WWE SmackDown live results: John Cena-Cody Rhodes contract signing
With their Undisputed WWE Championship match at SummerSlam coming up in two weeks, current champion John Cena and challenger Cody Rhodes will put pen to paper to make things official tonight on WWE SmackDown.
The last time Rhodes and Cena were in the same ring was at last month’s Money in the Bank when Rhodes pinned Cena in a tag team match.
Also scheduled for tonight is Fraxiom vs. DIY vs. Andrade & Rey Fenix vs. Motor City Machine Guns in a fatal four-way bout to determine the next challengers for new WWE Tag Team Champions, The Wyatt Sicks.
Charlotte Flair is set to face Raquel Rodriguez in singles action tonight. Rodriguez and tag partner Roxanne Perez retained their Women’s Tag Team Championships after surviving a fatal four-way tag match at Evolution this past Sunday.
Stephanie Vaquer vs. Alba Fyre is also set for tonight. Plus, Jacob Fatu is slated to appear and will continue his feud with Solo Sikoa.
Join us for live coverage starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
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– Following the WWE signature, we abruptly went right to the parking lot as we saw a car accident involving the members of the M.F.T., as Adam Pearce and law enforcement officials tried to sort out what was what. Cody Rhodes walked by and conferred with Pearce about the contract signing he’ll be having with John Cena later tonight for their SummerSlam match. After Rhodes left, we saw Solo Sikoa and his group trying to figure out what the heck just happened.
– Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett discussed Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair’s situation post-Evolution, as we found out that Bliss and Flair will have a Women’s Tag Team Championship match against current champions Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez. Bliss agreed to be in Flair’s corner for her match against Rodriguez, which kicked off tonight’s action.
Charlotte Flair (w/ Alexa Bliss) vs. Raquel Rodriguez (w/ Roxanne Perez)
As the bell rang, Flair and Rodriguez locked up in the middle of the ring before the two exchanged standing switches with no clear advantage for either woman. Rodriguez soon gained momentum with consecutive shoulder blocks, but Flair responded with a rough-looking hurricanrana, followed by a clothesline and a crossbody to the outside. In the background, Kiana James was seen talking with Giulia.
At ringside, Roxanne Perez tried to sneak up on Flair, but Alexa Bliss warded her off. This allowed Rodriguez to take advantage as she tossed Flair onto the ringpost, which sent us to our first break of the evening.
We resumed with Rodriguez lifting up Flair in a modified torture rack submission, but eventually got countered. Rodriguez maintained her advantage with a series of stomps and strikes onto the downed Flair, followed by a twisting Vader Bomb. Flair recovered and began to light up Rodriguez’s chest with her signature chops, followed by a somersault clothesline. Flair delivered a German suplex as she headed up to the top and connected with a crossbody. Rodriguez rolled right through and turned it into a tornado powerslam of her own for the near-fall.
Rodriguez attempted to lift Flair up for the Tejano Bomb, but Flair countered and hit a big boot. Roxanne Perez tried to create a distraction, but this allowed Alexa Bliss to take advantage as she struck Rodriguez with one of her pompoms, as Flair rolled her up for the pin and win.
Charlotte Flair def. Raquel Rodriguez
A decent match to start the show, but the bigger story is how well-received Flair and Bliss’s “Allies of Convenience” tag team has been with fans. Perhaps Flair’s excellent Players’ Tribune article from last week has helped gain her new fans, but in any case, I’m enjoying this storyline so far.
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– Adam Pearce was confronted by three police officers, who were seeking Jacob Fatu as a “person of interest”. The cops found Fatu in another area and walked off with him to get some answers from him regarding the hit and run from the start of the broadcast.
– A video package showing Tiffany Stratton and Jade Cargill talking about their impending WWE Women’s Championship Match at SummerSlam was shown.
– The commentators discussed the ongoing situation with Ron Killings, Aleister Black, and Damian Priest, including Black’s attack on Priest last week. We then went to Earlier Today footage of Priest looking for Black, and being confronted by Carmelo Hayes. Priest said that he didn’t know why he was trying to play peacemaker, because he’s the man who goes into the ring and gets business done. This led to Hayes challenging Priest to a match for tonight.
– We got a vignette for the new Naked Gun movie that focused on Cody Rhodes’ cameo in the film, which releases on August 1st.
Carmelo Hayes vs. Damian Priest
Hayes got things started with a sneak attack as Priest was playing to the crowd on the top rope. Priest soon recovered with a big boot to the fast, which allowed him to finally take off his entrance jacket. In the corner, Priest worked over Hayes with repeated strikes, as he then sent him out to the ring with an elbow to the face. Outside the ring, Hayes slipped free from Priest’s grasp and dropkicked him against the ringpost, which took us to the break.
