It seems Monday’s SmackDown SPOILERS are for tonight’s show

When reports came in from the SmackDown taping before Raw Monday night (Dec. 15) in Hershey, Pennsylvania, many of them said they were for Fri., Dec. 26. It was noted that it was weird to be taping out of order, but the assumption was that since WWE does have a show in Grand Rapids, Michigan tonight (Dec. 19), that must be live.

But as R-Truth might say in Latin, mea culpa. A little digging revealed that not everyone listed those spoilers for the day after Christmas. Some, including Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer fame/infamy, said they were for this week’s SmackDown.

Here’s what Meltzer said on the Dec. 11 Wrestling Observer Radio:

“They’re doing two tapings on Monday and two tapings on Friday. Now in the past, they would two Raws and two SmackDowns… what they’re doing Monday in Hershey is… they’re going to be taping the SmackDown for Friday the 19th. So people in Grand Rapids on Friday may think that they are watching a live SmackDown because they’re going on Friday night, but they are not. What they will be doing in Grand Rapids — they will be taping the Raw for Monday would be the 22nd, and then they will be taping the SmackDown right afterwards for the 26th.”

It also makes sense when you look at the spoilers themselves, which we’ll do here again in a minute. First, we’ll tell our international (and VPN-using) friends that this will lead to a rare instance of SmackDown not airing live on Netflix for most of the world; the show will still premiere at its usual Friday time even though the next two weeks will be pre-taped.

Now, here’s some of what we’ll be getting on SmackDown tonight… if Meltzer’s sources are correct:

• A Damian Priest promo was interrupted by an attacking Aleister Black, who later laid him out backstage.
• Nia Jax and Lash Legend had a backstage segment before their match with Kabuki Warriors. Jax & Legend defeated Asuka & Kairi Sane, but the scene ended with Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss chasing everyone off.
• Giulia gets a backstage promo before defeating Alba Fyre in a match
• Ilja Dragunov & Carmelo Hayes defeat #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa)
• A tag match between The Wyatt Sicks’ Dexter Lumis & Joe Gacy and MFTs JC Mateo & Tonga Loa ended in a no contest.

There also figures to be a healthy amount of highlight packages and backstage material to fill things out. The show doesn’t go back to three hours for a few more weeks yet.

Join us tonight in our live blog and we’ll all find out what’s on this week’s SmackDown together!