On the Christmas Day edition of SmackDown Live, Rusev won the U.S. Championship. What else happened to make the show a winner for this week?
There was a four-team tag match, Daniel Bryan interrupted an episode of Truth TV, two young and budding stars went one-on-one and Jeff Hardy went toe-to-toe with Samoa Joe. And, WWE sent the fans into 2019 with a new United States Champion.
Oh... and AJ Styles attacked Vince McMahon!
Here are your winners for SmackDown Live, December 25, 2018.
Winner: AJ Styles
This is the first time Vince has done something useful since taking over both Raw and SmackDown. He's been a part of minor storylines and on Monday he dropped the news that WWE will be introducing tag titles for the women, but up until this segment with Styles, Vince wasn't terribly relevant.
This exchange between the boss and The Phenomenal One proves that Vince has no desire to forget AJ as the WWE moves in another direction. Will this build towards something between the two or was this a one-time bit to keep Styles relevant?
Related: TheSportster's WWE Wrestler Of The Year 2018
Winner: R-Truth
At 47 years old, R-Truth is defying the odds for WWE Superstars by not only staying relevant but getting better with age. On Tuesday, he was a central part of the storyline that involved the Heavyweight Champion.
While this was really just a chance to put over Bryan and Truth took the beating that would put Bryan over as the new heel that WWE is working so hard to create. The segment was straight to the point, well delivered and served its purpose. Expect Truth to look for redemption only to fall again.
Related: Remember When: The Great Khali & Bobby Lashley Have Strange Twitter Interaction
Loser: Andrade "Cien" Almas
While everything about this match was great, someone had to lose and that someone was Almas who has now lost a few important matches in a row. This is good for Ali who WWE must really see something in and great for fans who want more matches like this on a weekly basis, but too many losses in a row will hurt Almas and his momentum after joining the SmackDown Live roster.
Almas is the type of performer WWE needs to get behind with the "change" they have promised in the coming weeks and months. Fans can only hope this loss leads to something else and not a trip down the totem pole in WWE.
Related: Winners & Losers Christmas Eve Raw: New Women’s Tag Titles
Winner: Joe vs Hardy
This feud is only going to get more interesting as the days and weeks roll along. While Joe has yet to really earn a victory that will make him a real threat to Hard in any match, he's dangerous and he's getting some real attention from WWE creative as this feud rolls along.
At some point, Joe should get a win in one of these matches and WWE needs to keep names like Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio out of this storyline.
Related: WWE End Of Year Report Card For 2018
Winner: Rusev
Of course, WWE is going to give the WWE Universe a feel-good moment on Christmas Day. How could they not? That feel-good moment came in the form of a United States Championship win for Rusev.
Will this win actually lead to a longer-term run with the title? Will this be another blip and short-term push that doesn't lead to anything substantial? WWE fans have been waiting a long time for Rusev to get the push he deserves. There will certainly be some doubt as to whether or not this win is the start of that push.