We’ve finally done it everyone. We have gone…Beyond Thunderdome. Smackdown has Busted a Deal so now it is time for us to Taste the Steel. The biggest party of the summer is coming up and let’s see how WWE prepares for the event. Are the Hors d’oeuvres cooked well or does Smackdown need a little extra time in the oven? The Summer of Cena begins tonight everyone. Let’s do this.
While we’ve been discussing every week and WWE show on The Discord, it’s been difficult for a lot of us to buckle down and write an article. With my life opening back up and Summerslam heading ever closer, I will try to complete WWE’s party planning checklist for Summerslam. As a result, I recommend Steel Ring Post readers keep an eye on the WWE category as well as the Pops and Botches category to see my thoughts.
Last Time on Smackdown: John Cena returned and learned nothing from his 17 months inside Bray’s hell dimension. Roman Reigns realized he wants nothing to do with the most obnoxious man in WWE and refused to acknowledge John Cena’s challenge. Finn Balor seemingly will be the challenger instead. Roman vs Finn as a return feud? Seems the Bullet Club founder is doing very well on the blue brand! Additionally, Corbin was shot in the dick by Shotzi’s t-shirt cannon tank thingy and Ziggler attempted to mug him for the 100 dollars KO gave him.
Botch: John Cena is the death of Joy
How do I already wish John Cena went away again?
I could leave it there but I guess our first WWE article in months deserves more elaboration. Let’s start here. Roman Reigns right now is at the peak of his career. This heel run may arguably be the best heel run in wrestling right now. Surely the best heel in WWE fighting the modern Hulk Hogan should be something special. The best writing, the best story, the best feud.
We aren’t getting that at all. It starts with my least favorite thing John Cena does nowadays. The “Worked Shoot” promo. I have a lot of issues with promos and interviews that break the fourth wall on a good day. Wrestling is not exactly a medium where a Deadpool-esque figure thrives or works. Cena meanwhile is Deadpool if Deadpool had the win/loss record of Wolverine. In this promo Cena brought up how Roman has to change constantly to earn our approval unlike a Rock or Austin type who could thrive on their shtick indefinitely. Never mind that this is Roman’s first change in 6 years, this isn’t telling us anything new about Roman’s character. Cena isn’t saying that Roman is insecure and afraid and needs to be acknowledged and will do anything to get the respect he believes he’s earned. No, Cena is saying that Roman is bad at his job as a WWE employee. He tries to say “Roman doesn’t believe in himself so the fans don’t believe in him” but there’s no proof of that. This isn’t photoshop Cena level but it’s up there.
"@WWERomanReigns is just a scared little kid." – @JohnCena #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/pfwa7xPCsw
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) July 31, 2021
It’s only worse after he calls Roman merely “a lazy stooge named Joe”. John Cena, the embodiment of the WWE corporate machine is calling anyone else a stooge and we’re supposed to cheer Cena for this. Bray Wyatt told Cena 17 months ago that he is a bully and a corporate stooge pretending to be a hero. He learned nothing. He then tantrums about how he totally would have won at Summerslam and Roman is afraid of looking bad. Roman won the last time these two wrestled. WWE may thrive on negative continuity but this stuff sticks in the minds of the fans.
After this Corbin comes down, shirt unbuttoned and hair even worse. He’s desperate and he’s begging for a little bit of cash or a role in Suicide Squad 2. Just something, anything to get by. Kevin Owens helped the man out last week and gave him money. Kevin Owens, the monster who has left a bloody trail of all his broken friendships in his wake. So what does the noble John Cena do? AA him. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.
Our true hero only makes it worse in the contract signing to end hour 1. Finn Balor has done nothing wrong to harm John Cena. Finn Balor earned a title match fair and square. Considering what we’ve seen these last few weeks, Depressed Corbin seeking the winner’s pot and the Summerslam pay bonus at the expense of Finn’s moment is a simple character beat. In contrast, the most noble greatest babyface of all time John Cena takes the contract and signs it. He didn’t speak to Finn. He didn’t ask Finn if he’s okay with it. Cena doesn’t care about anyone else but himself. This is a bad segment and a bad way to build a main event. It’s clear Cena isn’t willing to hold up his end of the bargain of this build. This is going to be a long August.
