"Why in the world would Drew want to provoke Cody to hit him, so that the latter would be stripped of his World Championship belt, if he already has a match with him for the title down the road? Doesn't he realize that he has booked himself into a match with Cody regardless of whether the latter is the World Champ or not? If Cody enters the match without the championship, then the match simply turns into a non-championship match. I doubt that's what Drew wants. At the end of the day, for him it's about winning the championship belt -- not about beating Cody or stopping his title reign."

[8.0] "Finally SmackDown showed very good. Opening segment and match was so fun, really great match for the US championship, that gave us new champion, what is amazing, and last segment, when Drew McIntyre cut a very intresting promo with emotions between him, Cody Rhodes and Nick Aldis. 3 Stages of Hell sounds very cool and I hope we will get something great. Everething else was just ok, not very intresting, but overall I liked this show, even for a pre-taped level was so high."

[6.0] "Naja, Bis auf das Mega Match zwischen Carmelo Hayes & Ilja Dragunov um den United States Championship & der guten Promo zwischen Drew McIntyre & Cody Rhodes gab's hier nur uninteressante Ereignisse. Aber die beiden Sachen waren so Gut, dass Ich hier zumindest auf 6 Punkte Komme. Hayes gewinnt den US Championship, aber warum macht man sowas genau dann, wenn eine Smackdown Ausgabe wegen den Feiertagen aufgezeichnet wird? Dann mach es 1 Woche oder 2 Wochen später, aber leider wird man wenn sowas getaped wird immer direkt in den Social Media Plattformen gespoilert. Trotzdem war es ein unglaublich gutes Match, was Ich aber am Anfang etwas unsauber fand (****1/2). Das es dann in der Berlin Smackdown Ausgabe zu einer Stipulation kommt beim Match zwischen Cody Rhodes & Drew McIntyre, die Ich schon seit Jahren mal wieder sehen wollte, ist dann wirklich eine sehr große und geile Überraschung. Ein Three Stages Of Hell Match. Sehr Gute Sache. Insgesamt gebe Ich der gesamten Ausgabe, 6 Punkte."

"The show was overall awful. At least there were Ilja and Melo putting on a banger. They are both incredible performers that are worthy of a better position in the roster."

[3.0] "Triple H now has his buddies booking all shows in WWE. When "The Kliq" has all the pull backstage in 1995, the product sucked. 30 years later another version has all the pull and the product sucks. I can't tell you how shocked I am, SHOCKED, that Road "my catchphrase was over not me" Dogg is a shitty booker."

[7.0] "As despicable the year has been for them, this was a solid if not entirely purposeful episode of SmackDown, it being tapped does dampen the crowd a bit, but a singluar match and a godly heel promo saved it, by a margin."

[4.0] "you can't rate anything higher because of one good match, rest of the show was so terrible and boring that I can't even give this an entirely unbiased rating at this point; I'm beginning to actually hate this product now."

[5.0] "Cody remains unrepentant, and Miz is shocked because Joe Hendry is here to serenade him. What follows is another complete humiliation for Mizanin. In this long-simmering feud, Charlotte defeats the still relatively green Lash Legend in an unspectacular fashion. Dragunov and Hayes then deliver a pretty entertaining match, before the ladies turn in a rather lackluster performance in the tag match, leaving a lot to be desired. Of course, there is a confrontation between McIntyre and Cody Rhodes, with the champion knocking down the GM and then getting kicked by the Scotsman. With all this testosterone, at least a 'Three Stages of Hell' match is added to the agenda, which we haven't had in a while. The US title match is nice, but the rest comes across as rather lukewarm."

[5.0] "Un show en demi-teinte avec seulement comme souvent Ilja Dragunov qui est le seul match bon et intéressant et l'angle de fin pour la promo de Drew McIntyre sinon le reste c'est le néant comme souvent a SmackDown."

[9.0] "Now I call this a amazing show. Fantastic us title match and Fantastic promo by drew McIntyre, can't wait until smackdown Berlin. Joe and miz match was really fun too. Hope SmackDown continue this on 3 hours Format."

[5.0] "The Smackdown pattern was maintained. One truly outstanding match surrounded by a sea of shite. Bad promo, bad matches, bad backstage segments, banger match in the middle carrying the show. I can only hope that Carmelo can carry the weight of the show because that's what is about to be asked of him. I'm dreading the return to three hours. And now they may even finally put the title on Drew after running him into the ground for three years. Mid."

[5.0] "It pisses me off to give this SD a bad rating, but i have to be objective. This SD is representative of this year's SDs overall: average. The beginning of the show is rubbish. Just one viral moment. Miz/Hendry, a bad match to showcase a wrestler who's going to be on the main roster. It was really goofy. I felt like I was in the PG era. I hope Joe Hendry won't be a goofy character. Black's promo, yet another uninteresting promo in a boring feud. Give Black the win and move on, because we can't miss the boat with this talent. Flair/Legend was average. Lash Legend is clearly Jade Cargill 2.0. The finish is rubbish. And despite all that, we have something great. Ilja/Hayes is a magnificent match. The counters, the in-ring action, the suspense, this match had it all. Hayes' victory is a huge moment for HIM. It's well deserved. Ilja had an excellent reign filled with great matches, and the US title is clearly the title of the year for me. Melo's promo is very cool, where he mentions that Ilja has made the US title even more prestigious. Gargano's attack on Hayes shows that there is already a programme for Melo, which is good. The women's tag team is random too. The only thing I remember is Giulia's standing drop kick. It's been a bad year for Giulia in the main roster. It's been a bad year for the US title, which is by far the worst title of the year on the women's side. It was cool to see Trick Williams verbally challenge Cody backstage. Now for the ending segment. Great ending segment. Drew was excellent at humiliating the referee. It was clear that Drew was doing this to force Cody to come out. And then we got what I wanted: Mind Games. Drew doing everything he could to get hit by saying very personal things. The announcement of Three Stages of Hell shocked me. I was expecting HIAC, but we got something better. The fact that the match isn't in the United States is great for Drew because he doesn't want to get ripped off again. Cody hit Aldis, something to remember."

[9.0] "Great night of matches on smackdown this evening. The christmas street fight is always a great laugh, and the US open challenge hasn't missed yet (no pun intended) everything else on the show was passable with no issues too"

[5.0] "Die US Open Challenge hat hier einiges rausgerissen, auch wenn ich es schade finde das Iljas Run schon vor den Deutschlandterminen enden musste. Ansonsten war die Ausgabe ganz okay und bot zumindest ein paar Entwicklungen."

[6.0] "Ilja Dragunov is a constant factor on Smackdown. He consistenly delivers the best match on the friday show, as he did here against Hayes. Overall it was a better edition of Smackdown than last week, even though there was only one good match."

[9.0] "Favorite Smackdown in a very long time. Welcome to Smackdown Trick hope you crush it. Drew and Cody very good segment. Charlotte and Lash put on a decent match. MELO DON'T MISS. Welcome to the top my friend, you deserved it for a long time. Now the US Champion, looking forward to seeing how he is as champ."

[8.0] "The Ilja vs. Carmelo fight was more than just a banger. Ilja is just a cat, but the entire event was excellent. All the fights delivered in some way. Drew McIntyre's last promo and the stipulation announcement were something powerful, a brilliant ending to this different year of 2025 in terms of SmackDown. 8/10."