WWE Smackdown Review – 7/28/22

Hey everyone, I’m back again with another review of Smackdown. Sorry for missing last week’s episode as I was on vacation, but everything should be back to regular scheduling. With the build to Summerslam happening, it’s made for some intriguing television over the past few weeks. WWE is hotter than it’s been in quite some years. The Roman Reigns saga is on fire and hopefully, Summerslam will continue their streak of good PLEs.

Roman Reigns Opens the Show

Roman Reigns kicked off this edition of Smackdown with an in-ring promo. The tribal chief continued his manipulation of Jey Uso claiming Jey only became his right-hand man because his brother, Jimmy, was injured. I thought this was an excellent example of just how low Roman will stoop to get into his cousin’s head as just the other week he said Jimmy was next in line to become tribal chief. Roman is so dialed into his character right now and he continues to prove why he is the top star in the WWE.

Jey Uso interrupted this segment and played some mind games of his own, reminding Roman that he’s the only man to pin Roman in the past few years. It was nice to finally see Jey give his cousin a taste of his own medicine for once. The only negative of this segment is that it didn’t add anything new to the storyline. Overall, this was an engaging and good segment of television.

Grade: 90%

United States Championship Invitational Final: Rey Mysterio vs. Santos Escobar

This was probably my most anticipated match of the night going into the show as I quite enjoy the lucha libre style when done well. These two guys easily could have gone out there and had the match of the night, but that was unfortunately not the case.

Mysterio apparently suffered an injury mid-match and it had to be cut short by the referee. Santos picked up the victory but was visibly disappointed in the outcome. I have a feeling this was meant to be a landmark moment early in Escobar’s main roster run so it sucks to see it turn out this way. Hopefully, the Escobar vs. Theory match will give them a chance to showcase their in-ring talent.

Grade: 70%

LA Knight vs. Ashante Thee Adonis

LA Knight continues to prove he is a charismatic powerhouse when he interrupts Hit Row (thank god). This was a quick match and Knight got the W. It’s clear WWE wants to keep Knight on the show, but I am starting to wish he had something more substantial. I’m not asking for him to be the next Roman Reigns, but this seems very limiting for how talented he is. This is fine for a filler feud, but his popularity warrants something much bigger for him to do.

Grade: 80%

Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair vs. Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville

Great, another “Can they Co-exist” match! I’ll try to put my sarcasm to the side now that I’ve gotten that one out of the way. I do have several problems with this with the first being the tag team champions being defeated. Champions should rarely be defeated, especially in a random t.v. match. It made perfect sense for the champions to come out on top because of the dissension between Belair and Flair. Why book an angle in which they clearly do not get along