SmackDown airs tonight (Aug. 1) with a live show emanating from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. This is the final episode of SmackDown during the three week build towards SummerSlam, which takes place this weekend (Aug. 2 & 3).
Damian Priest and Giulia aren’t big enough stars to wrestle at SummerSlam
SummerSlam is a two night event for the first time ever this year, but some notable WWE wrestlers just aren’t big enough stars to make it onto the show. That appears to be the case for Women’s United States Champion Giulia and former World Heavyweight Champion Damian
Priest, whose stories have instead led to matches on tonight’s go home episode of SmackDown.
In the case of Giulia, she’s making her very first title defense tonight after winning the belt back in June. It’s a rematch against former champion Zelina Vega, and I don’t think anybody expects that Vega has much of a chance to win the gold. That’s especially the case now that Kiana James is by Giulia’s side as her new mouthpiece / manager.
As for Priest, he’s been trying to get his hands on Aleister Black for weeks, and finally gets him in the ring for a singles match tonight. Aleister has outsmarted Damian at every turn so far and laid him out multiple times. Can he do it one more time in an official match, or will Priest dish out maximum pain and get his revenge?
The truth of the matter is that this episode of SmackDown serves as a pre-show of sorts for SummerSlam, given that there are no days off between the events. WWE does need to book some interesting matches on this TV show to get people to tune in for ratings, and Giulia and Priest happened to draw the short straw in terms of missing out on SummerSlam. The WWE brand is mostly the draw these days, after all, and business is still hot, so it doesn’t really matter which way Triple H moves most of the mid-card and lower card pawns on the chess board.
Will Giulia, Vega, Priest, and Black wrestle with a chip on their shoulders after their feuds were dumped onto the go home episode of SmackDown rather than the SummerSlam card itself? Tune in tonight to find out.
The rest of the card
Los Garza are set to defend the AAA world tag team championship in an open challenge tonight on SmackDown. Does WWE have a big surprise planned here on the eve of SummerSlam?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
- WWE Champion John Cena and Cody Rhodes are both under one roof tonight. What does John have to say after Cody knocked him out two weeks ago and forced him to sign the contract for a Street Fight for SummerSlam? Can John find a way to get the last laugh on Cody before their big rematch?
- WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton and Jade Cargill had a tug-of-war over the belt last week. Is that as physical as these babyfaces will get with each other before fighting over the gold at SummerSlam?
- Jelly Roll showed last week that he’s really good at standing in the middle of the ring while everyone else runs into him. Did he learn any new moves over the last week while Drew McIntyre was stuck in the UK?
- The Wyatt Sicks will defend the WWE Tag Team Champions at SummerSlam against five other teams in a TLC match. Will WWE kill time tonight by booking some kind of match that features one member of each team?
- Alexa Bliss busted up her nose in last week’s loss against WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Roxanne Perez. Will the champs show up on SmackDown tonight to rub it in her loser face?
- The numbers game of Solo Sikoa’s MFTs was too much for Jimmy Uso and Jacob Fatu to handle last week. Do the babyfaces have a better strategy in mind for dealing with the United States champion’s thugs to take some of them out of the mix before Fatu challenges Sikoa for the gold in a steel cage at SummerSlam?
- Chelsea Green’s Secret Hervice and The Miz are really good at getting their asses kicked. Which babyfaces will do the honors tonight?
- Where the f*** is LA Knight? He hasn’t been featured on WWE programming since losing on the July 14 episode of Raw.
What will you be looking for on SmackDown?
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