This week’s SmackDown was the final go home episode before SummerSlam. Recently none of the go home shows had been really impressive Before any pay per view events. But this is the first go home SmackDown after the takeover of Triple H so fans were expecting something better.
Match 1 – Donnybrook Match to determine the No. 1 contender for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship – Drew McIntyre defeated Sheamus
WWE Smackdown 29.07.2022 Results & Ratings
What an amazing match it was for Smackdown! We could not believe they delivered such a match on free television. It was of course a pay per view standard match with both wrestlers being on top of their games. There were a lot of things that made this match really special.
This match has been extremely physical. There were weapons, and the thing that made this match a classic is unpredictable near falls. Even though winner of the match was predictable. It had to Drew because it is quite obvious that we cannot have a match between Roman Reigns and Sheamus at this point.
Butch and Ridge Holland interfered individually to help Sheamus, but Drew managed to get rid of these two guys. At the end, Drew pinned famous with the Claymore. After the match, Theory came out and attacked Drew McIntyre. This attack was the backlash of the incident from Monday Night RAW last week.
Happy Corbin what a ticket to sit among the crowd and he said just behind Pat McAfee with a placard in hand containing a photo of Pat and indicating he was a loser. It was a cool way to boost their SummerSlam storyline on the go home show. Ultimately they broke into a fight as officials came out to stop them. As Corbin was behind Pat, he hit a low blow.
Match 2 – Shotzi defeated Aliyah
Aliyah was supposed to face Lacey Evans but she was not medically cleared so Shotzi replaced her. The match was short, it was booked for three and a half minutes. It was a little shocking to see Shotzi picking up a clean win after the botches she made at Money in the Bank. But good to see WWE did not give up hope on her. She pinned Aliyah with Leg Lock DDT.
Backstage Liv Morgan, Ronda Rousey and Natalya were getting interview together where Natalya still claimed that Liv should be thanking her because she won the title because of her. Sonya Deville appeared and said that it was a cowardly act that Ronda attacked her last week after her match.
Meanwhile, Shotzi was still in the ring who was celebrating her victory over Aliyah by laughing loud on the mic. Ronda Rousey came out and attacked her. She drove her out of the ring. After that she said that she could not wait till SummerSlam and she wanted to have her title batch tonight.
Match 3 – Liv Morgan and Ronda Rousey defeated Sonya Deville and Natalya This tag team match was booked for around nine minutes and it was a good match. The lack of chemistry between Liv and Ronda was quite well booked as Liv was refusing to tag in Ronda. But at the end Ronda got tagged in and she completely destroyed their opponents. She made Sonya submit with Cross Armbar.
Next up is a segment for the WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship match that will take place at SummerSlam. The special guest referee of the match Jeff Jarrett was also involved in this segment. When the two teams talked, it sounded more like a rap battle and it was fun. At the end, the segment turned violent and somehow Jey Uso accidentally attacked Jeff Jarrett. The whole point of the segment was to present The Street Profits as the favorites for Saturday.
Backstage Max Dupri and Maxxine Dupri presented the SummerSlam beach wear collection with their clients Ma.Ce and Man.Soor. We wonder when will these guys be involved in some action.
Match 4 – The Viking Raiders defeated The New Day
This match was booked for six minutes and it was a good match. It was mostly dominated by the Viking Raiders and at the end of the match they teamed up on Kofi Kingston and hit a double teamed Powerbomb as Ivar pinned him to snatch the victory for his side. After the match, Viking Raiders beat down Xavier Woods on Smackdown.
Paul Heyman came out to the arena to address the Undisputed World championship match at SummerSlam. As he was talking about it, Brock Lesnar appeared. Theory attempted to attack Brock Lesnar from behind but got beaten down himself.
Drew McIntyre also came out and beat down. Lesnar and Drew looked at each other as they tried to make the SummerSlam match a little unpredictable. Brock Lesnar and Drew McIntyre looked at each other as this week’s SmackDown went of air.
Overall it was an average show with the first match of the night being extraordinary. Apart from that the rest of the night was not very bad either.But there should have been at least one face of between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. There was no reason for WWE to give Roman night off on the go home show. We give this week’s Smackdown 2 stars out of 5.
Sportzwiki Ratings – 2/5