SmackDown (July 26, 2024) Recap and Reactions: The Bloodline Races

This week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown was recorded last week to compensate for traveling to Japan for a concert tour. This usually means a smaller show with a big match to make up for the bulk of the time.

Indeed, that’s what we got here.

The match was a Gauntlet Match for the right to become a top contender to the WWE Tag Team Championship currently held by DIY. To that end, the show opened with SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis telling The Bloodline that they would have to forfeit their spot in the match due to an eye injury suffered by Tonga Loa. Solo Sikoa told him that there was no need for all of that, as they also had Jacob Fatu and that he would step in to fill the void.

Solo played diplomacy, it must be said. This is in stark contrast to the way Roman Reigns was working his way through management. It worked, because Aldis agreed to let Fatu step in.

When the match came, they even ended up having a good draw —

Baron Corbin and Apollo Crews started by taking out Legado del Fantasma. Then The Street Profits, who, by the way, have been back to their old selves since Bobby Lashley apparently left, took them out. Pretty Deadly was next, but they couldn’t beat Dawkins and Ford. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, members of The OC, suffered the same fate.

Which, of course, left Tonga and Fatu as the last team to enter the match.

Wade Barrett himself pointed out that all the advantages were given to the rich and powerful in this game. The rich and powerful tend to get even richer and more powerful.

Credit where credit is due, they did well to let the Profits take the lead after fighting as hard as they could for much of the game, beating multiple teams before falling at the finish line to a numbers game they simply couldn’t overcome. They also did as well against Fatu as anyone has done so far.

Still, he put on a good show by taking out Ford with the moonsault to win the fight. And, really, it makes perfect sense for The Bloodline to go after the titles again. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where DIY beats them as well, so it seems like Fatu and Tonga will do exactly what Solo asked of them.

Tick Tock.

Meanwhile, Cody Rhodes only appeared on that show via a pre-taped promo, explaining how he thought he had defeated The Bloodline when he defeated Reigns at WrestleMania 40Instead, he had to watch his friends get beaten up in front of him, creating doubt in his mind about Sikoa.

He challenged him to a one-on-one meeting next week, just one night before their game in Cleveland.

Later, as the show was about to end, Sikoa agreed to meet with Rhodes next week. He also made sure to mention Reigns, saying that if he had a problem with that, “you know where to find me” before threatening to leave him for dead like they did with Randy Orton, Kevin Owens and, soon enough, Cody Rhodes.

We’re almost home, friends.

Terence Crawford, undefeated boxing champion and one of the best fighters in the world today, got some action on this show. He was just an assistant last week, but this time he got to face Grayson Waller and Austin Theory, who called him out, all pissed off about how he got involved in their last match.

Waller offered Theory a fight and Crawford, as is his wont, knocked him out with a single punch.

My man throws a worked punch that’s almost as good as a shot!

It was a fun way to get him more involved, while also pushing back the date of this A-Town Down Under breakup for another week.

Everything else

Santos Escobar was very aggressive against LA Knight last week, so they settled the score this week. Logan Paul came out to attack Knight, but he easily fended him off, then hit Escobar with the Blunt Force Trauma to score the pinfall and the win. Naturally, Paul attacked while Knight celebrated and eventually got the better of him because Escobar stayed to help him. It wasn’t much more than you’d expect from a taped show, but it worked pretty well, especially when it’s a taped show. Paul teased that he has something special coming up Summer Slam in a backstage interview afterwards.
Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill called out The Unholy Union for a tag team title match. They were quickly attacked from behind and still easily got the better of the champions. The message was pretty clear: Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre are great but they’re still a step behind the former champions.
Andrade started talking about his quest for the United States Championship when Carmelo Hayes came out to say he wasn’t done with him yet. He even compared himself to LeBron before Andrade told him he was more like Bronny Jr. This led to another match between the two.
Nia Jax promised to get Tiffany Stratton a new Money in the Bank briefcase that would fit her style. That sounds like bad news to me, folks. It could mean she’s keeping it for longer. We don’t want that. Later, they got the main event spot against Women’s Champion Bayley & Michin. The heels eliminated Michin before the match even started, then worked much of the match with Bayley alone, fighting valiantly from behind. Michin eventually managed to come back, but it did nothing to prevent the inevitable – Jax providing enough of a distraction for Stratton to use the broken briefcase on Bayley, allowing Nia to score the pinfall on the champion. The idea here was to give us what could be a glimpse of Summer Slamand you know what? The future doesn’t look bright. And I mean that in the best sense of the word in this case.

I don’t know why, but knowing that a show is being recorded greatly diminishes my ability to take it for what it is.

Is this weird of me? I don’t know. Tell me.

Grade: C+

Your turn.