Our show continued with Hayes having the advantage over Priest as he trash-talked him. Priest got himself hyped up and took advantage of Hayes’ hubris and struck him with a flurry of offense. Priest targeted Hayes for his clothesline, but got suckered in with an arm guillotine across the top rope. Hayes took over with a springboard clothesline as he tuned up the band for some Sweet Chin Music in Shawn Michaels’ hometown. Priest countered, but Hayes delivered his own version of La Mistica and escaped a Razor’s Edge attempt from his foe.
On the top rope, Hayes couldn’t connect with dive, as he escaped another South of Heaven attempt from Priest. Hayes headed up top once again and hit a frog splash on Priest for the two count. The battle spilled outside as Priest slammed Hayes across the commentary table. Priest tried to go for Old School, but Aleister Black appeared on the apron and tripped him up to cause the disqualification.
Black laid out Priest with the Black Mass kick as Hayes backed out of the ring wisely.
Damian Priest def. Carmelo Hayes via Disqualification
This match was really picking up steam up until the disqualification, but the Black vs. Priest feud should be interesting. Of course, Ron Killings, after his big return at Money in the Bank, seems kind of like an afterthought once he left John Cena’s orbit, which is odd, given how he’s a central figure of this feud.
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– We got a creepy video of the Wyatt Sicks where they talked about their plans for the SmackDown tag team division and their quest to strip the division of their vanities and desires one by one.
Solo Sikoa and The M.F.T.s’ frame-up revealed
The United States Champion and his faction headed to the ring to discuss the accident that had happened to them at the start of tonight’s SmackDown.
“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight is the perfect example of who Jacob Fatu really is,” started off Sikoa. According to Sikoa, without his guidance, Fatu is reckless, doesn’t care about anybody, and all he cares about is himself. Sikoa took credit for giving everything to Fatu, bringing him to WWE, and making him a champion. He said that Fatu didn’t deserve any of this because he was so selfish for betraying his family. “Once a criminal, always a criminal,” said Sikoa.
Backstage, we saw Jacob Fatu arriving at the arena as he was apparently not the person of interest that the police were looking for. Incensed, Fatu headed down to the ring and was ready for a fight with Sikoa and the M.F.T.s. As Fatu was making his way down to the ring, Jimmy Uso got the drop on the group with an ambush. Fatu and Uso laid waste to the M.F.T.s until Tala Tonga pulled Uso out and looked like he was about to chokeslam Uso through the commentary table. Fatu took Tala out with a dive to the outside.
Tala recovered and emerged from the commentary table. He eventually got taken down by a double team superkick party from Uso and Fatu. A Fatu-assisted crossbody by Uso took Tala out over the timekeepers area. Fatu attacked Sikoa inside the ring and was about to hit a hip attack with a chair draped over Sikoa’s neck. J.C. Mateo intercepted Fatu, which gave Sikoa enough time to escape. This was a bad move, as Fatu and Uso proceeded to take out their frustrations on Mateo and Tanga Loa.
The voice of Adam Pearce interrupted, as he announced for SummerSlam that Sikoa will defend his United States Championship against Fatu in a steel cage match. He then called for the cops to arrest Sikoa for framing Fatu for the “accident” earlier. As Sikoa and the M.F.T.s were being taken away by the cops, Fatu and Uso stood tall in the ring.
This was a pretty fun segment, I must say, and the alliance between Jacob Fatu and Jimmy Uso is one I didn’t expect to end up enjoying like I did here tonight.
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– We got a recap of a brawl that broke out on Jimmy Kimmel Live as Jelly Roll and Randy Orton got into it with Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre, including Jelly Roll chokeslamming Paul through a table.
Stephanie Vaquer vs. Alba Fyre (w/ Piper Niven)
Fyre and Vaquer traded offense early on in the match as things kicked off fast and furious. Vaquer headbutted Fyre and looked to hit a dive from the apron, but she was intercepted by a kick from Fyre. Vaquer then got rocked by a dive to the outside by Fyre. In the ring, Vaquer recovered with a kick of her own as she then delivered the Devil’s Kiss to the delight of everyone.
Fyre attempted for a Gory Special, but Vaquer countered and finished things off with the SVB for the victory.
After the match, Piper Niven attacked Vaquer and looked to hit the Viper Bomb, but Vaquer escaped and managed to fend off Niven with a superkick.
Stephanie Vaquer def. Piper Niven
This was honestly tragically short. I think Vaquer and Niven could’ve gone on a bit longer than what they had to work with here, which is a shame because both women are talented and can certainly go in a match that lasts longer than three minutes or so.
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– The Street Profits were asked about their loss to the Wyatt Sicks last week. They said that the Wyatts as the WWE Tag Champions is not a reality they want to face, and that they’ll be coming for the tag titles again. #DIY confronted the Profits and mocked them for losing last week as they headed down for the tag team fatal four-way coming up next.
Fatal Four-Way Tag Match: #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs. Rey Fenix & Andrade vs. Fraxiom (Axiom & Nathan Frazer) vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley)
We kicked off with Sabin and Frazer starting off the action as the two traded acrobatics with one another until #DIY snuck in and attacked both men. This prompted Andrade and Rey Fenix to enter the fray as things broke down. Fraxiom intercepted the two with superkicks as they tried for a dive of their own. The Machine Guns pulled Frazer and Axiom out of the ring and ended up getting their dives in on Gargano and Ciampa to the outside, as we took a break in the action.
