SmackDown airs tonight with a live show emanating from Resch Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This is the final episode of SmackDown during the five week build to SummerSlam, which takes place on Saturday (Aug. 1) and Sunday (Aug. 2).
It looks like WWE is booking a title change right before SummerSlam
The War Raiders disappeared from WWE programming for a few months after getting their asses handed to them by Oba Femi on Raw like a couple of local jobbers. Erik and Ivar went over to AAA and had much more success there. The move culminated with the War Raiders winning
the AAA world tag team titles in May.
One week later, Erik and Ivar showed up on SmackDown and challenged WWE Tag Team Champions Damian Priest and R-Truth to a Title vs. Title winner-take-all match. The challenge was accepted, but it’s been delayed nearly two months due to typical WWE shenanigans like hot dog eating and GM Nick Aldis being put on a leave of absence. In the mean time, Priest and Truth have somehow become the longest reigning champions on the blue brand.
Last week, Priest revealed that the title match with War Raiders is finally happening on tonight’s SummerSlam go home edition of SmackDown. With all the belts being on the line in such a high stakes match, surely it means one of these teams must be losing championship gold tonight, right? That’s the impression I got from all the segments on SmackDown TV, anyway.
But then I headed over to WWE’s web site, and was very confused by what their official preview for SmackDown says:
“After accepting a challenge several weeks ago from AAA Tag Team Champion War Raiders, WWE Tag Team Champion Damian Priest & R-Truth are set to put their title on the line against Erik and Ivar in what is sure to be an explosive tag team collision.”
That description doesn’t sound like a Title vs. Title winner-take-all championship match. It sounds like only Priest and Truth’s belts are on the line tonight. Huh? Hopefully this is some kind of error by WWE’s web team, and the segments we’ve seen on SmackDown that are clearly hyping up a Title vs. Title match are indicative of what’s actually happening.
Are the War Raiders about to end the longest current championship reign on SmackDown? If plans have changed and both sets of titles are no longer on the line, is that because Priest and Truth are going to win? Tune into SmackDown tonight to see what the hell is going on with what was supposed to be a Title vs. Title match.
The rest of the card
Jade Cargill, Chelsea Green, United States Champion Tiffany Stratton, and Charlotte Flair have all qualified for the WWE Interim Women’s Championship 5-way ladder match at SummerSlam. The final spot in the match will be determined tonight when Giulia goes one-on-one against Lash Legend. Will Nia Jax learn from all the dumbassery that’s plagued these qualification matches by running in to give her partner Lash a fingerpoke of doom, thereby helping her advance to SummerSlam by disqualification? The ladder match is a bit unbalanced with three babyfaces and only one heel, so perhaps that gives Legend an edge even if there aren’t any silly disqualifications.
WWE Champion CM Punk vs. Cody Rhodes is the main event of Saturday night’s SummerSlam card. The two stars will have a face-to-face confrontation on tonight’s go home episode of SmackDown. They talked a bunch of trash at each other last week, where Punk accused “Dusty’s kid” of being a liar who is always trying to play the victim in WWE. Is it finally time for fists to fly between these friends tonight after someone verbally crosses the line, or will they save all their punches and kicks for when the bell rings at SummerSlam?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– Nick Aldis agreed to temporarily relinquish his GM duties on SmackDown so that he can make GUNTHER his bitch at SummerSlam. Aldis is the one who looked like a bitch when GUNTHER powerbombed him through a table last week. Nick has to retaliate in a major way tonight if the goal is to convince WWE fans that he actually stands a chance against the Career Killer.
– Baron Corbin is back in WWE. He is very tall, which probably helped him cut to the front of the line for a match against furry United States Champion Trick Williams at SummerSlam. Will Baron get a tune up match tonight against some jabroni like Carmelo Hayes, or is it a better use of his time to send a message to the champ by taking out Lil Yachty?
– Finn Balor won last week’s 4-way main event match and is now set to face Sami Zayn at SummerSlam, with the number one contender spot for the WWE championship hanging in the balance. What will The Last Real Good Guy (and Johnny Gargano) say to Finn when they inevitably cross paths tonight? Will Tama and Talla Tonga be bold enough to attack both stars and get booked in a tag team match against them tonight?
– Nikki Bella is finally back from injury, and she immediately booked herself in a 6-woman tag team match at SummerSlam against Jacy Jayne and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid. Will some cracks start to show in the foundation of Paige’s alliance with the Bella Twins tonight, or are the babyfaces all on the same page and completely focused on beating the shit out of Fatal Influence?
– Are The Bloodline’s Jacob Fatu and The Usos planning to show up tonight to ambush Royce Keys and Solo Sikoa? Is Raw star LA Knight on hand to make sure The Bloodline doesn’t have the numbers advantage?
– Does Matt Cardona have any words of wisdom for Danhausen ahead of his SummerSlam match against that little shithead Dominik Mysterio? If Danhausen does appear on tonight’s show, will a random heel show up to make a joke about his concert with Joe Hendry completely bombing on Raw?
– Is “The Glamour” Blake Monroe ever going to wrestle on SmackDown?
– Will The Miz and Kit Wilson ever go back to not being electrocuted zombies?
– Where the f*** are Jordynne Grace, Randy Orton, and Ilja Dragunov?
What will you be looking for on SmackDown?
