Friday night delivered the worst SmackDown in months, according to Wrestling Uncensored’s Dave Simon. Terrible cinematic segments, confusing tag team booking, and a no-finish main event led Dave to declare “nothing worthwhile, not a damn thing.” But the disaster of Friday’s show stood in sharp contrast to the week’s other major storyline: Gunther making John Cena submit at Saturday Night’s Main Event. While SmackDown collapsed into creative chaos, Dave defended Triple H’s controversial decision to have The Ring General retire Cena with a tap-out finish.
“We’ve been watching John Cena for a long time, and we are done. The time is now for him to be done with wrestling,” Dave opened the show. “No more John Cena. Gunther retired him last week, and there was a lot of controversy. People were upset.”
The controversy centered on the finish. Not just that Cena lost—that was expected—but how he lost. Gunther applied a sleeper hold, and John Cena, the man who built his career on the motto “Never Give Up,” tapped out. The internet immediately erupted with accusations that Triple H had ruined Cena’s sendoff.
The Right Move: Why Triple H Deserves Credit
Dave Simon isn’t one to praise Triple H lightly. The impressive Executive Vice President of Talent Relations catches plenty of criticism on Wrestling Uncensored for being too safe with booking and for cookie-cutter creative. But Friday night, Dave gave Triple H two thumbs up for having the guts to book Cena’s retirement correctly.
“I actually think this was the right move. I like it. This is how you’re supposed to go out,” Dave explained. “You’re supposed to go out giving everything to the next guy. If this is really the end, you are supposed to go out making the next guy look like a monster.”
The logic is sound. Gunther needed every ounce of credibility from defeating Cena. The tap-out finish—controversial as it was—accomplished exactly what wrestling retirements should achieve.
“You are supposed to make the next guy more valuable than he was walking into the match. And if you saw the reaction on Monday Night Raw to Gunther, you know that he is more valuable today than he was before he made John Cena tap out,” Dave continued.
Johnny North agreed with the philosophy while questioning the execution. “I was a little surprised by it. I mean, I like it a lot. I agree with you about the whole “like, put over the next generation, Gunther”-establish him as the guy you have going forward. Completely agree with that.”
The “but” came with how WWE structured Cena’s final year. “The way it was all put together. The butts will not lie right now because it was just the way it was all put together. I think they need to do a bit more there,” Johnny explained.
Triple H Faces the Heat
The fan backlash was immediate and intense. When Triple H appeared at a post-show panel in front of a live audience, the crowd let him have it.
“There was a lot of heat. They were yelling at Triple H,” Dave noted. “A lot of people were outraged, yelling at Triple H. You f’d up Triple H, or you’re dumb. You don’t know what you’re doing.”
The post-match celebration tried to soften the blow. Legends, including Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, and Triple H himself, came out to celebrate Cena. Cody Rhodes and CM Punk handed Cena their belts. The visual was perfect—except Gunther had just made the 16-time WWE Champion tap out moments earlier.
For Dave, the controversy proved Triple H made the right call precisely because it pissed people off.
“We thought that he would get choked out. They would just do the choke-out finish. He’d go to sleep. They’d send Cena home a little bit nicer. But the tap out I thought was even better. I thought it was a bold move,” Dave said. “Because I thought they would do the safe thing, which is the choke out, which is what I think a lot of people wanted from them.”
Instead, Triple H gave Gunther everything.
“This gave Gunther everything, which is how you make legends, how you make superstars. You give them major accomplishments. You put them over strong. Gunther is over strongly. He won the tournament. He beat Cena. He made him tap. Cena never taps. Gunther made him tap. This was great.”
The Gunther Debate: Legitimacy vs. Likability
Not everyone agrees Gunther deserves this level of push. Dave encountered surprising resistance throughout the week from fans who simply don’t like The Ring General.
“I’ve got to tell you, a lot of people don’t like him. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a great heel or people just genuinely don’t like the style,” Dave revealed. “But I talked to a lot of people this week who are, man, Gunther sucks. What? You think Gunther sucks?”
For Dave, Gunther represents everything professional wrestling should be. “I think he’s one of the best going today. I think he was the right guy to retire Goldberg and the right guy to retire John Cena. And I think he’s going to be the right guy to retire AJ Styles, Chris Jericho, and Brock Lesnar. He’s the ring general for a reason.”
The key distinction Gunther himself made: “Cena, you’re the greatest sports entertainer ever, but I’m the greatest professional wrestler.”
That’s the divide Triple H is betting on—sports entertainment’s biggest star passing the torch to pure professional wrestling’s current standard bearer.
The Worst Smackdown in Months: Friday’s Complete Disaster
If Gunther’s retirement of Cena represented WWE creative at its boldest, Friday night’s worst SmackDown in months represented WWE at its absolute worst.
“SmackDown was pretty weak tonight. Very, very bad show tonight. Very, very bad. Nothing worthwhile. Not a damn thing,” Dave declared.
The problems started immediately. “They started the show with Damien Priest doing an in-ring promo and then Alistair Black attacking him, which opened the show. How do you open the show with that?” Dave questioned.
