WWE Friday Night Smackdown Live Coverage - July 5th, 2024

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DIY to challenge WWE Tag Team Champions A-Town Down Under

In a highly-anticipated showdown, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa will challenge WWE Tag Team Champions Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. Gargano has history with Theory and has been trying to convince his former ally that Waller is using him, a situation that has caused mayhem between the teams. Will this play a factor in the title matchup?


:smackdown:

– "WWE Then. Now. Forever. Together." airs to get things started as always, and then we see footage of The Bloodline's savage assault of "The Wise Man" Paul Heyman from last week's show.

– Inside the Scotiabank Arena, we hear the familiar sounds of the theme song for "Main Event" Jey Uso. Out comes the master of "YEET!" to kick off tonight's show, as Corey Graves and Wade Barrett welcome us to the program. He says if you want to see Uso become the Mon-yeet In The Bank winner, say "YEET!" Of course, everyone does exactly that.

As he continues to talk, the theme for LA Knight hits and the crowd explodes once again as "The Mega Star" makes his way down to join Uso in the ring. Knight says Uso may be the favorite this year. He says he was this time last year and didn't win. He says he'll show Uso respect on Saturday by showing him none at all. The two get in a "YEET!" / "YEAH!"-off. The crowd plays along.

The theme for Carmelo Hayes then hits to break up the fun. He takes some shots at Knight and when he goes to give Uso his turn, the theme for Chad Gable interrupts him. Fans chant "You suck! You suck!" at him as he talks about being in a living hell the past few weeks. Andrade then cuts him off and joins the rest of the guys in the ring.

Drew McIntyre cuts him off and the crowd pops pretty damn big once again as "The Scottish Warrior" comes out, with Barrett on commentary calling him the most dangerous man in WWE. He takes shots at each, including asking Uso how he even got across the border with his arrest history. The guys all brawl, with Uso and Knight being the only two left standing in the ring when things wrap up.

– Backstage, WWE Women's Champion Bayley is interviewed about the significance of Money In The Bank. She talks about winning it and cashing in to become champion in the past. Up walks Chelsea Green who calls Bayley boring and boasts how she's going to become Cha-Ching Chelsea at Money In The Bank. Piper Niven then attacks Bayley from behind.

The Street Profits vs. Pretty Deadly

We return inside the arena, where we hear the familiar sounds of the theme music for The Street Profits. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins make their way to the ring for our first match of the evening. As they settle inside the squared circle, we shift gears and head into a quick pre-match commercial break.

When we return, Bayley comes out of Nick Aldis' office backstage and reveals to Naomi that she's got Piper Niven one-on-one tonight. Naomi tells Bayley as always that she's got her back. Pretty Deadly make their way to the ring after that and the bell sounds to get this tag-team tilt off-and-running.

Following some back-and-forth action, we see Pretty Deadly settle into the offensive lead as we shift gears and head into a mid-match commercial break. When we return, Pretty Deadly remains in control for a few more moments until finally Ford gets the hot tag. Ford goes on an offensive rampage that gets the crowd back on their feet.

Things build up a super-duper-plex stacked spot by Pretty Deadly off the top-rope to Ford. Dawkins leaps off the opposing top turnbuckle with a swanton bomb for a close two-count. Ford hits a big flipping splash from the ring to the floor on Kit Wilson and Elton Prince. Back in the ring, Ford hits a frog splash for the win.

Winners: The Street Profits

– Backstage, we see Grayson Waller stretching and warming up for tonight's main event, when his A-Town Down Under tag-team partner Austin Theory comes in.

Theory says something that makes Waller think he's got to prove himself all of a sudden. Theory says something Johnny Gargano said got in his head. Waller convinces him they're fine and to get focused for their title defense. We head to another commercial break.

Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair vs. Indi Hartwell & Candice LeRae

When we return, we see an extended video recap of The Bloodline Acknowledgement Ceremony from last week, including the violent assault of "The Wise Man" Paul Heyman. When it wraps up, Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair make their respective ring entrances.

After a quick pre-match commercial break wraps up, we return to women's tag-team action in progress, with Cargill and Belair squaring off against Indi Hartwell and Candice LeRae.

Following some early action, which sees Hartwell and LeRae isolate Cargill and double-team her, Belair finally gets the hot tag and helps shift the offensive momentum in her team's favor. Belair hits KOD and Cargill hits Jaded at the same time for the win.

After the match, Cathy Kelley enters the ring for a post-match interview with the winners. Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill make it clear that they are on a mission to recapture the WWE Women's Tag-Team Championships from Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn.

Winners: Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair

– The Progressive Match Flo of the Week video segment airs, featuring a look at the last few weeks worth of interactions involving DIY and A-Town Down Under to hype up tonight's tag-team title main event.

– After it wraps up, we shoot backstage live, where we see Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens meet up. They are heading to the ring for our next segment of the evening as we shift gears and head into a quick commercial break.

