WWE SmackDown 7/12/2024: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE SmackDown," the show that sells you on SummerSlam by showing you just how boring it can be! Okay, that might be a little harsh, but the WINC staff kind of yawned through a lot of this one, which was far from the most exciting episode in the world. So if you scroll down and notice that we have nothing to say about the LA Knight promo segment or Legado del Fantasma vs. Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin, just assume we were asleep during those parts. The truth, of course, is that we can only cover so many things here in this column, which is why it's always a good idea to check out our "SmackDown" results page for all your "SmackDown" results needs.

What we are here to do is analyze the wrestling show we just saw and give you our opinions on it, including the women's division heating up ahead of SummerSlam, the New Bloodline destroying more people in the main event segment, and most importantly, the absolutely endless Money in the Bank recaps. Here are three things we hated and three thing we loved about the 7/12/24 episode of "WWE SmackDown."

"SmackDown" opened with Tiffany Stratton celebrating her big win at Money in the Bank. She was immediately confronted by Bayley, and Nia Jax got involved and talked trash. Jax and Stratton teamed up to take out Bayley, who was saved by Michin. This led into Michin vs. Jax. After Jax won, she was attacked by Bayley; Stratton saved Jax and came very close to cashing in her new briefcase until Jax stopped her.

In other words, in the first portion of the show, we got two storylines involving three women. A fourth woman was included in the opening match. In the next match, Elektra Lopez got involved in setting up a win for Legada del Fantasma. Throughout the night, fans were treated to backstage segments featuring Chelsea Green and Piper Niven — Green was sporting a bedazzled purple neck brace after Stratton pushed her off a ladder into two tables at Money in the Bank; Niven was spotted reading a book called "How to Join A Cult".

Besides getting time in the ring, there was storyline movement for multiple women. There are two stories that intertwine with the women's title, while also including the briefcase. We got humor and character development with Green and Niven. It's always great when women get TV time, but even better when it's in meaningful ways and doesn't feel like a task on a checklist.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Friday night saw Ms. Money in the Bank accompany the Queen of the Ring and the number one contender for the WWE Women's Championship, and when it was all said and done, Tiffany Stratton and Nia Jax were the walking symbols of WWE's recent uptick in complex stories and long-term narrative investments.

When Stratton backed away from Jax post-Bayley beatdown to tease a Money in the Bank cash-in, I was twitching to write an opinion piece on what I expected to be a potentially career-ending move for Stratton. When Jax angrily intercepted Stratton before she could cash in her Money in the Bank contract and Stratton, sufficiently afraid, backed away and offered a nervous olive branch to "The Irresistible Force," I rejoiced in the narrative seeds that were being planted before my very eyes.

With this segment, WWE showed their interest in complexifying their women's division, on multiple fronts. To pair Ms. Money in the Bank (the woman who can have a championship match at any time she wishes) with the Queen of the Ring (the woman who has a guaranteed title opportunity with Bayley at SummerSlam) was an incredible choice that we should've caught onto sooner. We're watching the parallel tracks of these women slowly tilt towards each other, we are enticed to watch this seemingly shallow alliance become increasingly more complicated. Their interests are adjacent for now, but there is conflict imminent on the horizon. They are on the same team now, but Jax looks at Stratton with doubt, and Stratton can only reassure her teammate with a nervous smile. We are watching a feud blossom that is a championship feud, but is simultaneously outside of it — liminal. It is so interesting to see a championship feud become embroiled in blood-feud beginnings over just the prospect of it. It builds anticipation and shirks off the need for the title at the same time. The storytelling environment is complexifying. It's awesome.

There is a concern that this feud will end in a copy of last year's SummerSlam, with a brief title exchange and a cash-in. That is an understandable concern, but Stratton and Jax's story build-up is already fundamentally different from that of Asuka, Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, and IYO SKY of last year's SummerSlam picture. These are two women that are entangled with each other even outside of the championship. The WWE Women's title was only introduced into their relationship dynamic by external forces, to which they are reacting to, rather than provoking. The method may be the same as last year's SummerSlam, but the context will be wholly different, and make a potential repeat of technique worthy of our praise.

The context is different. This is a new era of booking on the horizon. The seed has been planted for more complicated and thought-provoking feuds. May the tree grow tall and prosperous.

Written by Angeline Phu

With SummerSlam 2024 around the corner, I can't help but think about SummerSlam 2023, which was notably the show that saw an obvious blow-off match between Trish Stratus and Becky Lynch left off the card. They eventually got to settle things the following month at Payback, but that was the last time a women's match made a WWE PLE card despite having nothing whatsoever to do with a championship (that was 10 months ago; for context, the last such match with male performers happened much more recently, at Backlash France two months ago).

