WWE Smackdown 7/24/2026

WWE Smackdown 7/24/2026

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2026/07/wwe-smackdown-7172026.html

We are in Oakland, CA. Wade Barrett and Joe Tessitore are on commentary. 

Nick Aldis and Adam Pearce are in the ring. Adam says he's here to make the Aldis/Gunther match official at Summerslam. Adam brings Gunther out. 

Adam tells Nick that he can't compete as a WWE superstar as a GM. He says the second he puts his name on the contract, he loses his GM abilities. Adam says he will then take those responsibilities. He says Nick has to agree that WWE bears no responsibilities as to what happens to him vs Gunther. Nick says he knows what he's signing and says he never wanted any of this. Nick says every man has his breaking point and Gunther found his. Nick then signs the contract. 

Gunther says this match will be the greatest moment of Nick's career. Gun says all of this is beneath him and says he's only sitting here and Nick doesn't know how to do his job. He says Nick is jealous of him. He says Nick is a former NWA champ but he never really made it. Gun says Nick dreamed for being a WWE superstar and it never happened. Gun says he walked through the door and had it all.  

Gun says Nick should be honest and tell himself he's not good enough. Gun says he will fulfill's Nick's dream and turn him into a legend. He says he can join a list of legends like Cena, Goldberg and AJ that were stupid enough to face him. He says he will end his career before it starts.

Nick says Gun says the same things every time. Nick says Gun keeps saying it as Gun is trying to get him to believe it. Nick says when he hit him, Gun thought he didn't want any of this. Nick says Gun is in a situation he can't get out of and has put his career in jeopardy. Nick says he hasn't had a match in 3 years and has nothing to lose. He says when he beats him, Gun goes from the career killer to a man who got made a b!tch from his boss. Gun goes to grab him,. Nick hits him with the mic and they fight. Gun kicks Nick low and powerbombs him through a table. 

Sami Zayn interrupts Cathy Kelly in the back. He says he did what they said he couldn't do and won the WWE Title at NoC. He says the powers that be didn't want him as champ as he had to defend his title in days on a show he wasn't on. He says everyone is happy but him. Sami tells Adam Pearce to fix the situation. Sami says Nick deserves to be in medical as he screwed him at SNME. Adam says things didn't go his way. Sami says to make it right and make the Summerslam main event a triple threat. Adam says there's a fatal four way tonight and says the winner can face Sami to get a title shot. Sami complains about that. Adam tells him to take it or leave it. He says he'll take it, but no shenanigans.

Lainey Reid talks on the mic before her match. She says SNME was supposed to be the most important night of her career but Brie and Paige will remember it all their careers. Jacy and Fallon chime in. Jacy says she doesn't have gold because of Paige and Brie Bella. Jacy says Tiffany Stratton's US Title will be hers in time. She says Lainey will humiliate Brie Bella and put her out of misery once and for all.

Lainey Reid vs Brie Bella

LR misses a shot and Brie drops her with a forearm. Brie flying lariats LR off the steps and bangs her head off the commentary table. Brie rolls up LR for 2. Brie knees her in the face and boots her in the gut. Brie's head is banged off the buckles and the middle buckle is kicked her in face. LR bottom rope springboard cutters Brie. 

We go to break and return. Brie hits kicks on LR then running knees her for 2. Brie bulldogs LR. Brie is up top and gets kicked. LR blocks a sunset flip for 2. Brie reverse it and pins her.

Thoughts: It was short and not much of note. The heels interfered a bit and Brie ended up getting the pin.

The heels beat up the faces after. Nikki Bella comes out and spears Jacy down. Nikki TKO's Jacy. Jacy's buddies pull her out. Nikki says Jacy's crew thought they could sneak up from the minor leagues, steal from her sister and get away with it. Nikki says her, Brie and Paige will face Fatal Influence in a trios match at Summerslam.

Finn Balor is interviewed. Finn says he is thinking about Summerslam 2016 when he had the best and worst night of his career. He says it's 2026 and he's trying to scratch his way back to glory. Gunther walks in. He says he's next in line and will take what's his no matter who is in line.  

They talk about WWE Radio, which will have radio version of live events.

Royce Keys is in the back. Solo Sikoa comes in and says he knows he's locked up. Solo talks about them as a team and talks about what he has going on at Summerslam. Keys says not to worry about Bloodline and says he can be #1 contender tonight. LA Knight comes in and says you always gotta worry about Bloodline. Hells him to keep his eyes in the back of the head. Keys says he will take everything he wants. Solo says they are on the same team. Solo hypes up himself and the other two and says he's got Keys' back tonight. LA is confused and tells Keys to handle business. 

Tiffany Stratton and Chelsea Green talk. Green wants them to go to Summerslam together and says maybe she wins the title this time. Tiff says she wants to be Tiffy 2 Titles. Blake Monroe comes in. She says she likes Tiff and says to worry less about Chelsea and more about her US Title. She says the higher Tiffy climbs, the more people look up at what she has. 

Ladder Match Qualifier - Chelsea Green vs Kiana James

KJ knees her in the gut. KJ goes over her and gets slapped. Green dropkicks her off the apron. Green goes for a dive and is forearmed. KJ knees her in the gut outside. Green is laid on the rail and she is superkicked. 

Green hits forearms. KJ blocks a sunset flip. Green low flatliners KJ then Japanese armdrags her twice. Green russian legsweeps her. Green flying leg lariats her. KJ superkicks her and falcon arrows her for 2. 

