WWE SMACKDOWN PREVIEW (12/1): Announced Matches, Where and How to Watch, Orton & Paul appearances featured

When: Friday, December 1, 2023

Where:  Brooklyn, N.Y. at Barclays Center

Attendance: WrestleTix reports today that 10,622 tickets were distributed so far; arena set up for 11,960.

How to Watch: 8:00 p.m. EST, 7:00 p.m. CST on FS1

Matches & Segments Advertised

• Randy Orton to appear
• U.S. Champion Logan Paul to appear
• Kevin Owens vs. Grayson Waller

Announcers: Michael Cole, Kevin Patrick, and Corey Graves

Match Results & Segments from Last Week

• Finn Balor & Damian Priest (Judgment Day) defeated The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) to retain the WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship.
• Kevin Owens was a guest on The Grayson Waller Effect.  Austin Theory initially came out dressed as Kevin Owens.  L.A. Knight came out afterwards, and a tag match was set up.  Knight & Owens defeated Waller & Theory.
• Carlito cut a promo ahead of what was supposed to be his match with Santos Escobar, saying he would put him in his place due to his recent actions against the LWO.  Escobar attacked Carlito, first during the promo, and then when he was being assisted backstage.
• Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson) defeated Butch & Ridge Holland (Brawling Brutes).
• G.M. Nick Aldis announced Carlito vs. Santos Escobar was cancelled for Survivor Series. Dragon Lee asked to replace Carlito, as he wanted to teach Santos a lesson.
• Bayley & Asuka (Damage CTRL) defeated Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch.  This match was set up during the promo that opened the show where Charlotte, Becky, Bianca Belair, and Shotzi talked about their upcoming WarGames match against Damage CTRL.  Bayley interrupted and tried to stir up trouble with the focus on Charlotte and Becky, playing into their roller coaster-like history.

WWE Exclusives

Summary

Tonight’s episode of Smackdown will feature the follow-up to last Saturday’s Survivor Series, and will emanate from a familiar venue in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.  On a personal level I wish I could attend the show since it’s about an hour drive from my house, but I will be unable due to work.

It looks like the show is built around appearances, the first of which is Randy Orton.  Randy, who returned to the WWE at Survivor Series, will appear at the behest of G.M. Nick Aldis.  He cut a return promo on Raw, was interrupted by Rhea Ripley and the Judgment Day, and defeated North American Champion Dominik Mysterio later in the show.  He’s not designated on either brand, nor is he listed as a free agent on WWE’s website.  Randy has a history with the Bloodline, against whom he vowed vengeance on Raw.  He’s now involved with Judgment Day as a result of partaking in WarGames on Saturday and what took place this past Monday night.

https://twitter.com/realnickaldis/status/1729552079809581312?s=61&t=TcFa1IBlEpI9mAVN3x vZUQ

In addition to Orton, Logan Paul returns to Smackdown.  He won the U.S. Championship from Rey Mysterio at Crown Jewel.  What took place in that match involving the foreign object Logan used led to strife within the LWO, which has seen Santos Escobar split away from the faction.  WWE is hinting on their website that the next challenger will emerge.  I don’t read a ton into this, but there was an indirect social media exchange between he and Intercontinental Champion Gunther:

https://twitter.com/loganpaul/status/1726285695021637763?s=61&t=TcFa1IBlEpI9mAVN3xvZ UQ

I don’t expect Gunther to be the next challenger, but a match between these two guys is something that should be on our radars moving forward.

Finally, Kevin Owens is advertised to wrestle Grayson Waller.  These two have been at it for a little while now, with the latest chapter taking place on last week’s show when Kevin was scheduled as a guest on the Grayson Waller effect.

Coming out of PPVs there tends to be less matches set up, so I suspect other matches will be set up throughout the show if not announced closer to showtime.  WWE released a sneak preview which talks about follow up on the inner goings of Damage CTRL, which appears headed for changes with Bayley’s ouster being the most obvious.

https://youtu.be/7_Ru_Eiw7os?si=aNdktTgKIzdOOeTe

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!

LAST WEEK’S RAW RESULTS: WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS (11/24): Keller’s report on Balor & Priest vs. The Street Profits, Kevin Owens on The Grayson Waller Effect, final Survivor Series hype

OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: Roman Reigns returning for three upcoming Smackdown events