The fact of the matter is that it's relatively rare to see two women do a wrestling feud that doesn't involve a championship — even matches like the women's Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber, and the Queen of the Ring tournament, have stakes that involve challenging for a title at a future date. That's the whole reason advocates for women's wrestling representation are always looking for more women's titles; more titles give women something to fight over and a reason to get TV time, which they need because they don't usually get to have feuds based entirely on personal issues or storylines. All of this is to say that when Naomi beat Blair Davenport clean Friday night, I was a little disappointed. Not because I don't like Naomi, Naomi is great. But I was hoping this would turn into an actual program between the two despite neither holding a title, and the heel winning the first match is typically a sign that's happening, whereas the babyface winning the first match tends to end a story before it starts, since the heroine has already achieved victory.

Fortunately, in this case, my fears were unfounded. Later in the show, Davenport approached Naomi and humbly shook her hand, saying "the better woman won." When Naomi turned her back to Davenport, however, Davenport attacked, indicating the story will, in fact, continue. Will Naomi and Davenport end up settling things in a PLE match? I don't know, probably not. But it's just nice to see another one of these storylines for women, with no championship necessary. It's also nice to see Naomi breaking away somewhat from Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill — much as I enjoy them as a group, Naomi tends to be somewhat overshadowed by the two towering powerhouses by her side, and I'm glad she's getting the chance to do her own thing.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Here's the thing: I don't mind a quick video recapping what happened at any given Premium Live Event at the top of whatever WWE show it is. In fact, it's kind of nice to have a brief and quick refresher about the ongoings of a show and for people who may not have watched the show to get a short rundown of what happened in order to better contextualize whatever inevitable fallout is about to take place. However, there comes a point where it gets to be annoying more than it is helpful, and that was the case for the Money In The Bank recap videos sprinkled throughout the show for what pertained to the "SmackDown" brand.

Between the various five-ish-minute Money In The Bank recap videos of the Women's Money In The Bank Ladder Match, the six-man-tag main event, and almost the entirety of John Cena's retirement announcement, it almost felt like they were interrupting the flow of the show with where they were being placed on the show (especially when they played after a commercial break and Blair Davenport had been waiting in the ring for a while to face Naomi).

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Last Friday, DIY won the SmackDown tag titles from A-Town Down Under. Naturally, that means that Grayson Waller and Austin Theory were granted an immediate rematch (why is this still a thing, especially when the winners got a clean victory?) this week. In a solid rematch, Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano retained their titles. Moments later, they were decimated by Jacob Fatu. Sure, Ciampa got in a few shots, but a superkick did him in after Gargano was already out (Theory also got taken out before the champs did because Waller saw "The Samoan Werewolf" coming and left his tag team partner in the line of a fire, something he has frequently done).

Taking out brand new champions right after they retained their titles makes them look like dumb babyfaces. We know Fatu is a killer and doesn't care who is in his way, including champions (see Rhodes, Cody in the following segment). Gargano and Ciampa are beloved by many fans, especially those of us that watched "NXT" during the Black & Gold era. However, their main roster run hasn't been easy. Once they finally teamed up, it was slow going. It took a while for the fans to warm up to them. Although they were champions in "NXT," it's their first title run on the main roster. We're seven days in. Now is not the time to subject them to a beatdown and make the champs look like chumps. Especially if you're trying to attract a certain tag team to sign with your company.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Unlike Samantha, I thought Jacob Fatu murdering DIY was kinda dope (probably because I've just given up on the prospect of WWE ever truly respecting tag team wrestling), but much the same way I felt after Money in the Bank, I'm just really still struggling to get behind the idea that Solo Sikoa is getting a world title match at SummerSlam. As of this week though, I can't ignore the rumors and the reports any longer, because they made the match official and then the Bloodline beat up Cody again.

I just really don't understand the timing here. I have nothing against Solo, I think he's been fine in the role he's been given, but you can't just paper over the fact that Solo has never even challenged for a main roster singles title of any kind — he only has one main roster title challenge under his belt, period, when he teamed with Roman Reigns to try and take the tag titles at Night of Champions 2023, more than a year ago. And are we supposed to just forget that Solo didn't win a match of any kind — singles or tag, broadcast or house show — from November 2023 to May 2024? The dude beat the hell out of John Cena, then didn't win for six months, then basically won some tag matches and started telling people to acknowledge him. He's nowhere near Cody's level and there's a zero percent chance he's winning the title, and this is the proposed SummerSlam main event. It's honestly ludicrous.

And yeah, I know they're only doing this because Roman is coming back, and Randy Orton will seemingly be involved somehow, but that really just makes things worse. I think everyone would be more interested in Solo vs. Reigns than Solo vs. Cody (especially because Reigns does his best work alongside his family) and most of us are just waiting patiently for Orton to RKO Rhodes at some point and kick off that inevitable feud. Both those matches scream "SummerSlam" to me in a way that Rhodes vs. Sikoa doesn't even approach, and it's bizarre to watch WWE set up a clearly inferior match in the shadow of two better options.

Written by Miles Schneiderman