[4.0] "Mediocre smackdown. Giulia vs Zelina was great, and I'm glad the crowd were so into it (and Giulia in general towards the end). Garzas vs Psycho Clown and Mr. Iguana was entertaining, but a sloppy match, mixed with the fact that the crowd was dead, just put it down a bit for me. Damien vs Aleister was solid but had a dumbass DQ finish. Talla vs Jimmy and the ensuing Fatu save were boring and unneeded. This stupid bloodline shit should've ended ages ago. And finally, the last segment was boring and didn't do anything for anyone. Logan's still using the same shitty "outsiders" shtick (cause it's easier than actually coming up with a character.) McIntyre must've done something terrible to Triple H, because if THIS is all they've got for him after he carried the company last year....we've got a problem. They made about 15 fat jokes about Jelly Roll, and then he came down with Randy and tried to attack them, but then they got separated by security and did a boring security beatdown. And that's not even mentioning the fact that Tiffany and Jade only got a 30 sec backstage segment. I don't particularly love either, but we all know they can do way better for Tiff than just 9000 Nia Jax matches, and a Bayley match."

[5.0] "Giulia's fight was a pass, a poor show, with little to save. Fortunately, skipping over the entrances and commercials, it's quick to watch..."

[8.0] "Look Smackdown can be very boring at times and there was a lot of boring matches on this, mainly with the bloodline stuff that always seems to outstay its welcome, but cmon we got that weird guy with the iguana and a banger US title match with Giulia and Zelina"

[6.0] "Like a Raw, SmackDown also was a typical go-home episode. Matches is normal, segments are 50/50 and all storylines get a time, majority of them not a many. At the start we saw a very strange babyface promo from John Cena, Cody likes that return of real Cena and now expectations of their match grown up so high. I'm assured that we can see something very intresting (double turn, a deception from Cena etc). This hypes me to SummerSlam, but anything else isn't so much."

[4.0] "The first 30 minutes of this was shockingly good TV, but it quickly went back to normal, shitty, Smackdown. Another bad show."

"1) No way in hell John Cena turned face just like that. It's either one of the most incoherent, nonsensical, and jarring turns in the history of pro wrestling, or one of the most interesting turns a pro wrestling story has ever taken - it all depends on what happens in the main event of SummerSlam Sunday. If it's just a ruse to lure Cody into a false sense of safety and take advantage of it in the Street Fight, then I will applaud to the WWE Creative for coming up with this scheme (maybe the Travis Scott news was also a work to give the turn more credibility). 2) The episode had really strong opening and closing segments, but everything in-between absolutely sucked big time (which is nothing new for SmackDown in the last couple of months)."

[5.0] "Can't pretend that did this episode particularly entertaining. The Cena/ Rhodes promo felt hammy and phoney even if you ignore the fact that Cena is clearly still the heel. Almost everything else fell flat apart from Giulia and Vega which I quite enjoyed. 5/10."

[8.0] "Overall a strong episode of Smackdown. It starts out with a very weird segment with Cena undoing his heel turn, just seemed out of nowhere. Guilia vs Vega was a good match as was the AAA tag team title match with the surprise of Psycho Clown and Mr Iguana. Black vs Priest was good for what it was and the brutal post match beatdown hopefully will lead somewhere for Black. Uso vs Talla and what followed was pretty skippable. Enjoyed all the segments between Jelly Roll, Orton, McIntyre and Paul."

"Not a good Smackdown. Cena stuff makes no sense and damages tv even worse and they botched Mr Iguana wwe debut. Only good thing was Giulia match."

"Is that the promo that could lead Cody to the dark side, or this is the devil's greatest trick? Nonetheless, the show was ok."

[5.0] "An average Smackdown, even though this SD was much better than last week's, which was a joke. I thought Cena's promo was excellent. Cody said it last week: he wants the real John Cena, and he got him. You can tell that Cena has no intention of turning face; it's clearly a ploy to trick Cody. I can't see WWE doing Cena's face turn in such a random segment. Giulia/Vega was a nice surprise. A very good match for the US title, the best match for this title since its inception. Vega getting up from Giulia's finish is very cool, it was good in-ring action and Giulia winning clean is very good too. I hope Kiana James will be useful to Giulia as a manager. Zelina Vega's best match this year. The AAA tag team is very decent. Finally, we see Mr Iguana and Psycho Clown and the Garzas, whom I like a lot. Despite a few botches by the two AAA wrestlers (which is somewhat logical, they are AAA wrestlers, not WWE wrestlers), they did well. I was really looking forward to Priest/Black because I like both of them a lot, but what a disappointment. It was too short despite the good wrestling, and the ending was rubbish. Black could have won cleanly against Priest, whose credibility would not have been destroyed if he had lost. The post-match was nice. Stratton/Cargill is clearly the worst-constructed rivalry at SummerSlam. We just had a forgettable segment in this SD. The Jimmy/Hikuleo match was boring. Jimmy's year is uninteresting; he's clearly a jobber at the moment. Hikuleo won cleanly, which is great, but I didn't find the segment that followed logical. Why wait for Fatu to arrive to bring down the cage? It would have made more sense to prevent Fatu from entering the cage to save Jimmy. In short, the cage served no purpose. The final segment, I can't wait for it to end. Poor Drew and Logan, who have to come up with totally stupid lines to make this feud interesting. The fight doesn't save this segment. Clearly, they should have put the Cena/Cody segment at the end instead of this stuff. It's a shame that this SD is average because the beginning was very good. NOW SUMMERSLAM."

"The beatdown after the main event was hilariously bad. The cage just stopped lowering for a solid 30 seconds while fatu, who was supposed to be in a rush, took a leisurely stroll down to the ring."

"Wasn't a good show in my opinion. The same act over and over with the islanders. Mix it up and make it fresh for a change"

[6.0] "Giulia vs Zelina was the best match on this card and I don't care if people think Zelina should have been finished sooner, she made a great effort and lost clean. The AAA match was botchy, possibly because Iguana and Clown are not used to a WWE ring? Damien Priest vs Aleister Black had a meh DQ ending. Talla Tonga debut was fine but big man brawlers are rarely very exciting. Props to Giulia for being the best worker of the night."

[7.0] "I thought this was one of the better smackdowns of the past few weeks. A good balance of in ring action and storylines, even with some less than desirable booking decisions, which is unfortunatley becoming a theme in WWE"

[6.0] "Fairly average episode of Smackdown overall. Didn't look like it was gonna be that way at first with that Cena turn promo and the US title match both delivering but the AAA tag open challenge was a botchfest, Black and Priest were having a good match before the DQ finish, and everything involving the bloodline was not good. Also, stop trying to make me care about Jelly Roll"

[4.0] "In all honesty, this smackdown was very lackluster. The opening segment with Cena and Cody was perfectly fine start with hyping up their Summerslam match, Zelina vs Giulia was pretty good and easily the best thing about this show. The tag title match was fine, then the show went downhill quick with Priest and Black having a DQ finish, Tonga and Uso being filler and absolute dull. The ending segment was mediocre at best with Orton's starpower carrying the segment heavily. If the show ends in a boring or bad ending then it heavily ruins it."

[5.0] "This was an all-around very mediocre episode of SmackDown. The first hour was very pleasant to watch, with John Cena reverting to a babyface, a fun title defense from Giulia, and Mr. Iguana and Psycho Clown answering Los Gárzas' Open Challenge. The second hour of the show took a huge dip. Aleister Black and Damian Priest had a good match until the DQ finish, and Aleister Black looked like a badass and portrayed himself as a killer. Talla Tonga and Jimmy Uso had a very poor match that shouldn't have happened. SmackDown hasn't been enjoyable, and it doesn't help that they keep dragging out the lifeless Bloodline story. But I think it's time for the WWE Draft to make its way because the overhaul needs to happen."

[8.0] "Was this an alright show? Yes, but I reason I'm giving it an 8 is because I was there live. The Vega vs Giulia match was great, the tag title match was fun, Damien vs Aleister was fine until the unn DQ, Talla vs Jimmy was hot trash. The opening segment was incredible and the ending segment was good as well."

[5.0] "The August 1, 2025 edition of WWE SmackDown was simply a poor show. Nothing more, nothing less. For being a go-home show for a PPV. It felt very empty. They are in dire need of a brand draft. So first things first, Let's go through the positives. John Cena turning face was a good moment after the heel shenanigans weren't working and the segment was damn good too. Giulia vs. Zelina Vega was surprisingly good and I wished it had more time to develop but man what they gave us was pretty good! That was about it for positives. Everything else ranged from bad to average. First things first, Berto. Good god. Berto. He ruined the tag match with consistent sloppiness and botching. It was almost laughable. Priest vs. Black being hyped for weeks ends via a random DQ. Talla vs. Jimmy was awful which was expected. You get two of the worst guys on the SmackDown roster and put them in one match. The closing segment wasn't too bad but it wasn't mindblowing. Overall, just a very basic and bare bones SmackDown. It feels like the stepchild of WWE that nobody cares about. [**1/2]"