{"id":147964,"date":"2025-12-05T23:16:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T04:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=147964"},"modified":"2025-12-05T23:16:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T04:16:04","slug":"wwe-smackdown-preview-12-12-25-the-night-before-saturday-nights-main-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/05\/wwe-smackdown-preview-12-12-25-the-night-before-saturday-nights-main-event\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE SmackDown Preview (12\/12\/25) &#8211; The Night Before Saturday Night&#8217;s Main Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the road to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/05\/big-nxt-showcase-match-announced-for-wwe-saturday-nights-main-event\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">WWE Saturday Night&#8217;s Main Event<\/a>, where John Cena will take the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/05\/final-match-opponent-of-john-cena-decided-on-wwe-smackdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">final bow of his illustrious WWE career<\/a>, we make one final stop on this Friday Night SmackDown. We got three huge matches on the card, so the party for the weekend will get started earlier than expected. With all that in mind, let&#8217;s get started. Here&#8217;s a WWE SmackDown preview for December 12, 2025. Let&#8217;s run it down.<\/p>\n<h2>No Longer a Donkey&#8217;s Behind<\/h2>\n<p>Tommaso Ciampa has been pining for a shot at the United States Championship held by the &#8220;Mad Dragon&#8221; Ilja Dragunov for over a month now. Each and every time Ciampa would step up to the plate, Dragunov would turn him away, calling him &#8220;not worthy,&#8221; and even worse, a &#8220;jack*ss.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, Ciampa would not take the ridicule kindly, assaulting Dragunov on multiple occasions, verbally provoking him, and even tainting his matches, like the one Dragunov had with Carmelo Hayes on the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/05\/wwe-smackdown-results-12-5-25-live-updates\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> latest edition of SmackDown<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Dragunov is not playing around anymore and has recognized how dangerous a desperate Tommaso Ciampa really is, granting him a shot at the U.S. Title on this coming week&#8217;s SmackDown. Dragunov has been on an absolute roll since winning the title from Sami Zayn.<\/p>\n<p>Ciampa will undoubtedly be his toughest test to date, considering Ciampa has been stewing for the better part of four weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Will Ilja Dragunov once again notch a successful title defense? Or will Tommaso Ciampa, once and for all, put Ilja&#8217;s impressive title reign to bed and become the #AndNEW United States Champion?<\/p>\n<h2>Into the Deep Ends of Darkness<\/h2>\n<p>To call the rivalry between Aleister Black and Damian Priest &#8220;brutal and personal&#8221; would be a drastic understatement. On multiple occasions, these two men tried to maim and end one another&#8217;s careers.<\/p>\n<p>We thought we&#8217;d seen the last of these two when Black, with the help of his wife Zelina, put the nail in the coffin in their Last Man Standing Match, which saw Aleister throw a fireball in the face of Damian Priest, rendering him unable to answer the 10-count.<\/p>\n<p>After a long time of beatings and having the numbers game against him, Priest has brought out the big guns, enlisting the help of her former The Judgment Day member and Terror Twins partner Rhea Ripley. The &#8220;Eradicator&#8221; is extremely excited to help her friend out, making a clear statement that Black and Zelina better be ready because they&#8217;re coming after them in an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/05\/all-star-tag-match-made-official-for-12-12-wwe-smackdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">All-Star Mixed Tag Match<\/a> on next week&#8217;s SmackDown.<\/p>\n<p>Black and Zelina may have trifled with the wrong duo; will they live to regret this decision to mess with Priest and Ripley?<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s all find out together this Friday Night on WWE SmackDown, the night before <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/05\/big-womens-showcase-match-at-wwe-saturday-nights-main-event-set\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">WWE SNME<\/a>, which the WWE Universe can catch on The USA Network and Netflix!<\/p>\n<h2>WWE SmackDown Preview and Match Card (12\/12\/25):<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_147694\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-147694\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-147694\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_147967\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-147967\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-147967 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/12\/22-4-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"A graphic for the WWE SmackDown preview for December 12, 2025.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/12\/22-4-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/12\/22-4-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/12\/22-4-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/12\/22-4.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-147967\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_145575\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-145575\">\n<ul>\n<li>Mixed Tag Match: Damian Priest &amp; Rhea Ripley vs. Aleister Black &amp; Zelina<\/li>\n<li>United States Championship Match: Ilja Dragunov (c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa<\/li>\n<li>Alexa Bliss vs. Lash Legend<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><em><u><i>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0for more on WWE SmackDown preview and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the significant news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81788927\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cwtv.com\/shows\/wwe-nxt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/tubitv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aetv.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>A&amp;E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Main Event, as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/events\/1773457579022155776?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the road to WWE Saturday Night&#8217;s Main Event, where John Cena will take the final bow of his illustrious WWE career, we make one final stop on this Friday Night SmackDown. We got three huge matches on the card, so the party for the weekend will get started earlier than expected. With all that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":147968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,2192,26,4,3],"tags":[433,168,6558,2514,8349,3041,2073,1747],"class_list":["post-147964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-aleister-black","tag-alexa-bliss","tag-damian-priest","tag-ilja-dragunov","tag-lash-legend","tag-rhea-ripley","tag-tommaso-ciampa","tag-zelina-vega"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147964"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147976,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147964\/revisions\/147976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}