WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER 8/6: Balor vs. Corbin, Dominik vs. Jey, Bianca Responds to Sasha

WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER
AUGUST 6, 2021
TAMPA, FL. IN THE AMALIE ARENA
AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Michael Cole and Pat McAfee

Match Results, Key Segments and Exclusives from Last Week

• John Cena opened the show discussing Roman Reigns rejecting his SummerSlam challenge. He said Reigns and Finn Balor would sign the contract for their match later which proves Reigns sucks. Baron Corbin came out looking for help from Cena and was treated to an AA.
• Rey Mysterio (w/Dominik) defeated Smackdown Tag Team Championship co-holder Jimmy Uso (w/brother Jey).
• Reggie defeated Chad Gable to retain the 24/7 Championship.
• Baron Corbin interrupted the contract signing between Finn Balor and Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam. When Corbin attempted to sign, John Cena stopped him and eventually signed the contract. Sonya Deville and Adam Pearce said it was binding because of Cena’s signature when Paul Heyman raised issue since Balor’s name was still printed on the contract.
• Big E & Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura (w/Rick Boogs) defeated Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews (w/Commander Azeez) and Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode.
• Seth Rollins attacked Edge during a commercial break as Edge was seemingly making his way out to cut a promo discussing recent happenings with Rollins. Instead, Rollins cut a promo and clearly stated if he can’t be Universal Champion, neither can Edge.
• Smackdown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair and a returning Sasha Banks defeated Carmella & Zelina Vega. Earlier, Carmella and Vega interrupted an interview being conducted with Bianca. They attacked Bianca who was rescued by Sasha. After the match, Sasha attacked Bianca seemingly setting up a SummerSlam match between the two.

Arena

Smackdown returns to the Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL., home of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Champions Tampa Bay Lightning, for the first time July of 2018. WWE started appearing in this arena two months after it opened in 1996 as the Ice Palace, during the thick of the Monday Night Wars. It has hosted mostly Raw and Smackdown programs including the Raw Reunion episode back in July of 2019. WCW Nitro made a few appearances from 1997-1998, and the WWE Battleground PPV from 2014 emanated from this facility.

I will be joining Wade Keller on the post show tonight as we take your calls and emails discussing all things Smackdown. By the time this primer posts, you will likely see the latest edition of WWE Then and Now and the first of the “WCW Files.” My long-time friend Justin Girardi joined me to discuss recent current events and review Bash at the Beach from 1996, the famous PPV that saw Hulk Hogan turn on the fans and form the New World Order. We “celebrated” the 25-year anniversary of that event back on July 7 of this year. The NWO were recently inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, along with Eric Bischoff.

WWE has a hype video out for this week’s show and have advertised Bianca Belair’s response to Sasha Banks as well as two matches.

Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin

On the heels of what took place in the contract signing, Finn Balor will go one-on-one with Baron Corbin according to what WWE advertised during last week’s show. Corbin continues to be “down on his luck” and pleaded with John Cena for help in the opening segment. He attacked Balor when he was going to sign the contract to face Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam. The contract was eventually signed by Cena.

Balor and Corbin previously feuded back in 2018 was Corbin was constipated … I’m sorry when he was the “Constable” of Raw under then-G.M. Kurt Angle. They had a match at SummerSlam that year with Balor wrestling under his “Demon” persona.

Frank’s Analysis: The thought just crossed my mind that they could have that match again at this year’s SummerSlam. It’d be a slam dunk win for Balor as the Demon, and people do seem interested in this Corbin story, but I don’t know how that match would fly with a lot of people. What else is Balor going to do? As far as involving him in the Cena-Reigns story I wish they kept it simple between Cena and Reigns since the story practically writes itself. I don’t like AT ALL involving Balor. Not for nothing, why didn’t he go to Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville furious over what took place? It makes him look stupid and the entire story just seemed like a waste of time.

Dominik Mysterio vs. Jey Uso

Last week, Rey Mysterio defeated Smackdown Tag Team Championship co-holder Jimmy Uso with the assistance of his son Dominik. Rey was distracted by Jey and one point and failed to hit the 619 on Jimmy. He managed a roll-up and Dominik put his feet on Rey’s back to give him leverage for the pin.

It was announced that the Mysterios will challenge the Usos at SummerSlam for the championship. Tonight, Dominik goes one-on-one with Jey. He had a match with Jimmy two weeks ago, which Jimmy won in the exact same fashion Rey won last week.

Frank’s Analysis: I feel like I can say this for just about every match, but people wrestling each other at an upcoming PPV wrestling on TV in different variations and forms with crappy distraction finishes is a tired formula. The results are inconsequential, and nothing gets accomplished in terms of building up the “big match.” In addition, why are the babyfaces using heel tactics to win a match? Can Rey, the legend that he is, not beat Jimmy without the help of his son?

Smackdown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair to Respond to Sasha Banks Attack

I mentioned in the recap what happened between Smackdown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair and the returning Sasha Banks. WWE has advertised that Bianca will respond to Sasha’s attack following their win last week.

Bianca defeated Sasha at WrestleMania to win the championship and was celebrating 100 days of being the champion last week. They won an ESPY for “Moment of the Year” on July 10 of last month. It has been heavily rumored that they will face each other at SummerSlam in a rematch for the title. Here were some tweets from Triple H and Stephanie McMahon congratulating them on winning the ESPY, as well as photos of Bianca and Sasha at the event:

Congratulations to @SashaBanksWWE and @BiancaBelairWWE on winning the @ESPY for @WWE Moment of the Year for their #WrestleMania main event. Incredible moment for them, for our business and the #WWE Universe!!!! https://t.co/yUkbNNdANN

— Triple H (@TripleH) July 11, 2021

Making history, in and out of the ring. Congratulations to @BiancaBelairWWE & @SashaBanksWWE, the first female recipients of the @espys Best @WWE Moment for their match at #WrestleMania37, becoming the first Black women to main event. #ESPYS

— Stephanie McMahon (@StephMcMahon) July 11, 2021

ESPY WINNERS!
Thank you EVERYONE!@ESPYS @wwe @espn #ESPYs2021 pic.twitter.com/lMMuwlcUZL

— Bianca Belair (@BiancaBelairWWE) July 11, 2021

Frank’s Analysis: I don’t watch the ESPYs, but the pictures were interesting. If you look at Sasha’s body language, you could tell she feels it’s all about her and she doesn’t like sharing the moment with Bianca (if she was staying in character anyway). Maybe I’m saying this because I know what happened. Anyway, I thought the Sasha return and embrace of Bianca was odd. I don’t know why Bianca would think Sasha was genuine in wanting to help, and I thought her tapping out vehemently to the Banks Statement made her look weak. That said, I expect they’ll announce the match for SummerSlam tonight. As Todd Martin suggested on the Fix, doing the “100-day celebration” could be an indication Bianca is losing the title. It’s possible, and you can line up babyfaces for Sasha (Bianca, Toni Storm, Liv Morgan).

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!