Smackdown Review – 08.07.26

By Niz on 8 August 2026

Smackdown comes to the USA/Netflix airvwaves from The XFinity Center in Philadelphia, PA. (Go Phils!). The announcing team for tonight’s show consists of Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett on play-by-play and analysis, Mark Nash on ring introductions, and Cathy Kelley on news and interviews. Smackdown got a major facelift at Summerslam and it is time for the fallout, so let’s watch some wrestling!

Then, Now, Forever….TOGETHER

Arrivals: Trick Williams and newly-crowned WWE Men’s US Champion Baron Corbin, who will face each other in a rematch of Summerslam TONIGHT. (Maybe, and hear me out here, you might have advertised this ahead of time? Corbin still has Trick’s custom made fluffy belt and well…) Here’s Charlotte Flair and separately, Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab.

Tessitore says the first thirty minutes are COMMERCIAL FREE, so lock in, you sonsabitches.

Here’s Cody Raheem Rhodes out to “Kingdom” and looking kind of Friday afternoon lawyer-ish. Rhodes immediately yells for Randy Orton and orders him to come out RIGHT NOW. Just to show it’s BUSINESS TIME, Rhodes removes his tie. While we wait, Rhodes acknowledges Philly as his “surrogate home town” and gets the “Cody, Cody Rhodes” cheer. Rhodes takes time to recognize Dory Funk Jr. before moving on to the list of guys who decided that him finishing his story was a problem for them. Rhodes wants to assume that CM Punk was unaware of Orton’s nefarious Summerslam plans, and “Cult of Personality” fires right up. Here’s WWE Men’s Undisputed Champion CM Punk out in some brand new Dungarees and Jordans. (He must have went and got some back to school stuff!) Rhodes asks Punk if he knew about Orton and Punk shakes his head while saying it hurts that he’s being asked but no, he had no idea. Punk says if they want to “two man power-trip this place” they can go to the back and beat Orton’s ass together. Rhodes declines that offer and says yes, they have unfinished business but he’ll deal with beating Orton’s ass on his own. Rhodes leaves Punk in the ring and as he’s leaving Punk says all Rhodes has to do regarding the unfinished business is “say when”.

Here’s Kevin Owens out as Rhodes is mid-aisle. Owens steps to Rhodes who hands him a microphone before exiting as Owens stalks to the ring without a look back. Owens also looks to have gone sneaker-shopping. There’s some off-mic words exchanged and Punk lifts a finger to make a point as here’s Smackdown GM Nick Aldis on the apron. Punk mentions Owens being the new number one contender and that he’s “wearing his gear”, so Owens helpfully points out that he wrestles in shorts, not pants. Owens says wrestling is all he wanted to do for the last 17 months. Owens says it was a time of uncertainty, but he’s been proving people wrong every day and here he is. There’s a mixed “welcome back/you deserve it” chant and Owens says that Punk is proving him right because people have been telling him “Phil’s changed, he’s a new guy” but Owens never bought it. Owens thinks it’s funny that Punk said “say when” to Cody when he has to deal with Owens, who Punk thinks he’s better than. Owens says Punk thinks he’s better than everyone and that proves to Owens that Punk is the same arrogant sociopath he’s always known. Punk slides right up to Owens face and says a lot of people love his arrogance because they chant his name. Punk says he knows people don’t like that he calls himself the best in the world but the title he’s holding proves it. Punk says if anyone has benefitted from what he’s done it’s Owens and his ilk, and he was called “skinny-fat” while a prospect. Owens tells “Phil” it’s been ten years and he’s wanted to win this title, but now he also gets to beat Punk’s ass and humble him. Punk says it’s good to have big dreams and he can see that Owens is scared because without him Owens would be working a “nine-to-fiver that you’d hate”. Punk says Owens would be a weekend warrior on the indies and calling Punk for tickets to a WWE show for him and his kid. Punk says he knows he’s the best in the world and look at Owens. Owens says he should be grateful and thankful because he sees how not to act by watching Punk’s inflated ego. Owens says Punk must be so lonely on his self-created pedestal, and thanks Punk for not letting the business turn him into a miserable piece of shit like Punk. There’s some verbals, and Owens shoves Punk as a group of officials and Aldis separate them. Owens tells Nick to let him go and asks Punk what he’s going to do to his neck. Punk decides to leave as Living Colour plays once more.

I guess I’m kind of over the whole “everyone in the locker room low-key hates Punk as a human” stories. It’s the same thing now with Drew, Rollins, Zayn, Cody (sort of), and now Owens. Like, it’s been mentioned that Owens (and Zayn) don’t get along with Punk in real life, they aren’t boys or whatever, and so them getting programmed together will be a test of everyone’s professionalism, but like, this story aspect is just PLAYED OUT.

Here’s Cathy Kelley with Charlotte Flair. Flair is asked about Jade Cargill and tells her it’s actually been since Cargill arrived that they’ve been circling each other. Flair is fighting for Lexi tonight and promises to kick Cargill’s ass tonight, and says if she’s half the woman she says she is, Cargill will come out alone.

Here’s Trick Williams yelling about Baron Corbin cheating to take his title and here’s what we’re going to do about it. Trick says he’s going to beat Corbin down tonight for Yachty, and the culture.

WWE Men’s US Championship: Baron Corbin (C) vs Trick Williams

Corbin emerges on a motorcycle because he’s awesome. Trick charges at the bell and smacks Corbin with a flying lariat. Corbin bails and Trick goes out after him. Corbin gets run into a ring post and then over the timekeeper’s barricade. Trick leaps over the barricade and splashes Corbin before jumping up for some cheers. We go to a break.

Corbin clobbers Trick down with a lariat when the show returns. Corbin barks at the WWE UNIVERSE and continues pounding on Trick. Trick fires up with a couple of leg lariats and a facebuster. Trick nips up and clobbers Corbin with a slap before putting the boots to him. Trick hoists Corbin up and drops him with a sit-out Michinoku Driver that gets two. Trick wants the Bookend but Corbin elbows out of it. Trick drops Corbin with the Trick Kick and runs right into a Corbin Deep Six that gets two. They slug it out from their knees before rising. Trick fires off a jumping neckbreaker and then sends Corbin to the floor with a lariat. Corbin pushes Trick into the ring post and smashes him with some rights. Corbin grabs the FLUFFY BELT and the ref takes it from him as Corbin then walks into a Bookend that gets two. Trick fires up and clobbers Corbin with the Trick Shot, but Corbin grabs the ropes just before the ref counts three. Corbin tumbles out and has the belt again. As Trick blows past the ref, Corbin clobbers him with the title. The ref turns as Corbin crawls back in and covers Trick for three.

For what I’d call a sprint, this was pretty decent. Corbin gave Trick some shine here as he should, and then cheated to win like a heel is supposed to. Corbin never misses his marks and while I wouldn’t call him flashy, a meat-and-potatoes old school heel is fine to hold this title for a bit. No major complaints here. 3*

Winner AND STILL WWE Men’s US Champion – Baron Corbin (belt shot behind the ref’s back)

Here’s Nick Aldis with Sami Zayn who congratulates Aldis on his efforts in the match with GUNTHER at Summerslam. Zayn is super grumpy about Aldis adding GUNTHER and Kevin Owens into his number one contender’s match. Here’s Kevin Owens coming in and mentioning to Aldis that he wants his title match with Punk in Toronto on August 21st as an apoplectic Zayn looks on. Aldis leaves as Zayn says welcome back to Owens, who says it doesn’t feel sincere. Zayn says he’s happy for Owens but he has to understand that his return 100% screwed Zayn and came at his expense. Owens says that his return did mess things up for Zayn, and Zayn wants Owens to say he’s sorry. Owens mentions that if Aldis offered the same opportunity Zayn would have taken it in a heartbeat. Zayn says he’d rather see anyone but Punk as champion and will be there for Owens, but Owens says he can handle things. Zayn reminds Owens that just because he’s going after what he wants it won’t stop Zayn from pursuing what he’s owed. Zayn leaves and Owens laments that he’s only been back six days and everyone’s mad at him already. We go to a break. (We’re 45 minutes into this show and have had about six minutes of televised wrestling, for the record. I LOVE YAPDOWN.)

Here’s Cathy Kelley with Baron Corbin and she calls his victories over Trick Williams “upsets” which Corbin definitely does not appreciate. Corbin says he’s been back for a cup of coffee and already has a title, so he hopes everyone who doubted him feels stupid. Corbin says Trick will never EVER hold this title again and calls out the locker room. Here’s Carmelo Hayes to wreck Corbin and mention that he’s gotten a title match next week in Boston approved by Nick Aldis.

Tessitore and Barrett throw to highlights of the Women’s Interim Championship ladder match at Summerslam. Chelsea Green won the match and back in the arena, Mark Nash introduces the new champion. Here’s WWE Women’s Interim Champion Chelsea Green out in gear to a huge pop. There are a LOT of Green fans in the crowd and she is very appreciative and says they played a huge part in her winning the title. Green also thanks herself for being the reason everyone is at the show. Lastly she wants to thank her very good friend WWE Women’s US Champion Tiffany Stratton who emerges also wearing gear. Green says she’s sorry for what happened on Sunday but she knows that their friendship is stronger than that. Green wants to make a toast to strong female friendships, and Stratton mentions she wanted to talk about that.

Here’s Fatal Influence out as Jacy Jayne gripes about Stratton costing her a shot at being in the ladder match and becoming champion. Lainey Reid and Fallon Henley put the bad-mouth on Green and I sense that we’re about to have a tag match. Jayne says that Stratton and Green have left her no choice and she’s going to take the US title from Stratton. Stratton says she’ll give Jayne a title match for next week if Green and Stratton can challenge for the tag titles right now. Jayne accepts after a quick chat with Henley and Reid, and here’s a referee. We go to commercials.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Fatal Influence (Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid) vs WWE Women’s Interim Champion Chelsea Green and WWE Women’s US Champion Tiffany Stratton

The bell rings as we come back live and it’s Henley and Reid to start. Reid mocks Green’s salute after dropping her with a right. Green ducks a Reid clothesline and bails to the floor. Reid gives chase and Green escapes back into the ring. Green misses an elbow drop but Reid then misses a rope-assisted backdrop attempt. Green smashes Reid down and covers her for one. Green runs Reid into the team corner and Stratton tags in. Stratton misses a dropkick and runs into a Reid lungblower, but Stratton no-sells it and smashes Reid with a shotgun dropkick. Henley tags in and Stratton hits her with an armdrag. Stratton tries another one but Henley prevents it and rams Stratton into a corner. Henley fires off some forearms and crushes Stratton with a Side Effect. Stratton recovers instantly and nails Henley with a rolling cutter. Reid charges past Stratton into a Green right hand and both her and Henley are now draped over the second rope. Green and Stratton hit running Meteoras and then tope suicidas as we go to break.

Green plants Reid with a German when the show returns. Green crawls over and tags in Stratton who mashes Reid down a few times before blasting Reid with an elbow. Stratton knocks Henley off the apron and yanks Reid for an Alabama Slam. Stratton ascends and crushes Reid with a swanton, but before she can cover Henley blasts her with a right. Stratton staggers into a tag and a reluctant Green yanks down the top rope to send a charging Henley flying. Green tries to pull Reid into Unpretty-her but Reid pushes out of it and goes to the apron. Reid hits a kaman giri and ascends. Green fires up and dumps Reid down before Henley charges in to eat a Green cutter. Green yanks Reid into Unpretty-her but Jayne attacks Stratton outside the ring. Jayne wants the Rolling Encore and Stratton ducks it as Jayne clobbers Green instead. Stratton rams Jayne into the barricade but back in the ring Henley charges in and smashes Stratton down with a baseball slide dropkick. Henley and Reid yank Green up for the Fatal Flaw and that ends things.

I guess I’m surprised they pinned Green on her first television show as champion and didn’t run a DQ, but here we are. Jayne gets her match with Stratton for next week and I’ll be interested to see how that goes given what’s happened here. The work was decent overall, I thought, with Green being part of a long heat sequence that went throughout the break. The match was fine, I didn’t love the booking. 2.75*

Winners AND STILL WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions – Henley/Reid (Fatal Flaw on Green)

Post-match sees Jayne and her crew cackling in the aisle. Back in the ring, Stratton tries to attend to Green and here’s Lash Legend and Nia Jax in to attack. Legend dumps Stratton to the floor and Jax wants the title belt. Jax grabs the title belt and stands over top of the fallen Green for some gyrating.

Here’s Cathy Kelley with WWE Men’s Tag Team Champion Damian Priest. Priest says it’s the same thing over and over as he and Truth beat the MFT’s to win the titles and then beat them again, but now they have Haku and all of a sudden things are different? Priest says he’s got Ron Killings and things are not going to change. Here’s The War Raiders in to say that they’re still coming for Truth and Priest’s titles but they have business with the MFT’s first. Here’s WWE Men’s Tag Team Champion R-Truth in to yell at the Raiders while saying he and Priest aren’t scared of any “luchadores”. Truth says they’ll defend their titles next week against The Raiders AND the MFT’s. We go to commercials.

Here’s a look at the now-retired Brock Lesnar’s career and it’s the same one that played on Raw and NXT after Lesnar announced he was done on Pat McAfee’s show this past Monday.

Here’s “Voices” bringing out Randall Keith Orton who checks his six before strolling slowly to the ring. Orton doesn’t get a word out before Cody Rhodes immediately comes out and starts walking with purpose towards the ring. Orton adopts a fighting stance before ducking out to the floor. Rhodes wants to know what Orton is waiting on and orders him back in. Orton thinks better of it after approaching the ring and here’s Nick Aldis and his goon squad. Rhodes says he knows Orton doesn’t answer to anyone but Orton owes Rhodes an explanation. Orton says Rhodes is crazy and Orton doesn’t owe him jack. Orton reminds Rhodes he asked for the Viper and calls Rhodes a cocky, arrogant sonofabitch. Orton says he gave Rhodes his best at Wrestlemania and Orton lost but in that moment something snapped inside him. The voices told him to punt Rhodes as hard as he could and in that moment he realized that the best version of him wasn’t going to bring home number fifteen, but the worst version of him will do that. Orton says he doesn’t care if it’s Owens or Punk who he beats, but he’s making it his mission to make sure that Rhodes is never WWE champion again. Rhodes says he isn’t held back by being the champion anymore and doesn’t have to be a good guy. Rhodes says Orton calls himself the legend killer but he better look around because he’s the last legend. Rhodes wants to know who kills Orton.

Okay, I guess we’re going back to this well again, and I’m sure the matches will be perfectly fine, but I’m struggling to care. I’m glad the title isn’t wrapped into this anymore because now they can just be booked how they should be. I’m going to need more to get invested in this again, because the way the last thing ended was kind of a joke and I really stopped caring when Orton disappeared to tend to whatever injuries he had.

Here’s Sami Zayn ranting to his good pal Sad John Wrestling and a bored-looking Candice LeRae. Zayn admits to being jealous of Kevin Owens but it’s more about Owens being able to tell CM Punk what a fraud he is to his face. LeRae motions for Zayn to look around and of course here’s CM Punk listening in to Zayn’s rant. Punk asks LeRae if they’re still doing this, and actually means Zayn crying about Punk behind his back. Zayn says he has no problem telling Punk to his face that he’s a fraud. Zayn has a broken bone in his hand and would bust Punk up if he could. Punk says Zayn lost in Chicago and Zayn is in the back of the line. Punk says he’d give title shots to Gargano or LeRae before he’d give Zayn another one and makes his exit. Zayn screams at Gargano for not stepping up and LeRae tells Zayn to calm down. Zayn leaves.

Here’s Jade Cargill with her crew as Cathy Kelley joins them. B-Fab tells Kelley that they don’t care what Charlotte Flair has to say and Michin says Flair is jealous of Cargill. Cargill says it’s business as usual and she’s putting an end to this disrespect by WHOOPING THAT ASS. We go to commercials.

Here’s a pre-tape with Nikki Bella who says she tried to be supportive of her sister after being hurt at Wrestlemania. Nikki says she was the one who revitalized Paige’s career while she was struggling to get back. Nikki says she snapped after Paige let them down at Summerslam and saw her sister get hurt. Nikki vows that the remainder of Paige’s career will be pure misery.

Tessitore and Barrett run down next week’s show that will have THREE huge title matches. Here’s Shinsuke Nakamura to talk about the MFT’s and mentions that they need to remember who he is. Nakamura says he’s back and this time he will not be alone. Nakamura says he’s bringing someone who is a warrior like him. (Cue the Hiromu and NARAKU speculation, I guess.)

Charlotte Flair vs Jade Cargill

There’s a staredown to start and they lock up before tumbling out to the floor. Cargill rams Flair into the apron and then returns her before trucking Flair down. Flair nips up behind a posing Cargill and clips Cargill’s knee. Flair trucks Cargill down and snap-mares her over. Flair pulls Cargill into the rolling Queen’s Decree and they go to the floor. Cargill smashes Flair into the announce desk and then runs her over the barricade. Cargill poses as we go to a break.

Cargill plants Flair with a spinebuster that gets two when the show returns. Cargill yanks Flair up but misses a charge. Flair dumps Cargill with a German and we reset with both women down. Flair boots Cargill and a hockey fight breaks out. Flair hits some chops and lariats Cargill down. Cargill boots Flair down during a walkover and covers her for two. Flair rolls to a corner and struggles to her feet. Cargill dumps Flair to the apron where she eats a Flair kaman giri. Flair ascends for a cross-body and Cargill rolls through for two. Cargill hits a jackknife for two but Flair bridges up and out of it. Cargill drives a knee and then nails Flair with a superkick. Cargill hoists Flair up for a Blue Thunder Bomb that gets two. Cargill ascends and Flair springs up. Cargill hoists Flair up for an avalanche power bomb that gets two. Cargill barks at Flair and grabs her by the jaw before some slaps are exchanged. Flair hits a pump kick and goes into the Figure Eight. Here’s B-Fab and Michin out to break things up, but here’s Alexa Bliss out in an armbrace and toting her good friend Lilly. The lights go out and when they come back up here’s Tatum Paxley on top of a ring post leaping on to B-Fab and Michin. Back in the ring, Cargill wants Jaded but Flair slips out of it and mashes Cargill with SISTER ABIGAIL. Flair ascends for Natural Selection and that ends things.

It got kind of sloppy in the second act but we got to where we needed to be here. I think the overbooking kind of saved this match rating because things were kind of flawed after the break but got way more interesting with Paxley’s arrival. If you don’t know Tatum Paxley, she’s been in NXT for a few years now and is kind of a spoopy goth kid who’s really just been looking for a good friend – she’s tried a number of different folks and never really found what she’s looking for – she’s also really solid in the ring, and you’ll like her. Teaming her with Bliss makes sense and I’m sure there will be many comedic moments with Charlotte here as well. This wasn’t one of Jade’s better efforts but I’m going to be kind here. 3*

Winner – Charlotte Flair (Natural Selection)

Post-match sees the faces all celebrate mid-ring while the grumpy heels retreat up the aisle. The credits roll and we’re out.

Three matches in two hours! That’s a lot of talking in between, friends. Now, as a “show after a big show” a lot of things happened, and there’s already three big title matches booked for next week which is a MAJOR improvement over “so and so is going to confront so and so face to face!” that we’ve been getting so much of lately. I’m not feeling Punk and Owens yet, so hopefully that gets there by the Toronto show, and I’m going to need some more from Orton and Rhodes too. I didn’t love the decision to pin Chelsea Green in her first match after winning the title but I suspect that’s part 1 of a longer story we’re going to tell here. Overall, I’m fine with tonight from an overall perspective and the nits worth picking won’t matter all that much by Monday night anyway.

Enjoy your weekends.