Friday Night SmackDown aired this week from the MVP Arena in Albany, New York, less than 24 hours away from Saturday Night’s Main Event in Madison Square Garden and three weeks away from SummerSlam on August 1st and 2nd.
With SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis having been attacked by Gunther at the end of last week’s show, Raw general manager Adam Pearce is yet again filling in for him. He announced a five-woman ladder match at SummerSlam to determine the interim WWE Women’s Champion, as current champion Rhea Ripley is not cleared to compete due to a torn meniscus. While a timetable for her return is unknown, Pearce states that Rhea is still working closely with WWE’s medical team to make a comeback soon. In the meantime, qualifying matches for the ladder match will begin tonight, pitting Jade Cargill against Nia Jax, and Tiffany Stratton against Jacy Jayne.
A vignette aired to promote the qualifying matches. Cargill said that when opportunity comes knocking, she kicks down the door. She has a clear shot at her title after taking out Rhea? Bet. Jade feels the other women don’t understand is they can’t see her when it comes to champ talk. They are not cut from the same cloth as her. Not one woman in the locker room, including Nia, can step to her and stop her. At SummerSlam, she’s taking her title home with her.
Nia Jax isn’t feeling any pressure coming for her third world championship, but the other women should. Even Jade knows just how dominant she is. She’s been to the top before, and she thinks it’s time they climb back up there and make a permanent home, because at SummerSlam, everyone is going to be calling her your new champion.
Jacy Jayne says that Fatal Influence shook the table when they arrived on SmackDown a few months ago, but since then it seems like the girls around here are getting a little too comfortable, so they’re going to remind everyone exactly who they are when she puts Tiffany out of her misery tonight, when Lainey and Fallon win the Women’s Tag Team Championships tomorrow, and then she goes on to win the title at SummerSlam.
Tiffany Stratton says that at SummerSlam, she has the home field advantage, and tonight, she beats Jacy Jayne and then in a couple weeks, Minnesota’s going to have a front row seat to “tiffstory” because “Tiffy Two Belts” has a very nice ring to it.
NOTE: The link is for those who would like to view the full match.
Tiffany vs. Jacy would be our first of these qualifying matches. Fatal Influence would attack Stratton before the bell rung, prompting Brie Bella and Paige to take out Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid and fight them all the way to the back.
Stratton took control in the early goings, although things were a bit more equal following commercials. The match would end as Jayne tried a Rolling Encore, which was reversed by Stratton into a rolling senton followed by the Prettiest Moonsault Ever for the pin.
With this win, Stratton has officially punched her ticket to competing in her home state of Minnesota at SummerSlam.
Nia Jax vs. Jade Cargill was the next match and the second and final qualifying match of the night. From the outset, Jax hit a Samoan drop and a leg drop on Cargill, but The Storm would evade the Annihilator.
All of a sudden, Charlotte Flair emerged to attack B-Fab and Michin, retaliation for The Baddies and Jade taking out Alexa Bliss last week. Flair openly interfered by kicking Cargill inside the ring, prompting the bell to be called for a disqualification. Grabbing a steel chair to recreate the attack they inflicted on the arm of Bliss last week, Flair’s stomp of revenge onto Cargill’s arm was thwarted by B-Fab and Michin pulling her out of the ring.
Once Jade was declared the winner by DQ, Jax furiously attacked Flair from behind and rammed her into the turnbuckles before walking away in anger. This allowed Cargill to hit Jaded on her as the trio taunted her in the ring.
Candice LeRae confronted Gunther, and said that tomorrow night, when he teams up with Sami Zayn against Cody Rhodes and the WWE Champion CM Punk, to not be stupid as her and Johnny need Sami to win. Gunther advises her to tell Sami to show up, shut up, and not get in his way.
At this point, Blake Monroe was seen walking in the background and deviously watched The Poison Pixie and The Ring General’s conversation. Once Gunther walked away, Monroe took her chance to charge toward an unaware LeRae, and slammed her into multiple heavy creates. The Glamour said this was the perfect time to introduce herself. She’s the new girl, and she’ll see Candice around.
She then walks over to the (still, after all these months) motionless Johnny Gargano, and says he needs a haircut. We can now add Candice to Blake’s 4-0 record of randomly attacking her fellow SmackDown Divas alongside the likes of Chelsea Green, Giulia, and Kiana James.
Our last women’s sighting of the night had Lash Legend and Nia Jax complaining backstage to Adam Pearce, demanding consequences for Charlotte’s interference earlier. Legend doesn’t care how Pearce runs things on Raw, but here at SmackDown, they expect consequences when people go out there and act a fool. Pearce decides to give Jax another opportunity to qualify for the SummerSlam ladder match next week against Charlotte Flair.
Saturday Night’s Main Event airs tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Eastern / 5 p.m. Pacific on Peacock from inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. The following matches are set to take place:
- Women’s Tag Team Championship: Scream Mode (Brie Bella and Paige) (c) vs. Fatal Influence (Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid)
- Bayley vs. Lyra Valkyria
SummerSlam takes place the weekend of August 1st and 2nd from the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, featuring:
- Women’s World Championship: Liv Morgan (c) vs. IYO SKY
- Five-Way Ladder Match for Interim WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill vs. three opponents yet to be determined
Friday Night SmackDown airs next week from the Oakland Arena in Oakland, California, with one women’s match set to take place as of this writing:
- SummerSlam Ladder Match Qualifier: Charlotte Flair vs. Nia Jax
As always, make sure to share your thoughts on this week’s edition of SmackDown in the comments below.