– Tonight’s Christmas edition of WWE SmackDown saw the feud between Mustafa Ali and WWE Champion Daniel Bryan continue. Following his singles win over Andrade “Cien” Almas, Ali was being congratulated backstage by The Brian Kendrick, Cedric Alexander, Akira Tozawa and Shelton Benjamin, when Bryan attacked him from behind and beat him down.
There’s no word yet on where WWE is going with the Ali vs. Bryan feud but there has been speculation on Ali receiving a title shot. Ali, who was recently moved to the SmackDown roster, lost a non-title match to Bryan two weeks ago in his blue brand debut. Ali teamed with AJ Styles last week for a win over Bryan and Almas. The finish of that match saw Ali get the winning pin on the WWE Champion. Below is video from tonight’s backstage attack:
– WWE has announced John Cena for next Tuesday’s SmackDown episode, which will be the New Year’s Day edition. The first SmackDown of 2019 will also feature a New Year’s Celebration with The New Day. WWE has not announced what Cena will be doing next Tuesday but we noted before that he is being advertised for a MizTV segment with The Miz. Next Tuesday’s SmackDown will be taped this coming Saturday night in Pittsburgh, PA.
– As noted, the main event of tonight’s SmackDown saw Rusev capture the WWE United States Title from Shinsuke Nakamura. Rusev and Lana took to Twitter after the big win and tweeted the following:
. @RusevBUL winning the United States Championship on his birthday, on Christmas that just happens to fall on #RusevDay makes me go like …..#SDLIVE pic.twitter.com/JdhXrVaArn
— CJ Perry (@TheCJPerry) December 26, 2018
He represents every underprivileged kid, every foreigner that hard work leads to profit, that you can create the life you always imagined & that the United States of America is the land of opportunity !You inspire all of us our New United States Champion @RusevBUL ! #SDLIVE @WWE pic.twitter.com/VrSdjDfj0M
— CJ Perry (@TheCJPerry) December 26, 2018
Merry Christmas Happy RusevDay and thank you for the birthday wishes. Best day ever. #AndNew
— Miro (@ToBeMiro) December 26, 2018