SmackDown returned with Shelley and Sabin fending off the #DIY duo, as Axiom tagged himself into the match. The masked Axiom and Frazer proceeded to get their moments in with a bonanza of dives on all their opponents. A modified Total Elimination nearly brought Fraxiom the win, but Andrade interrupted and got himself into the match with a tag.
Andrade and Fenix united with amazing chemistry as Fenix nailed Axiom with the spinning kick in the corner, followed by the Three Amigos on Frazer. A frog splash by Fenix saw the pin get interrupted by the Machine Guns. Things broke down briefly between all four teams as they brawled it out in the ring. It turned into total chaos as Andrade and Fenix took advantage of the situation.
#DIY tagged themselves in and took out Fenix and Andrade as a Project Ciampa from Tommaso Ciampa on Axiom was unable to put this one in the books. We got another break at this point of the match.
Our main event match trucked along with Sabin and Shelley on a roll and having Axiom at their mercy for Skull and Bones. Andrade and Fenix broke things up as the former headed up top. Axiom stopped Andrade’s advance and hit the Spanish Fly to the top rope followed by Frazer’s Phoenix Splash. #DIY attempted to steal the victory, but Andrade and Fenix intervened in the nick of time. In the ensuing chaos, only Andrade and Ciampa were left as Candice LeRae tried to draw the distraction. Ciampa tried to roll up Andrade, but couldn’t get the win.
Gargano and Ciampa attempted a double team, but a malfunction at the junction between the #DIY duo led to the finish, as Fenix took Gargano out with a dive to the outside, which left Ciampa at the mercy of Andrade’s Message and the three.
Andrade & Rey Fenix def. #DIY, Fraxiom, and Motor City Machine Guns via Pinfall
That was a fast and frenetic tag match that I really enjoyed. Just some tremendous action from these four teams from start to finish.
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Next Week on SmackDown
- WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The Wyatt Sicks’ Joe Gacy & Dexter Lumis vs. Andrade & Rey Fenix
- Alexa Bliss vs. Roxanne Perez
- Jelly Roll, Randy Orton, Drew McIntyre, and Logan Paul appear live
Cody Rhodes & John Cena contract signing
Raw GM Adam Pearce — who was filling in for Nick Aldis tonight — was in the ring as he introduced both Cody Rhodes and John Cena for the contract signing for their Undisputed Men’s WWE World Championship match at SummerSlam.
Rhodes entered first and didn’t waste time in signing the match contract before he asked San Antonio what they wanted to talk about. He talked appreciation about being made to feel like a Texan, because his father and brother were Texans. Rhodes talked about a post that was overanalyzed but the message was clear: do not flinch and thanks for coming along for the ride. He discussed about how he didn’t flinch for hsi return, fighting with a torn pec, fighting his best friend, and when the Final Boss came for his spot. However, as Rhodes said, he flinched at WrestleMania when he lost to John Cena. Rhodes said it was an unenviable task to be the one to take it away from one of the most beloved wrestlers in our game, but this was important for him.
At this point, Cena made his way down to the ring. Once inside the ring, Cena said that he had some bad news for Rhodes, that he wasn’t going to be at SummerSlam. This was supposedly because he was filming a movie for Netflix in New York, and advised to not take part in anything physical as a result. Cena claimed that this was a decision only made tonight, and one that was a “tough decision” because it was best for business.
Cena said that the crowd didn’t know how hard it was for him to be here tonight, and that right now, physically and emotionaly, just being here is all he can give the crowd. Cena thanked the crowd for his patience and understanding in this matter. Cena walked out of the ring as Rhodes took off his jacket and started to fight on the ramp.
The fight broke down as Cena got the upper hand. He retrieved the WWE Championship and looked like he was going to blast Rhodes with it, but Cody intercepted him with a kick. The title belt ended up in Rhodes’ hands as he smashed it across Cena’s face. WIth Cena stunned on the table, Rhodes headed up top and crushed Cena with a diving splash. Afterwards, Rhodes used Cena’s hand to sign the contract as he revealed that it was going to be a Street Fight at SummerSlam for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
SmackDown ended with Rhodes holding the WWE Title and standing tall over Cena in the process.
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Cena using his Hollywood position for heel heat to beg off defending his title was a nice heel move and a nice twist on the old contract signing trope, and the Street Fight stipulation does add some sauce to the WWE Title rematch at SummerSlam. Hopefully, Travis Scott doesn’t decide to amble back into the proceedings once again.
This was actually a good edition of SmackDown featuring a fantastic tag match and some entertaining in-ring segments with the M.F.T.s/Fatu & Uso stuff, plus the contract signing angle to cap off the show. It was certainly better than last week’s effort, that’s for sure.