WWE Friday Night Smackdown results, recap and highlights: December 24, 2021

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Bengaluru, Dec. 25: This week's WWE Smackdown brought the fallouts from Universal Champion Roman Reigns firing Paul Heyman for his Special Counsel position.

On this special Christmas edition, Heyman had a promo session on Reigns turning on him.

A Christmas special Gauntlet Match was on the show to crown the new number-one contender for the Intercontinental Championship. Plus, the Smackdown Women's Title was also on the line from the show that was taped from the All-State Arena in Chicago, Illinois.

Check out the recap and results from the December 24 edition of Friday Night Smackdown:

- Smackdown kicked off with a sit-down interview where Kayla Braxton had some conversations with Paul Heyman about his firing by Roman Reigns, last week.

Heyman said he told the truth to the Universal Champion Roman Reigns that he didn't want to hear. "Roman Reigns is the greatest Universal Champion of all time, but he needs to be protected from Brock Lesnar," Heyman said.

Kayla asked what's next for him. Heyman asked himself whether he will go to NXT to cherry-pick a top talent. Then he ended the interview by saying, "Maybe it's time for me to acknowledge that my career is most likely over."

- Charlotte Flair (c) defeated Toni Storm to retain her SmackDown Women's Championship in the opening contest of the night. Flair tried to use the ropes for leverage but the referee caught her.

Flair and Storm traded some pin-fall attempts as Flair eventually got the three counts to win the match.

- Xia Li cut a promo in Chinese over how Natalya reacted to her big debut and claimed that she is just a newbie.

- 12 Days Of Christmas Gauntlet Match was next on Smackdown to crown the new number-one contender for the Intercontinental Championship. The participants of the match were Ricochet, Sami Zayn, Drew Gulak, Mansoor, Erik, Ivar, Shanky, Jinder Mahal, Sheamus, Cesaro, Angel, Humberto. The match outcomes are given below:

Angel Garza defeated Mansoor by hitting the Wing Clipper finisher in the first match. Angel then defeated Erik of the Viking Raiders with another Wing Clipper finisher.

Shanky defeated Angel Garza by hitting a big According Slam.

Ivar of The Viking Raiders defeated Shanky with a top rope splash for the pin to win on.

Sheamus defeated Ivar by hitting a Brogue Kick.

In the shortest match of the Gauntlet, Sheamus defeated Drew Gulak. Gulak lost in about 5 seconds as Sheamus hit him with a Brogue Kick, right away.

Sheamus defeated his former tag team partner Cesaro in the next match. Ridge Holland distracted Cesaro during this match as Sheamus hit The Swiss Superman with another Brogue Kick for the pin to win.

Ricochet defeated Sheamus in the next match. Cesaro took out Ridge Holland who was standing at ringside. This distracted Sheamus as Ricochet pinned him via a roll-up. A frustrated Sheamus delivered a Brogue Kick on Ricochet after the match.

Ricochet defeated Humberto Carrillo by hitting a mid-air Recoil for the pin to win.

Ricochet defeated Jinder Mahal with a roll-up after blocking the Khallas move from Mahal.

Sami Zayn defeated Ricochet in the final match of the Gauntlet. Ricochet missed a Shooting Star Press after which Sami delivered an Exploder suplex followed by the Helluva Kick for the pin to win.

As a result of the win, Zayn will now face Shinsuke Nakamura for the Intercontinental Championship at the WWE Day 1 PPV.

- WWE aired a video package, focusing on the career of Paul Heyman over WCW, ECW, and WWF/E.

- Drew McIntyre and The New Day (King Xavier Woods and Sir Kofi Kingston) defeated SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos and Madcap Moss in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight.

Moss and Corbin were showered with a few jugs of eggnogs after which McIntyre dragged Moss into the ring and hit a Claymore Kick for the pin to win. The New Day and McIntyre threw gifts to the WWE Universe to send the Christmas Eve edition of SmackDown off the air.