Botch: Sonya Deville really is a Heel GM
So Paul Heyman is right by the way? No Youtube of this for some reason but Heyman rightfully runs to Adam Pearce and Sonya noting how Cena can’t just sign a contract with his name not on it and get into Summerslam. Entertaining TV and all but what about the actual contracted match that Roman Reigns agreed to?
Legally there was no meeting of the minds. I could go on and on about contract formation and contract law and how WWE somehow misunderstands contract law to the extent it is distracting upon TV. I probably will one day, WWE contract signings are…fascinating misuse of the law on TV even more than the rest of the product. In short, Roman Reigns does not and should not have to face John Cena. He contractually agreed with WWE to face Finn Balor and it is up to Finn Balor to accept or refuse the challenge.
Apparently, Adam Pearce sure doesn’t care about that nor does Sonya. When even Talking Smack is asking, “so, Paul Heyman is getting a lawyer to prove that’s not how it works right”, that says how weird the segment was. Hopefully, the tease of the lawyer pays off, I want to see what Performance Center no-name has to pretend to be the lawyer. It could be Ikeman Jiro, maybe some 205 guy nobody’s ever heard of. Maybe it’ll be Rick Steiner’s kid. Actually let it be Rick Steiner’s kid, that sounds like amazing TV.
Pop: Family Feud
On the other hand, we have the Usos continuing to try and steal the show with the Mysterio Family. This is the top match I would recommend if you are going to watch any matches from this show. Rey and Jimmy clearly have great chemistry as do Dominick and Jey. I expect any combination of those four would give us a solid to great match.
Now normally I’d be botching this finish. After all the faces clearly cheated to win the match. How is that okay, the faces are the noble ones, the heels the ones who manipulate the rules. I think this is a great use of the rare in WWE karmic finish. A heel does a trick or some sort of manipulation to end up on top. Later in the feud, the faces do it back to the heels. This works because you want to see the heels eat dirt, you want them to get pie in their face when their own tricks are used against them. Talking Smack noted how this finish was the exact finish used for the Usos to win the title at Money in the Bank. I’m okay with this one dirty trick to get a moment of payback. Hopefully this can lead us to a hell of a match at Summerslam and Dominick can celebrate the one year anniversary of his debut with a great match.
????: Cirque Du SOtis.
What the hell is this?
So, Reginald is just a normal guy named Reggie now. He did a Kofi Kingston-style retcon of his accent and heritage. He’s just some guy from St. Louis now who lied on his resume to get into WWE via Carmella’s wish for a French sommelier. What is the point of this? Is this a meta commentary on WWE’s over-reliance of sticking you into a gimmick that is nothing like your real self? Did Reginald just no longer want to do the French accent? Am I supposed to even be thinking this hard about it?
Umm what happened to his accent?! 🤔🤔🤔🤔 @ReginaldWWE you were right @QoSBaszler
— 🦹🏽♀️ (@NiaJaxWWE) July 31, 2021
This show also has a 24/7 title defense where the 24/7 rules are suspended during the match and you can be DQ’d. So it’s…just a regular belt? If you can be DQ’d why would it matter? You can just beat the guy down and pin him after the match anyways. The 24/7 rules are only suspended during the match itself. What happens after?
This could lead down a very interesting path though. If Otis ends up winning the title, then the 24/7 title finally has its Steve Blackman. He is a hard to beat monster that people fear facing against. Maybe even someone who uses the belt as an excuse to attack and hurt others backstage. They’ve been building Otis for weeks now with him even injuring Montez Ford’s ribs. This man is a killer, a man who won the national title in the 2018 Pan-American Games. Him and his Olympian manager Chad Gable are a terrifying powerhouse to beat if they’re prepared. The 24/7 title gives them an excuse to prepare and attack anyone they want to. You could actually use this comedy belt to build both a monster and a mid-card hero who saves the locker room and division from their backstage assaults.
I’m at least interested to see what happens to Reggie and Otis following this segment so I guess it was successful?
Meh: Swiss Mon-E in the Bank
If you searched the dictionary for filler match, this match is the picture next to it. Fortunately, Cesaro is the master of tag team wrestling though and it was nice to see the Artists Collective reunite for a night.
