WWE SmackDown Live recap: A grand Festivus tradition

Titles are on the line, Shane McMahon wants to hear Superstars’ grievances and more on the July 16 edition of WWE SmackDown Live.

This week’s edition of SmackDown Live didn’t lack for intrigue. Between Daniel Bryan’s “career altering” announcement, Shane McMahon’s town hall providing Superstars the opportunity to air grievances and the IIconics defending their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship against the Kabuki Warriors, it was a packed two hours.

Here’s everything that went down on SmackDown for July 16.

The Airing of the Grievances

After our requisite look-back on Kevin Owens’ comments (and attack) on Shane McMahon, we are taken to an “earlier today” featuring McMahon welcoming Owens with a quartet of security guards and informing him of tonight’s town hall. McMahon, however, has given Owens the night off, forbidding him from the building and thus from participating in said town hall.

This leads us directly into McMahon’s all-roster meeting.

McMahon wants only “respectful” comments from the SmackDown Superstars. The first to take the microphone is Roman Reigns, who says that “nobody in this room respects” McMahon and that he’s not interested in diplomacy. McMahon says that’s not respectful, and thus will fine Reigns for the comments.

Next up is Charlotte Flair, who calls Reigns’ comments “uncalled for,” and thanks McMahon and his family for a lifetime of support. Liv Morgan interrupts Flair and calls her out for phoniness. McMahon shuts Morgan down. We then head to Buddy Murphy, who says he doesn’t need Owens to fight his battles — and to keep his name out of Owens’ mouth. McMahon is thus pleased.

Apollo Crews — another, like Morgan and Murphy, Owens named in last week’s rant — is ready for a “healthy dialogue,” and says that he and everyone else on the stage agrees with what Owens said. Zelina Vega, meanwhile, doesn’t appreciate that Crews is trying to suck up to the fans and says he should instead head into the ring and prove it against Andrade.

Elias tries to speak, but per canon, interruption is necessary; The New Day provide that, and WWE Champion Kofi Kingston admits that Owens has made good points, citing how long it took for him to get a championship opportunity, and that opportunities are too hard to come by thanks to McMahon. His mic is cut out for his troubles.

McMahon then tries to conclude his little meeting but Cesaro interrupts, announcing he’s a Wild Card on the night and wants to fight Aleister Black again. McMahon obliges. He’s then attacked by Owens — Stunner, natch, and McMahon botches it — and Owens retreats through the crowd. Guess what’s being set up for SummerSlam?

Cesaro vs. Aleister Black

Cesaro and Aleister Black had one of the best matches at Extreme Rules on Sunday and are doing it again on Tuesday, after Cesaro fell to Black the first time and challenged him again via McMahon’s open mic.

The match gets the picture-in-picture treatment, and featured more Black-kicks-Cesaro, Cesaro-uppercuts-Black before Cesaro dumps Black to the outside of the ring only to throw him back in. More strikes are traded, Cesaro tries to choke out Black and then it’s back to the back-and-forth.

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Black gets another victory over Cesaro, hitting him with a Black Mass that knocked out Cesaro’s mouthpiece. While not as good as the Extreme Rules match, that’s only because this wasn’t as long. Otherwise: Fight forever.

In the back, Dolph Ziggler wants to fight Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon agrees. So much for kicking Owens out of the building.

Charlotte Flair vs. Liv Morgan

Thanks to the jawing back and forth at the town hall, we finally get to see Liv Morgan wrestle on SmackDown Live. She takes on Charlotte Flair, who has returned from an extended vacation.

Morgan takes advantage early — as the announcers explain, Flair is underestimating Morgan, who hasn’t had a match on television since being shipped to the blue brand in April’s Superstar Shake-Up.

Ultimately, Flair is the more seasoned and powerful wrestler and gains the win via Figure 8. Let’s hope we’ll get more of Morgan going forward. Morgan references something about “when she comes back,” so it may be some time until then. Either way, Morgan looked sharp in the ring and someone who should be more involved in the women’s division; it’s been focused on just a handful of women for far too long.

Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville vs. Ember Moon

Staying within the women’s division, next Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville take on Ember Moon and the partner of her choosing, SmackDown Women’s Champion, Bayley, someone who could also use a friend at the moment.

This is a quick one, with Bayley hitting Deville with Bayley to Belly and Ember Moon landing an Eclipse on Rose and picking up the pin. Lordy, the Eclipse is such a special move.

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Post-match, Bayley is asked about her SummerSlam opponent. Her goal is to elevate the SmackDown women’s division and to face someone new who will respect the title should she lose — Ember Moon.

