WWE SmackDown Recap and Reactions (July 22, 2022): A New Era

We have to start by talking about the weirdness of it all, right after Vince McMahon announced he was retiring. The circumstances surrounding it – the moment when it stands out most, given the WWE Board of Directors’ ongoing investigation into the silent money payouts – cast a long shadow and absolutely influence the general feeling about it. It’s hard to get much sympathy here.

That said, it’s weird living in a world where Vincent Kennedy McMahon doesn’t run the WWE. His long reign as the most powerful man in professional wrestling is over. His daughter, Stephanie, will act as co-CEO alongside Nick Khan, so the family name will stay with the company, with all the power that goes with it. But it’s not the same.

It will never be the same again.

To kick off this new era, Stephanie McMahon kicked off this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown. She was there to say goodbye to her father, and to do so in front of WWE fans so they too could know and understand that we are truly and truly moving forward without him. Even so, fans showered him with “Thank you, Vince” chants. She told him she loved him.

And that was it.

The Street Profits took the stage right after that, their music signaling that the show will go on, like it always has, like that, they sure wanted us here to believe, always will. Yes, Vince is gone, but WWE remains, and it’s still worth watching. That’s what he’s going to do, after all.

Here we are entering new days.

What an incredibly professional wrestling story the whole Brock Lesnar affair turned out to be, huh?

McMahon retires and reports instantly come out that Lesnar is so unhappy with this that he is leaving the show. It wouldn’t be the first time in recent memory that a wrestler has done this, and it won’t be the last. But because he’s the main event for the next PPV in just over a week, WWE needs to do their best to get him back.

In the end, they were able to work things out, using whatever means they used, and Lesnar made it back to the arena in time for a main event appearance that ended up getting a lot more. impact, if only because no one actually expected him to be there. because of all the reports.

Hell, the comment even mentioned it without outright mentioning it!

It’s the kind of place where pro wrestling can exist, where you don’t know if what you’re seeing is a work of art or a reality. It could be the result of a quick deal backstage where Lesnar used some leverage to get a better deal for himself, or maybe Vince himself honked his horn and talked to Brock, or Lesnar has just come to his senses on his own and come back to get the big payday he’s surely getting for the stadium show he’s about to headline. It could be any of these things!

It’s also at least possible that it’s a well-orchestrated job of drumming up interest, though I highly doubt that. It doesn’t even matter if it does. The fact that it’s at least possible is what makes it such a unique industry, one that gives us legit jaw-dropping moments when a guy appears on a show he’s always been advertised on.

Unbelievable.

I really liked how they did that.

I’m not mad to relegate these two to a one-on-one backstage meeting that lasted two minutes, but they accomplished a lot in that short amount of time.

Liv Morgan winning the SmackDown Women’s Championship was a feel-good moment, sure, but it was always going to lead to the question of how they were going to handle the sequel. This “next” was always going to be a Ronda Rousey rematch and what would a schedule between these two look like?

They kept it simple, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t work out.

Rousey more or less scoffed at the idea that it’s even worth it because, I mean, she’s Ronda Rousey and Liv Morgan is Liv Morgan. Let’s be real here, it’s a landslide in one direction.

Morgan responded in the only way she could – admitting that she was at a severe disadvantage, but she indeed has all the passion that Ronda has always attributed to her and because of it, she wants more. Sometimes that’s enough to win the day.

It’s as good as they can get with it, and they’ve both been pretty damn good in their delivery here.

Everything else

• Ludwig Kaiser defeated Shinsuke Nakamura, but only after GUNTHER got involved and bludgeoned the latter with a big forearm to the back of his head. Kaiser was on his way to another loss, and GUNTHER wasn’t happy with how it turned out, so he did his chop routine. He acted like he wasn’t going to do it, then put Kaiser with it anyway. I don’t know how it works so well. Kaiser is not friendly at all but you still don’t like GUNTHER for what he does to his number two.
• Bum Ass Corbin attacked Pat McAfee at ringside, leading to the color commentator chasing after his nemesis and the two brawled backstage. Afterwards, McAfee cut another promo on him, setting up their match perfectly by saying “when that foot hits your ugly, herpetic head, I’m taking your big ass for a nap for good. See you in Nashville, bitch. These are fighting words!
• The Vicious Viking Raiders defeated Jinder Mahal & Shanky by countout. Brains to go with brawn, was the message they were trying to send. I’m not buying any of this right now.
• Sheamus wants Drew McIntyre’s Big Sword banned and you know what? He is right! This should be banned! There’s no reward for McIntyre waving it. Sounds cool, sure, but it’s not like he’s ever going to cut anyone with it. Get rid of it. Luckily, next week they’ll do just that in a good old-fashioned Donnybrook game where they finally decide who will headline Clash at the Castle.
• Sonya Deville kept getting on Adam Pearce’s bad side, so he booked her in a fight with Raquel Rodriguez. They had a surprisingly strong televised match which saw Deville get his reward. Not much to say about it, but I enjoyed the match they put on and it’s clear they could do more here with the two if they choose later.
• Lacey Evans doesn’t even pretend to be good anymore. She took Boston to task, saying she’s accomplished more today than all of them last year and “no wonder Tom Brady left” town. Aliyah was there again, demanding the match she had been on the verge of getting for weeks now, and Evans went as usual, hitting her with a cheap, bailing shot. There’s only a limited number of times they can do this, so we’ll see what happens here soon enough.
• Just me or is Jeff Jarrett starting to look a bit like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler but with shorter hair?
• Maxxine Dupri’s big debut was a pre-tape where artist formerly known as NXT’s Sophia Cromwell said they would be back with another collection next week, this one for Beachwear. It was about as disappointing as it gets.

I don’t even know what to make of all this after all.

Category B-

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