Friday Night SmackDown Review - July 5, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jey Uso, LA Knight, Carmelo Hayes, Chad Gable, Andrade and Drew McIntyre Interrupted Each Other and Brawled

You know those segments WWE does where it's basically a revolving door of promos that have been done to death over the years? Yeah, that's what this was. Uso and Knight briefly going back and forth with the "Yeet!" and "Yeah!" stuff was fun, but the rest of this played out predictably. I expected a six-man tag team match to be made for later in the show, but that never materialized (which I was fine with because it wasn't necessary).

The Street Profits def. Pretty Deadly

This was set up during a backstage segment on last week's show. Pretty Deadly beat Randy Orton and Kevin Owens in a tag team match a week before WrestleMania 40 and haven't wrestled on SmackDown since. What's up with that? This felt like filler, but it was well wrestled and the crowd was into it. Street Profits have felt totally directionless since Bobby Lashley was sidelined with an injury. Hopefully he's back soon.

Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill def. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell

This was the third match these teams have had in the last month and a half, so it wasn't anything new. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but I assume the only reason why it existed was to give Belair and Cargill a rebound victory. They mentioned in their post-match promo that they want the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship back, so maybe they lose and that's when we get the split?

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens Addressed The Bloodline

Much like the opening segment, this was pretty standard stuff with the babyfaces taking turns addressing The Bloodline ahead of the six-man tag team match at Money in the Bank. Rhodes and Orton didn't say much, but the top takeaway from the segment was Owens saying he's spent the last several days with his hospitalized mother. I'm glad he had the chance to talk about her situation and explain why his parents won't be ringside at the pay-per-view. Here's wishing her a speedy recovery.

WWE Women's Champion Bayley def. Piper Niven (Non-Title)

This was a rematch from Clash at the Castle, but it wasn't on the same level as that encounter for a few reasons. Not only did Scotland provide a slightly hotter atmosphere (due to Niven being from there obviously), the focus wasn't on the action this time but rather the participants in the women's Money in the Bank Ladder match at ringside. This was decent but nothing worth writing home about. Michin saving Bayley from Nia Jax afterward means we're headed toward Bayley and Michin vs. Jax and Tiffany Stratton soon.

#DIY def. A-Town Down Under to Win the WWE Tag Team Championship

One of my biggest complaints of the Paul "Triple H" Levesque era of WWE is that the tag team divisions on both brands have largely been neglected. That said, A-Town Down Under and #DIY have done a nice job telling their story in recent months and it paid off perfectly here. They didn't get a ton of time, but it was a very entertaining main event where the crowd was invested in the action and popped big for the title change. It was cool to see this built up as a big deal throughout the night, so much so that I have no issue with it happening here instead of at SummerSlam in Johnny Gargano's native Cleveland like I originally thought it would.

Overall Show

The tag team title match technically didn't close the show. Rather, it was a quick vignette featuring The Bloodline where Solo Sikoa specifically said he was the new Tribal Chief and that if Roman Reigns wanted the Undisputed WWE Championship, he'd have to come back and take it from him. Seeds planted! The last two segments were the only worthwhile things from this show. There was plenty of hype for Money in the Bank throughout the night, but it was mostly a throwaway go-home episode otherwise.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews