Friday Night SmackDown Review - July 12, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Michin Saved WWE Women's Champion Bayley From Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton; Jax def. Michin

As expected, the cracks have already started to show in the alliance between Jax and Stratton now that Stratton is Ms. Money in the Bank. Technically, Jax shouldn't have cared if Stratton cashed in her briefcase on Bayley here since she's getting her title shot at SummerSlam regardless, but I guess she didn't want to face her "friend." It was a solid segment that transitioned into Jax beating Michin. They had a good match and I appreciated that it was more competitive than their last encounter.

Legado del Fantasma (Angel and Berto) def. Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin

Crews and Corbin are a makeshift team joined together by their mutual disdain for Legado, but they worked well together as partners. Corbin was also over as a babyface in front of this crowd more than I thought he would be. It was a nice match, but it didn't feel important because none of these guys win on a consistent basis. By the way, whatever happened to Santos Escobar feuding with Andrade?

LA Knight Lined Up His SummerSlam Challenge for United States Champion Logan Paul

After Knight pinned Paul in that Triple Threat Money in the Ban qualifier two weeks ago, it became clear that was how he'd lay claim to challenging for the United States title at SummerSlam. Sure enough, that was established in this segment, though Paul wasn't present to make the match official. He'll be back next week and it's bound to be confirmed for the card then. The question is if Knight will take the title at SummerSlam (as he should) or if he'll stay in chase mode for a little longer and win it in the rematch.

Naomi def. Blair Davenport

This was only Davenport's second match on SmackDown, so you'd think she'd win to start building momentum. Instead, she lost clean despite Naomi having an out for losing after competing in the women's Money in the Bank Ladder match. This was decent, but nothing out of the ordinary. I realize Davenport attacked Naomi backstage afterward, but I don't think that'll do much to get people to care about her.

WWE Tag Team Champions #DIY def. A-Town Down Under

I was surprised that this was given away a week after their original encounter. I was hoping they'd hold off until SummerSlam so Johnny Gargano could compete in Cleveland, but evidently not. I doubt #DIY make the SummerSlam card at this point. This wasn't on the same level as last week's match, but it was enjoyable while it lasted. More miscommunication between Austin Theory and Grayson Waller cost them the victory, but the split didn't happen.

The Bloodline Attacked Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton

Jacob Fatu laid waste to Theory and #DIY immediately after the tag title match, which made him come across like an absolute beast. As I've said before, the dude's going to be a big star. The rest of this segment played out predictably with Rhodes vs. Sikoa being set up for SummerSlam and The Bloodline attacking Rhodes and Orton. Orton will likely be written off the show for a few weeks at the very least, and when he returns, I can certainly see him targeting/blaming Rhodes.

Overall Show

SmackDown has had a string of strong shows in the last month, but this was far from a hot post-pay-per-view episode. I liked how they went off the air, but nothing else felt remotely as important. It was just an average edition of SmackDown on the whole, but at least there was plenty of build for SummerSlam in the main event, midcard and women's scenes. Paul's return and Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes were advertised for next week.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews