retain over Ricochet (again) next week. Credit to WWE for building this Intercontinental Title match up.

Liv Morgan and Tegan Nox def. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler

Ronda Rousey painted her tongue blue as a means of antagonizing Liv Morgan through gimmick infringement.

WWE ran a very good video package on Tegan Nox, which was much needed for an audience that is not familiar with her otherwise stellar work in NXTXT
.

Liv Morgan picked up the win, with an assist for Tegan Nox, and my hopes of Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler becoming a killer tag team have been put on hold. Not to mention her harrowing journey.

Kurt Angle’s Birthday Celebration

This broadcast of SmackDown was built around Kurt Angle’s birthday celebration, more specifically, the fact that Alpha Academy was not invited to his backstage birthday party.

Kurt Angle played the hits by summoning a milk truck to spray down Alpha Academy. Gable Steveson got to hang off of the side like CM Punk at WrestleMania 22.

Angle spraying down anybody with milk will never get old. Especially when it’s done roughly once every 20 years. Michael Cole’s milk puns were a bit much, though.