Backstage, Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura is ready to rain chaos on the WWE roster; he’s confronted by Ali. Yes, please!

All that’s gold isn’t just pancakes

The New Day head to the ring as the aces of SmackDown Live, with Big E and Xavier Woods holding the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and Kofi Kingston, the WWE Championship.

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No doubt, they’re in a good mood and wanted to celebrate before Daniel Bryan makes his big announcement.

Daniel Bryan has … had … something to say?

Bryan, with Rowan, head to the ramp and are disgusted and Bryan retreats, not wanting to make his announcement. He comes back out, and is clearly frustrated or conflicted and retreats again. Then he comes back out amid “New Day rocks!” chants from the crowd, and thus he drops the mic and retreats, for good. Is this a Lacey Evans tribute act?

Let’s all join the promo parade!

Samoa Joe, whom Kingston defeated at Extreme Rules, comes out mic in hand and actually speaks, challenging Kingston to a rematch for the WWE Championship for this very night.

Before he can answer, Elias emerges to remind Joe he’s had his chance and that he’d like to step up and get a chance at Kingston’s gold. Randy Orton then arrives to claim he’s the one worthy of a title shot. Elias suggests he, Orton and Joe team up in six-man action against The New Day instead; Orton isn’t interested, but The New Day question his manhood, which does enough to change Orton’s mind. The match is on.

The New Day vs. Randy Orton, Elias and Samoa Joe

As one would expect, the six-man tag match pitting The New Day against Randy Orton, Elias and Samoa Joe was competitive and back-and-forth. These are, after all, six of the top stars in the entire company.

After a bit of early control by The New Day, the heel trio took over during the picture-in-picture commercial break, with Xavier Woods taking the punishment from all three men. A big dropkick on Elias by Woods then gave Woods enough time to make a tag, and Kofi Kingston swung the momentum back in New Day’s favor.

Joe trapped Woods in the Coquina Clutch on the outside, while Elias neutralized Big E with a knee. Though Kingston managed to hit Trouble in Paradise on Elias in the ring, Orton snuck in with an RKO, giving him the pin and the win.

Backstage, Carmella discovers 24/7 Champion R-Truth inside of a random washing machine, where he is both hiding and stuck. She suggests Truth hide in plain sight, in disguise, at San Diego Comic-Con.

The IIconics vs. Kabuki Warriors

After defeating The IIconics in Tokyo, the Kabuki Warriors (Asuka, Kairi Sane) earned the right to face The IIconics again, this time for Peyton Royce and Billie Kay’s WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. It’s our third (!!!) women’s match of the night.

The IIconics determine quickly that they want no part of Asuka and Sane and head to outside of the ring, willfully being counted out. Thus, they lose via disqualification but do not lose their championship.

While The IIconics get their comeuppance via post-match beatdown, they — like the smart heels they are — found a way to keep the titles against opponents they are clearly afraid of. Smart heels > dumb heels.

Apollo Crews vs. Andrade

Thanks to the happenings at the show-opening town hall, Apollo Crews is set to face Andrade (with Zelina Vega in his corner). Andrade ambushed Crews before the bell could ring, giving him an advantage once the match was official.

Andrade seemed to have the match won, hitting Crews with his double-knee finisher, but he rolled him up in a backslide to counter and earned the upset win and to give this feud that ever-important 50-50 booking.

Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler wants to do Shane McMahon’s bidding and thus got his request to fight Kevin Owens granted by McMahon. He also wants to get some redemption for his loss to Owens, in 17 seconds, at Extreme Rules.

He nearly gets the quick victory again, but Ziggler is better prepared the second time around (this year). After a bit of back-and-forth McMahon (inevitably) comes to the ring, accompanied by a number of heel Superstars, lumberjack-style — hey look, it’s the Authors of Pain!

Owens connects on a Stunner to Ziggler, but McMahon breaks up the pin. Owens then follows McMahon out of the ring, Stunning him, and running up the ramp to escape the building, the heels in tow. McMahon says Owens “is gonna pay.”

This week’s SmackDown did a lot to advance storylines heading into SummerSlam. We have a new challenger for Bayley’s championship, The IIconics and Kabuki Warriors are likely headed for a showdown in Toronto (as are, hopefully, Shinsuke Nakamura and Ali) and whatever’s going on between Shane McMahon and Kevin Owens might result in no more McMahon for a time. Oh, and we still haven’t heard what Daniel Bryan has to say.

For there to be payoff, there must first be setup, and SmackDown delivered the latter in spades this week.

What did you think of SmackDown Live this week? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.