The more interesting thing here is Nakamura cleanly pinned Apollo while earlier in the match Azeez attacked Rick Boogs for being loud and annoying. While Apollo has barely been pinned clean since winning the title, his momentum has stopped dead since Wrestlemania. If Shinsuke and Boogs want to take the IC title and add some momentum back to that belt, it sounds good. Boogs is clearly liked, Shinsuke is always adored by the crowd and the face/heel balance on Smackdown right now seems to lean more towards heels. Hopefully Shinsuke can get an Intercontinental title run that’s memorable this time.
Pop: A Camera is worth a Thousand Curb-Stomps
Seth is so good right now, I do not understand it. This man is wearing the ugliest suits known to man and is having some fantastic random psychotic beatdowns. The man figured out exactly how to get people mad at him. Interrupting this crowd’s first time with Edge in 10 years and replacing it with one of his Waluigi-ass promos. Also, I love Seth found a literal brick of a camera to use as a weapon. Why does WWE use cameras that are probably older than me? Seth seems to have finally found his groove as this heel and I expect Seth and Edge could work to steal the show at Summerslam when you combine their brains.
I will note something though. Hey, Seth if you’re mad at Edge for skipping the line and that you will beat up anyone who’s in the way of you becoming champion? There’s a man the color of Nickelodeon slime you could work to beat up. A neon green man who stole the title shot you deserve, Seth. If Seth wants to beat up that man, I certainly wouldn’t complain.
Pop: 30th of July, Minneapolis (Sasha)
We’ve waited almost 4 months for this.
Sasha’s vanished after Wrestlemania. In that time, the captain failed to topple Bianca Belair. The so-called most beautiful woman in WWE was crushed. While Toni Storm has made it to Smackdown, it’ll be a while until she’s given a women’s title shot. This division is slim at best, starving at worst with the multiple high-profile firings in the last few months. Bianca Belair needs something to do to make her title reign reach the next level.
Enter the Boss. WWE seemed aware of it too. I mean the two challengers that responded to Bianca Belair are Carmella who has lost two times in the last two weeks to Bianca and the literally winless since return Zelina Vega. As if to answer our annoyance and disappointment over this being Bianca’s Summerslam future, here comes Sasha Banks to toss Carmella and Zelina away. I do think we didn’t need the tag team main event. I do not believe a single member of that audience or the kids watching TV believed Sasha Banks, the egomaniac, the woman obsessed with the spotlight wouldn’t do whatever it takes to get the spotlight back from Bianca.
I will note that this is a very solid main event tag match of course. It’s interesting to see Zelina finally not eat the pin even if she has lost every match she’s been in since returning. This is absolutely one of those foregone conclusion main events (rare Smackdown that ends in a match I didn’t even know that could happen) but when one of the top women in the company returns this may be one of the few times an inevitable match makes sense.
I think the most interesting thing in this whole post-match beatdown is actually that Bianca Belair tapped out to the Bank Statement during it. It’s a very simple moment, one I expect many fans didn’t even notice but it adds a sense of mystery and doubt to their rematch at Summerslam. Bianca can tap. If the Bank Statement is in, Sasha Banks could very easily win the Smackdown Women’s Championship. The thing that makes a match’s story remembered is the sense of doubt. The moments you bit for the false finishes. The moments you think the face is going to fail or that the heel will be vanquished. Right here, Smackdown has built fear and worry in the audience. Sasha can break Bianca Belair given the right move and circumstances. Any Bank Statement in the match will now have a sense of dread around it. Very interesting work from the two.
Was this the best Smackdown back? Certainly not. Was this a Smackdown that WWE should be building to Summerslam to? Probably not. Adding resentment to the Summerslam main event sounds like a fundamentally poor idea. However, the women got a rare for Smackdown main event and Sasha Banks has returned to reclaim her throne. While a lot could have been done differently, this is far from the worst episode of television WWE has produced this year.
Overall
Worth Your Time: Sasha Banks Return and Tag Match, Dominic vs Jimmy Uso, Seth Rollins Promo
If You Have Time: Six-Man Tag
Don’t Waste Time: Anything John Cena, Reginald vs Chad Gable
Follow the Steel Ring Post Twitter and comment on this post and share it with friends. After all, Summerslam is one of the few times a year that your friend who’s a casual fan of wrestling cares about it, so why not let them know what’s going on? See you next time as Steel Ring Post continues its own preparations for WWE’s “Biggest Party of the Summer”.
Heading into the weekend like… pic.twitter.com/6gixQv3DfN
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) July 31, 2021
