Friday Night SmackDown Review - July 21, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rey Mysterio def. Cameron Grimes, Sheamus and LA Knight in a Fatal 4-Way Match to Advance in the United States Championship Invitational

Everybody (myself included) wanted Knight to win here given his immense level of popularity at the moment. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, but a battle of LWO members in the finals of the Invitational does make sense. I don't want to give WWE the benefit of the doubt and say that they have a plan in mind for him, but it would be extremely dumb if that don't. Him against Austin Theory for the United States Championship can wait, but he should be kept busy in the meantime. Unsurprisingly, this was a very fun four-way.

Charlotte Flair def. IYO SKY

Fun fact: SKY beat Flair for the NXT Women's Championship three years ago. Granted, it was a Triple Threat at NXT TakeOver: In Your House and Flair wasn't pinned, but still, they have history. I was worried this would be cut short when Shotzi popped up on the Titantron and Bayley went to the back out of fear, but they went on to wrestle for several more minutes and had a really good match (especially after a rough first few minutes). The loss shouldn't hurt SKY too much if she eventually cashes in her Money in the Bank briefcase successfully.

Santos Escobar def. United States Champion Austin Theory (Non-Title)​

These two brawled at ringside during the opener and Adam Pearce made this match official soon after. Does this not make it predictable that Escobar isn't winning the Invitational next week? If Escobar does win, why give away this match before they meet for the title? It was competitive and Escobar won clean, so my prediction is that Mysterio wins next week and that leads to a Escobar heel turn. This was a very enjoyable outing.

NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio def. Butch

Something super similar happened when Solo Sikoa won the NXT North American Championship and briefly brought it to SmackDown last fall. He, too, defended the title on SmackDown days after winning it. For Mysterio's stake, I hope he also doesn't immediately relinquish it next week. That would be pretty pointless. At any rate, this was a decent match from him and Butch. It had its fair share of shenanigans, but it was cool to see the North American title defended on SmackDown again. 

Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns Agreed to Defend Against Jey Uso

This segment was branded as "The Rules of Engagement". Basically, they went over what this SummerSlam match means and how it's about more than just the title. It wasn't their strongest segment together, but they effectively made the matchup official, despite the "tribal combat" stuff not being well explained. I assume it is indeed Anything Goes, but the commentators didn't clarify. Meanwhile, I remain doubtful Jey is actually taking the title from Reigns, but they're doing a nice job of making him feel like an actual threat and crowds are eating up everything he does.

Overall Show

This episode emanated from Orlando and thus the NXT talent got a ton of exposure. WWE's recent push for the program has been successful on all accounts, so it's encouraging that their efforts are paying off. As for this show, it was entertaining on the whole. It was one of those shows where they took the "less is more" approach and it worked really well. Two more matches were confirmed for the SummerSlam card, there was plenty of quality action, and the one in-ring promo segment was solid, so the two hours held my attention throughout.

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