{"id":149085,"date":"2025-12-19T21:40:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T02:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=149085"},"modified":"2025-12-19T21:40:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T02:40:35","slug":"spoilers-new-champion-crowned-on-12-26-wwe-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/12\/19\/spoilers-new-champion-crowned-on-12-26-wwe-smackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"SPOILERS: New Champion Crowned on 12\/26 WWE SmackDown"},"content":{"rendered":"

An #AndNEW champion was crowned during the December 19, 2025, tapings of WWE SmackDown for its December 26, 2025, show. Fans were left confused this week as the episode taped after WWE Monday Night Raw on December 15, 2025, for SmackDown, was supposed to be aired on December 26, 2025. What happened was that the show taped on Monday also aired this Friday.\u00a0 We go into WWE SmackDown spoilers territory as in a match between United States Champion Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes during the taping for the December 26, 2025, SmackDown<\/a>, Melo cashed in and will come into 2026 as the new United States Champion.<\/p>\n

Melo would get the pin on Ilja Dragunov in a hard-fought battle. Post-match, the “Mad Dragon” would show his respect and would place the United States Title around the waist of Carmelo Hayes.<\/p>\n

\"A
Photo Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arguably, Dragunov had his best match with Hayes a few weeks ago. And WWE has been hot and cold when it comes to Melo since his debut on the WWE SmackDown brand. Now, it seems like the company is behind Melo all the way, as he ends 2025 with gold around his waist and momentum on his side.<\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> for more on WWE SmackDown spoilers 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

You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\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>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An #AndNEW champion was crowned during the December 19, 2025, tapings of WWE SmackDown for its December 26, 2025, show. Fans were left confused this week as the episode taped after WWE Monday Night Raw on December 15, 2025, for SmackDown, was supposed to be aired on December 26, 2025. What happened was that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":145589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[2,12,2192,26,4,3],"tags":[7740,2514],"class_list":["post-149085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-carmelo-hayes","tag-ilja-dragunov"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149085","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=149085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149086,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149085\/revisions\/149086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}