WWE's progress towards SummerSlam on Saturday, August 5 was covered in the friday night SmackDown broadcast.
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The Bloodline went on, with Jey Uso and Roman Reigns laying the groundwork for their SummerSlam confrontation, which would determine who would win The Tribal Chief’s Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. The company’s progress towards SummerSlam on Saturday, August 5, as well as the continuance of the United States Championship Invitational were also covered in the broadcast. With this summary of Friday’s show, learn what happened, how each part performed, and what it meant for those involved.
Following his victory in a Fatal 4-Way Match to open Friday’s programme, Rey Mysterio will face off with his LWO teammate and protégé, Santos Escobar, for a crack at United States Champion Austin Theory. The WWE Hall of Famer defeated the immensely popular LA Knight, Sheamus, and Cameron Grimes in an action-packed match at the start of the programme after overcoming interference from the titleholder that nearly forced him out of the competition. It was a carefully planned match between two babyfaces that kept the audience interested despite never creating any prolonged heat phases or making any of the four combatants play the heel.
Although they consistently supported Knight, the crowd did not object to Mysterio’s triumph, which is evidence of how well-liked that renowned rival was among the spectators. However, it will be interesting to see how long the audience will put up with the creative team halting Knight’s momentum before rejecting any and all choices that do not result in victory. After the break, Theory demanded a match with Escobar (without the title), who jumped him after he tried to cost Mysterio the victory.
The Queen attempted to gain momentum by defeating the winner of the 2023 Women’s Money in the Bank, Iyo Sky, on the same day that the match between Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, and Asuka for the latter’s WWE Women’s Championship was officially announced at SummerSlam. She succeeded in doing so, fighting off a spirited Goddess of the Sky and a distraction from Bayley at ringside to secure the grueling victory after Natural Selection. The winner received a message from Asuka after the bout, and she may have set the seeds for an arm injury she may take advantage of on August 5.
Regardless of an intermission occurring in the latter part of the match, it was really amazing. Additionally, it pushed two existing stories: Shotzi’s retaliation against The Role Model and the growing strife within Damage CTRL between Sky and Bayley. Both are supporting tales to the women’s title film, but they are precisely what the women’s division of the blue brand needed following the mediocre, to put it mildly, inferior creative efforts of a year ago. At SummerSlam, Flair, Asuka, and Belair are ready to wreak havoc, and their match might be a serious dark-horse contender for the greatest match on what promises to be a packed card.
Austin Theory, the United States champion, may have insisted on a bout with Santos Escobar, but he ultimately came to regret it as the potential No. 1 challenger to his title defeated the brash young villain. Since WWE has deliberately shielded the future star, few have been able to pin the US champion cleanly in the center of the ring, but Escobar capitalized on the energy of his victory from a week earlier by doing so. Escobar has all too frequently suffered defeats despite having a bigger presence on television, so it was a refreshing change of pace.
These are the kinds of triumphs that will ultimately assist him in forging a bond with his viewers and, at least, give him the kind of credibility required to be perceived as a threat to any adversary he challenges. That includes his mentor Rey Mysterio, with whom he squares off on the show the next week for the chance to win Theory’s championship.
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Dominik Mysterio, the brand-new NXT North American champion, prevailed against Butch in the following match of the evening by virtue of Pretty Deadly’s distraction and Rhea Ripley’s interference. It was good to see the creative teams spotlight the business between the ropes with a character in Mysterio who continues to be among the hottest heels in the industry on a night where there was a large NXT presence on the broadcast due to SmackDown coming from Orlando.
The conflict among Brawling Brutes and Pretty Deadly was in play, but one has to question how long it can last until it gets boring considering the uncertainty surrounding Elton Prince’s availability due to his separated shoulder. especially if Prince truly does miss months of work, as Cole indicated in discussion.
Roman Reigns and Jey Uso’s Tribal Combat match at SummerSlam will determine the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and the Tribal Chief. According to Uso, the elders of The Bloodline made the decision to settle the disputes amongst the parties involved solely through a no holds barred, everything goes match. Up until one took a closer look at the interactions between Uso and Reigns, the tone of this seemed a little wrong at first.
A week after displaying passion and defiance in the face of The Bloodline, Jey went back to feeling conflicted and unsure of whether what he was doing was the right thing. The distinction? Reigns was present this week but not last Friday night. The former right-hand man is unsure whether challenging the Head of the Table is the best course of action, not only for himself but for the family, although realising it is the right choice and having before physically engaged Reigns.
This is because their relationship still has a controlling element. Reigns, who is obviously becoming increasingly worried regarding the enforcer’s hair trigger and clear ambition to be the Tribal Chief himself, then intervened when Solo Sikoa attempted to lay Uso out to end the match. Even though this drama still has many unfinished pages, SummerSlam is shaping up to be a memorable evening as a result of what is anticipated to be among the greatest emotionally charged matchups of the year.
The promo sequence that formally announced Uso vs. Reigns at SummerSlam may have been the highlight of Friday’s SmackDown broadcast, but it was distinguished by compelling in-ring action. The four-way bout that opened the programme was great fun, and the Flair-Sky match that followed showed off their synergy. Escobar and Theory then followed with a cute little banger of their own.
Longer than usual battles with more complex plots are always appreciated, and this one had many of them. With the addition of Tribal Combat’s remarkable announcement, the show succeeded in achieving its objective by concentrating on expanding to one of the year’s largest premium live events.
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