KJ codebreakers her. Green hits an unprettier and pins her.

Thoughts: I'm not surprised Green won but I don't like Kiana losing here. The match was average and just didn't get much time to be anything special. Green's Japanese armdrags were nice. 

R-Truth and Damian Priest talk in the back. Truth says DP is getting ready for the tag title match, right? DP says he's getting ready for the four-way. Truth says he used DP's credit card to buy hot dogs on July 4th. Cody Rhodes comes in and says maybe him and Punk come for the tag titles. Truth says they are both confused. Cody tells DP that he will face him. DP says him and the boys are tired of the same people being on top of this brand. DP says he will be #1 contender and says the champ will get dropped, whoever it is. Cody says as someone who used to be one of the boys, he likes his attitude and tells him good luck. 

Cody Rhodes comes out to talk. He brings out CM Punk. Cody has 2 mics, tries to give Punk one and drops it. He says it's an accident. Punk takes off his jacket and gets in Cody's face. Punk grabs a mic from a tech instead. They talk about paranoia and Cody says both things that happened are due to accidents. Punk says he didn't want the title to come between them but it has. 

Cody says he respect him but he doesn't like him. Cody says everyone wants Punk to be the one over him. Cody says he doesn't sweat anyone on the roster but Punk. Cody says he has to beat him for the story to have a proper ending. Punk says he casts a large shadow that Cody get out from. Punk says he watched Cody from the outside in and Cody showed him there was a way back to WWE. He says they have been chasing each other and it ends at Summerslam. He says Cody is lying to himself. He says Cody is done and needs to make himself the victim and need to make everyone else his enemy. Punk says he's Cody's only friend. He says he told him he won't stab him in the back but will stab him in the front at Summerslam. Punk says he will break his heart. 

Cody says he will bring it to Punk and says he will whip Punk @ss at Summerslam as a gift. Punk says he has a gift and it's an @ss whipping in the name of a loss. Punk says he's the best in the ring and on the mic and says no one, not even Dusty's kid can ouch him.

Punk goes to leave and Cody says he wants Punk to hear Cody's music, just as he will at Summerslam when he wins. Cody then has his music played. 

Charlotte Flair is interviewed. She says she doesn't regret her actions last week. She says she was thinking only about protecting Bliss. She says Jade will learn that she can come after her but won't come after Bliss. She says Jade will learn that payback is a ...

Ladder Match Qualifier - Nia Jax vs Charlotte Flair

Nia knees her in the gut and hits corner spears. Char boots her out of the corner and 2nd rope diving headscissors her. Char hits corner spears. Char top rope crossbodies her for 2. Nia sitout powerbombs her for 2. We go to break and return.

Char walks on Nia. Nia trips her on the ropes. Nia 2nd rope legdrops Char for 2. Char powerbombs her while she's on the buckles for 2. Char goes up top and Jade Cargille comes out with her crew. Char is distracted and Nia throws her out.

Char fights off Jade's crew outside and gets the edge on them. Char pulls Nia's throat over the top rope. Jade gets on the apron and Char forearms her. Nia misses a corner splash and Char facekicks her. Jade forearms Char down and Char wins by DQ.

Thoughts: Nia's match gets screwed up again here, this time by Jade. It was an average match. Char's offense didn't look good as she missed some shots and her offense just wasn't super impactful.

Jade hits a jade end of Charlotte after. Nia gets mad and messes up the announcers table. 

#1 Contender's Match Qualifier - Damian Priest vs Finn Balor vs Royce Keys vs Trick Williams

Keys corner splashes Finn and throws him. Keys side slams DP. Keys fallaway slams Trick. We go to PiP break and return. Keys takes a final cut from Finn. DP facekicks Finn then lifting flatliners Trick. DP flying back elbows Keys. Trick jumping neckbreakers DP then flapjacks Finn.

Trick stomps Finn in the corner. DP spin kicks Trick in the head and ear claps him. Trick backhands him. Finn pulls Trick and Keys out. Finn tope con hilos all 3 opponents outside. Solo Sikoa comes out. We go to PiP break and return.

Trick yanks Keys into a uranage for 2. Solo helps gets Keys' leg on the ropes. The Uso's come out and fight Solo. Solo gets double teamed. LA Knight comes out and beats up The Uso's with Solo. DP high kicks Trick then rope walks and dives onto everyone outside. Finn slingblades Trick then shotgun dropkicks him. Trick spinning facekicks Finn for 2. 

LA, Solo and The Uso's go to the back. DP lariats Trick and superkicks Finn. DP hits a south of heaven on Trick. DP is sent shoulder first into the post. Keys spinebusters DP and Jacob Fatu attacks Keys. Keys is sent into the steps and pose. Fatu hip attacks Keys into the rail.

Finn slingblades DP then john woo's him. Finn top rope double stomps DP and pins him. 

Thoughts: The match wasn't pushed that seriously here. We had 10 minutes left in the show or so and this had 2 breaks and then 2 different sets of run-in's. This was not a fraction of what it should have been and was a real waste of these guys. Finn kind of won by the process of elimination here as he's the only one with nothing else going on. This was nothing. 

Overall thoughts: While I prefer Smackdown at 2 hours, this is one of the downfalls of it. Everything got a lot less time than it should and both the tag division and the undercard were mostly non-existent here. Nothing impressed me all that much here and I thought it was a boring show for the most part. I'm not even sure if there was a match of the night on this one. I'd give it a 4 out of 10 as nothing was that good and the main was all about anything but the match. This was below average.