Friday Night SmackDown Review - July 15, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Baron Corbin Interrupted Pat McAfee

As expected, this feud has been a lot of fun so far. Fans are super into McAfee and Corbin is the perfect foil for him. McAfee had the crowd in the palm of his hand during his promo here and Corbin's interruption on the Titantron was well done. I'm really looking forward to what kind of match they'll have at SummerSlam. McAfee hasn't missed yet and Corbin can more than hold his own, so I don't doubt it will deliver.

SmackDown Women's Champion Liv Morgan def. Natalya in a Championship Contender's Match

It's laughable Natalya was even granted a Championship Contender's match considering how quickly and decisively Natalya was beaten by an "injured" Ronda Rousey last week on SmackDown and at Money in the Bank. Please let this spell the end of her in the title picture because she's simply not a compelling challenger and the focus should be fully on Morgan vs. Rousey heading into SummerSlam. Morgan and Natalya had a nice match (aside from a few awkward spots) and it further established Morgan as an underdog champion.

The New Day, Jinder Mahal and Shanky Attacked The Viking Raiders

I love New Day, but I'm not sure their cosplaying/impersonations of people has ever been funny. I remember when they did this same sort of segment with The Good Brothers back in 2016 and it was one of the worst segments all year. This was equally stupid. More power to you if you enjoyed it, but I did not. I'm fine with the babyfaces (if you can call them that) getting the better of the heels here because the babyfaces have been beaten down so often as of late.

Lacey Evans vs. Aliyah Went to a No Contest

Evans cemented her heel turn last week and sounded off on the audience. This was more of the same in that the match never actually got started and she took her time criticizing the crowd instead. This character she's playing certainly has some depth to it, but I still feel like WWE should have given her more time as a babyface before doing the turn. She's getting good heat for now, though, so that's a plus. I assume all roads will lead to her challenging and beating Morgan for the SmackDown Women's Championship, but hopefully that's not for a while down the road.

Drew McIntyre def. Ridge Holland

For the second straight week, we didn't get McIntyre vs. Sheamus as advertised. Okay, so they didn't advertise it all day on social media and throughout the show like they did last week, but they heavily implied again we'd be getting it before Sheamus was switched out for Holland. What's worse is that it was hardly a match due to being so brief. What we got was good, but losing in under four minutes hardly does Holland any favors. At this point, I assume McIntyre vs. Sheamus will be saved for SummerSlam.

Madcap Moss def. Theory by Disqualification

These are the two young guys WWE is clearly building up to be the future of the company. I'm still not sold on Moss, but Theory has star written all over him. They had an enjoyable affair, but the disqualification finish was lame. I suppose it's better than either of them taking a pinfall loss, but I don't want WWE thinking Theory can lose all the time now that he's Mr. Money in the Bank. I will say that I like Theory having so many enemies at the same time between Moss, Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, John Cena, Bobby Lashley and Dolph Ziggler.​​

Angelo Dawkins def. Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion Jimmy Uso

This was the match we were supposed to get on Monday's Raw before it turned into a six-man tag team match also involving R-Truth and Omos, who pinned Dawkins for the victory. Why do that and expect viewers to take Dawkins seriously on his own in a main event match four days later? That side, this was a solid main event and Dawkins is better than most give him credit for. Unfortunately, the action was a bit of an afterthought because everyone was waiting for the reveal of who the special guest referee will be at SummerSlam. We found out it will be Jeff Jarrett, which I don't mind since they're in Nashville and he makes more sense than Sami Zayn or Solo Sikoa in storyline.

Overall Show

You don't need me to tell you how abysmal SmackDown has been almost all year long, but to give credit where it's due, this was a slightly better show than what we've been getting in recent weeks. There was still the usual amount of filler and lack of interesting storyline developments, but the two hours were largely serviceable and I liked how they started and closed the show. Throw in two well-wrestled matches (Natalya vs. Morgan and Moss vs. Theory) and you have yourself the closest thing to an adequate episode we've gotten in several weeks.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews