Friday Night SmackDown Review - July 26, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

LA Knight def. Santos Escobar

These two last faced off in the first round of the King of the Ring tournament a few months ago, but it happened at a house show, so we didn't get to see it. Escobar was obviously no threat to Knight and the match wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but they worked well together in the time they were allotted. Logan Paul attacked Knight afterward to further build toward their United States Championship clash at SummerSlam.

Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill Attacked WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn

This face-off between these teams was hyped a week in advance and I have no idea why because it was a nothing segment. Belair and Cargill called out the champions, who were quickly tossed from the ring when they showed up. I know this was supposed to set up a title match for next week's show, but it still felt like a waste of time because of how it was executed. Fyre and Dawn's tag title reign being such an afterthought hasn't helped matters.

The Bloodline (Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga) def. The Street Profits, The O.C. (Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows), Pretty Deadly, Apollo Crews & Baron Corbin, and Legado del Fantasma (Angel and Berto) in a WWE Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Tag Team Gauntlet Match

There's been some great Gauntlet matches in WWE in recent years, but there's also been a lot of forgettable ones that follow a fairly basic formula. This one fell in the latter category. There wasn't anything necessarily wrong with it and there was some good action throughout, but it was hard to care about a majority of these teams, especially when you knew The Bloodline was winning. They'll get their shots on next week's go-home show in Cleveland, which doesn't bode well for the new champs #DIY.

Terence Crawford Attacked Austin Theory

This felt like a dark segment. Yes, it played off Crawford's involvement in last week's opening segment with Cody Rhodes and A-Town Down Under, but it only existed to hype Crawford's upcoming fight for August 3rd (the same night as SummerSlam, interestingly enough). We technically got more tension between A-Town Down Under with Grayson Waller ditching Theory once he got knocked out, but I'm ready for the split at this point.

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

I can't think of too many shows Bayley has headlined during her reign as WWE Women's Champion (she did early on but not lately to my knowledge), so I appreciated that this match got the main event spot. It wasn't a barn burner by any means, but it was well worked andeffectively furthered multiple feuds at once. Jax pinning Bayley gives her more of a momentum boost, but does it telegraph that she isn't winning the title at the pay-per-view?

Overall Show

There was also an "interview" with Cody Rhodes, but it was essentially a video package where he recapped what we've seen with him and The Bloodline in recent weeks and challenged Solo Sikoa to meet him in the ring next week. You could tell this was a taped show just based on the atmosphere in the building and the fact that the Gauntlet match ate up a ton of time. It was a serviceable edition of SmackDown but ultimately skippable.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews