WWE SmackDown Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights Before SNME

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of WWE SmackDown on December 13.

Here's a look at what WWE advertised for Friday's show:

• Bayley vs. Chelsea Green
• Michin vs. Tiffany Stratton
• Carmelo Hayes vs. Mystery Opponent
• Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes have final confrontation before Saturday Night's Main Event

Let's take a look at what happened on Friday's show.

SmackDown opened with various shots of Superstars arriving at the arena and doing things backstage before we went live in the arena for Jimmy Uso's entrance. He came out with a single crutch to help him walk.

He spoke about how everyone has family they don't like, but he has been watching his family dominate WWE since he was a kid. As he was about to wrap up, Drew McIntyre came out of nowhere to deliver a Claymore. It took a handful of officials to get him to stop the attack.

The first match of the night was the women's U.S. title tournament semifinal bout between Stratton and Michin.

The first couple of minutes saw them both struggle to gain control before Michin was tripped on the apron to put Tiffy in the driver's seat as the show cut to a break.

We returned to see Stratton attempt another double stomp, but Michin avoided this one and Tiffy crashed to the floor.

This match started off with a couple of sloppy moments, but the more they worked, the more they started to click. By the time the break was over, they were giving us a good fight.

Michin barely avoided Tiffy's Moonsault before hitting Eat Defeat for the win. Michin will fave the winner of Bayley vs. Green to crown the first champion this weekend.

Result: Michin defeated Stratton

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Jimmy saying the crowd was chanting Yeet for the wrong twin was hilarious. 
• Stratton's Christmas-themed gear looked good. 
• The commercial break happened less than two minutes after the match started. It seemed very early. 
• Tiffy's double stomp on the apron looked good. 
• The Alabama slam Michin took looked painful. 
• Michin didn't fully avoid the moonsault, so Michael Cole called it as a finisher that connected before correcting himself. It definitely made the final few seconds a little awkward. 

Roman Reigns delivered a pre-taped promo from a boat dock to issue a challenge to Solo Sikoa for the first Raw of 2025 to finally decide who the rightful Tribal Chief is.

The next matchup saw Hayes take on a mystery opponent who ended up being Braun Strowman. Hayes was visibly shaken when the big man came out.

Hayes tried to shove him and was surprised when Strowman didn't budge. He tried a springboard crossbody with the same result.

About 30 seconds later, Strowman hit his finisher for an easy and quick win. This could have been a lot of fun based on what we saw, but WWE opted to give The Monster Among Men a decisive win for his return. It may not be exciting, but it made him look like a beast.

This was basically a squash, but these two showed a lot of chemistry, so hopefully Hayes gets another chance at Strowman soon.

Result: Strowman defeated Hayes

Grade: Incomplete

Notable Moments and Observations

• It's shocking WWE hasn't tried to sell an Ula Fala on its website by now. 
• Strowman looked really excited to be back in front of a crowd. 
• The looks on Hayes' face after Strowman shrugged off his crossbody was hilarious. 

After being attacked by the new Bloodline last week, Knight took on Sikoa in a singles match in an attempt to get some revenge, but Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga were lurking at ringside, too.

Sikoa took control almost immediately with a series of strikes. The would-be Tribal Chief was clearly angry and wanted to take it out on The Megastar.

While Knight certainly got in some offense, it felt like Sikoa was controlling the pace more often than not, which made sense, especially in this situation.

The Megastar began to make a comeback after a commercial break and hit several high-impact moves, but he wasn't able to keep the Street Champ down for the count.

Fatu, who had been taken out by Knight earlier in the match, ended up attacking Knight to cause a disqualification. He and Tama decimated him before rolling him into the ring so that Sikoa could finish him off with a Samoan Spike.

The majority of this match was solid, but the ending felt like a lazy booking decision. Apollo Crews and Andrade attempted to help but were taken out by Sikoa and his crew.

Result: Knight defeated Sikoa by DQ

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Knight mispronounced Ula Fala during his backstage interview and it was hard to tell if he did it on purpose as a joke or if he just said it wrong by mistake. 
• Knight's dropkick through the ropes to take out Tama was smooth. 
• Sikoa attempted to use a Superman punch but it didn't work out for him. 

Bayley and Green fought in the last semifinal matchup in the women's U.S. title tournament to see who would face Michin this weekend. As always, Piper Niven was at ringside to support Green.

As soon as the bell rang, Bayley hit what looked like a Bayley to Belly suplex, but it only got her a two-count. They traded some near-falls before Green cornered The Role Model for some body shots.

While they had some good moments, there were sections of this match when it felt like all of the chemistry these two had went out the window. It's difficult to describe, but it seemed like it was either a communication issue or one of them was working through an injury and it affected their performance.

It was only noticeable because other parts of the match looked great. Bayley narrowly avoided a countout but she wasn't able to avoid the Unpretty-her. Green scored the win and advanced to the finals to face Michin for the U.S. title.

Result: Green defeated Bayley

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Some pics were shown of WWE Superstars visiting some students and Omos was there. Did anyone else forget he was still part of WWE? 
• It took a minute for them to find their groove. 
• The crowd sounded very strange after the break. It was like the mics WWE used to pick up crowd noise stopped working. 
• Having a random ad in the middle of a match that is not part of a commercial break is a trend that needs to end. 

The final segment on this week's show as the face-to-face showdown between Owens and Rhodes before they battle over the title on Saturday.

Well, it was supposed to be that way, but KO ended up speaking from his car instead. He said Rhodes was more interesting as Stardust to get under his skin. The champ went backstage to find KO, but Owens found him first and jumped him from behind. The show ended with The Prize Fighter standing tall after he took down Rhodes.

This week's SmackDown was heavy on storyline and feud advancement, but the in-ring action didn't exactly light the world on fire.

Hayes and Strowman's squash match was too short to be anything special, and both of the matches in the women's U.S. title tournament left a little to be desired.

Sikoa and Knight put on the strongest performance of the night, but their match ended in a disqualification, so even that was less than ideal.

Some weeks are going to be strong and some won't. This just happened to be the latter, but it did a good job setting up some matches for SNME and the first Raw on Netflix.

Grade: C+