– When we return, the three each make their way to the ring. Cody starts first and talks about 16,000+ fans being in the building tonight and Money In The Bank being sold out tomorrow. Orton vows he's gonna help finish The Bloodline with an RKO.

Kevin Owens speaks last and is cut off as he mentions getting a call from his dad on Monday. After an "Ole! Ole!" chant wraps up, Owens again repeats he got a call from his dad that informed him his mom had been rushed to the hospital.

He says he's been in the same hospital in Quebec that he was born in by his mom's side with his brother. He talks about what she taught him and how he's gonna use those lessons to beat down The Bloodline this weekend.

– An elaborate video package airs to promote tonight's tag-team title main event and then we head to another commercial break. When we return, Bayley and Piper Niven make their respective entrances.

Bayley vs. Piper Niven

Naomi is in the corner for Bayley, while Chelsea Green is out with Niven. The bell sounds and this one gets officially off-and-running. We see some general back-and-forth action early on, and then Niven ends up Donkey Kong'ing Bayley on the floor.

On that note, we head into a mid-match commercial break as the action continues. When we return, we see Bayley hit a middle rope leg drop on Niven as she was draped across the middle rope.

Lyra Valkyria, IYO SKY and others in the Women's Money In The Bank ladder match are shown in the crowd throughout the bout. Tiffany Stratton, who is also in the Women's MITB bout tomorrow, makes her way out to the ringside area from the back.

Naomi and Green brawl at ringside. IYO, Lyra and Zoey Stark leave their seats in the crowd and join the brawl, which also includes Tiffany Stratton. Stratton climbs to the top-rope and hits a huge moonsault to the pile of bodies on the floor.

Back in the ring, Niven splashes Bayley in the corner. She heads to the middle rope for a Vader bomb, but Bayley moves and Niven crashes and burns. Bayley hits a Roseplant for the win. Nia Jax hits the ring to attack Bayley afterwards. Michin makes the save with a kendo stick.

Winner: Bayley

– When we return from the break, Graves and Barrett announce Nia Jax vs. Michin, as well as Baron Corbin & Apollo Crews vs. Angel & Berto in tag-team action for next week's WWE SmackDown on July 12 in Worcester, Massachusetts.

:tagteam:

WWE Tag-Team Championship Match: A-Town Down Under (C) vs. DIY

Backstage, the DIY duo of Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano are shown and they cut a promo as they walk to the ring in a single camera Goodfellas kitchen scene shot. They settle inside the squared circle and their music dies down.

Now the familiar sounds of the entrance tune for the reigning and defending WWE Tag-Team Champions hits and out comes the A-Town Down Under duo of Austin Theory and Grayson Waller for their latest scheduled tag-team title defense.

The bell sounds and we're officially off-and-running with our main event of the evening. Kicking things off for their respective teams are Ciampa and Waller. After some general early back-and-forth action, DIY takes over and hits double-team spots on Waller and Theory.

On that note, we shift gears and head into a mid-match commercial break with Ciampa and Gargano seated on the ring apron clapping along with the Toronto crowd. When we return, we see Theory working over Ciampa in the ring.

Theory hits a big suplex to his own knee on Gargano, which we see replayed in super slow-motion before we shift gears and head into another mid-match commercial break as our main event of the evening continues inside Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

As we settle back in from the final break of the evening, we see Gargano and Ciampa inching closer and closer to victory, as their two-counts get longer and longer after they hit a sequence of big moves.

Waller ends up hitting Theory on accident. Gargano rolls him up but only gets two. DIY hits Shatter Machine for a super close two-count. Theory beats down Gargano on the floor and saves Waller from Ciampa in the ring.

Theory takes the bullet for Waller, who is then hit with Project Ciampa. Gargano hits Meet Me in the Middle and covers him, but Theory puts Waller's foot on the ropes just in time. Gargano locks Waller in the Gargano Escape.

Right when Waller goes to tap, Theory slides in and grabs his hand to stop it on the way down. Ciampa snatches him up in a submission beside Gargano and eventually they tap. We have new champions. DIY are now the WWE Tag-Team Champions, and Toronto loves it.

Winners and NEW WWE Tag-Team Champions: DIY

– After DIY celebrates their title victory in the final match of the evening, Graves and Barrett send us to a special message from Solo Sikoa. In a very heavily post-produced vignette-style video, we see Solo Sikoa seated at the head of a table with the rest of The Bloodline behind him.

He has the feathered boa that Roman Reigns normally wears, which is designated for "The Tribal Chief" of The Bloodline. He talks about how if Roman Reigns wants it back, he can try and come take it.

He vows to send a message in the six-man tag-team match against Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens at the WWE Money In The Bank 2024 premium live event on Saturday night. After his video message wraps up, this week's Money In The Bank go-home show goes off the air.