The Cody Rhodes-Drew McIntyre program devolved into embarrassingly bad cinematic storytelling. A video package showed Nick Aldis at Drew’s house negotiating reinstatement terms. Drew demanded the right to pick match stipulations and immunity from Cody touching him before their match, or Cody would be stripped of the WWE Championship. Then Drew’s security camera showed Cody arriving—with police somehow already there.
“Drew gets a notification from his security camera that Cody Rhodes is outside of his house, and there are police there stopping Cody. Why are there police outside of Drew McIntyre’s house just posted up? I have no idea,” Dave said.
The technical execution was even worse. “Cody is like attacking Drew. Cody goes to attack Drew, and just before they make impact, the camera goes all fuzzy in a way that cameras never go fuzzy, especially not now. That was like a VHS tape going all squiggly; that doesn’t happen anymore. That’s not how cameras malfunction.”
Johnny pointed out the legal absurdity: “What about Cody, assaulting the police officer, , ‘ Oh yeah, that happened in the promo afterwards. There are no charges or anything like that. It’s OK that he did that. Yeah. Even gloats about it.”
The women’s division added to the confusion. The Kabuki Warriors—tag team champions who had just turned heel on Raw by misting Rhea Ripley—lost a non-title match on SmackDown to Nia Jax and Lash Legend. Then Charlotte and Alexa Bliss, supposedly babyfaces, attacked the heels after the match and held up the tag titles.
“Which, if I’m watching that in the crowd, what the hell is going on here. I just saw the tag champions lose. Who are the champions? What’s going on? I’d be very confused,” Johnny said.
The main event capped the disaster. Dexter Loomis and Joe Gacy versus Tonga Loa and J.C. Mateo ended without a finish when the Wyatts brawled with their opponents at ringside.
“It was bad. It was bad for a while, and then it didn’t have a finish because the Wyatts, you know, the group there with those guys, and then the MTFs or the MFTs or whatever they’re called, they get into a big fight on the ringside, and then the match just ended, and that’s how SmackDown ended. It was awful. Very, very bad show tonight. Very, very bad,” Dave summarized what may have been the worst SmackDown of the year.
The one bright spot? R-Truth is mistaking Joe Hendry for Joe Pesci. “The Miz is backstage, ‘ Oh, I want to match with that guy . ‘ Oh, you mean don’t say his name, or he’ll show up,” Dave explained. “And then Miz turns around, and R-Truth is there, and he’s saying I believe in Joe Pesci. Joe Pesci.”
“That was the best moment on SmackDown, John. R-Truth saying I believe in Joe Pesci,” Dave confirmed.
CM Punk’s First Title Defense Looms
The one compelling angle from Raw involves CM Punk defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Braun Breaker on the January 5th Raw Netflix premiere. The Steiner family dynamics add intrigue to what would generally be a straightforward first title defense.
“You think Braun Breaker beats him for the belt. What are they going to do?” Dave asked.
Johnny laid out the booking logic: “If it’s Punk’s first actual defense, isn’t it? ” I don’t think he’s actually defended the title yet. So I don’t think Punk loses his first title defense, but this is a rumored WrestleMania match, right? So Braun doesn’t beat him the first time, it could happen again.”
The escape route remains unclear. “I don’t know what that finish is going to be because he’s really got like everything stacked against him. Braun Breaker’s got a whole crew behind him. How does he escape?” Dave wondered.
AEW World’s End: Fatal Four-Way Chaos
AEW Dynamite from Manchester, England drew over 10,000 fans and delivered the week’s biggest storyline development: MJF’s return and insertion into the AEW World Championship match at World’s End next weekend.
“They had some quality stuff, and MJF’s promo was excellent. Everybody did a good promo there. Joe was good. Hangman, Swerve. It was supposed to be a triple threat at World’s End, which is next week, by the way,” Dave noted.
MJF cashed in his Casino Gauntlet title shot to make the match a fatal four-way: Samoa Joe (champion) versus Hangman Adam Page versus Swerve Strickland versus MJF.
The promo that set it up confused the allegiances. “It was kind of a babyface promo from MJF,” Dave observed. “I don’t know what that means. A lot of babyfaces in that match, if MJF is one of two or three of them out of the four. Joe’s the only heel.”
Johnny questioned MJF’s stated motivation. “The main reason is that Hangman kind of said that you know he’s a coward, always takes the easy way out kind of thing, right to prove it like he’s going to beat Hangman at his own game kind of thing and get the title back from the guy that beat him for the title in a one-on-one match.”
The match now feels like Joe’s title reign is ending. “It really feels now like Joe’s going to drop the belt to either Swerve or MJF,” Dave predicted.
Johnny agreed: “My feeling after seeing this is that MJF is going to be the champion.”
Wrestling Uncensored will preview World’s End in full next Friday, December 26, for our final 2025 episode. The Continental Classic semifinals also take place at World’s End, with Jon Moxley continuing his tournament run after defeating Roderick Strong on Dynamite.
Wrestling Uncensored airs live every Friday at 10 PM ET across YouTube, Rumble, Twitch, DLive, and Kick. Support the Ringside Report Network at membership.ringsidereport.net.
