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July 26, 2025 • 29 mins
Amanda from the UK reviews WWE SmackDown that aired July 25th, 2025. One that saw WWE pay tribute to Hulk Hogan, appearances from Logan Paul, Jelly Roll and Cody Rhodes as well as a huge TLC match announced for SummerSlam.

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Listen WWE superstar Drew mcintyr, and you're listening to the
WWE podcast show, the one that everybody wants me.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
So well, yours is my You can acknowledge me. Good morning,
good afternoon, and the evening. Hello, whatever time it is
with you and wherever you are. Thank you for downloading
this SmackDown review as part of the WWE podcast. As always,
it's an absolute pleasure to have you listening along. I

(00:45):
am Amanda at your host of the SmackDown review. Give
me a follow on Twitter. I am at Amanda SD review.
So after a week off, I'm back and as addicted,
what a week it was. Let's talk really quick about
Saturday Night's main event and evolution before we dive into

(01:07):
our SmackDown review. Overall, I thought Saturday Night's main event
was a little bit underwhelming. Gunther versus Goldberg for the title.
This was a longer match than I thought it would be.
Think it was about fourteen minutes, possibly having to fill
after the seth thing, but a predictable guns the win

(01:29):
and apparently Goldberg was very salty afterwards as his speech
got cut off. But me rawlins versus Night and this
is the one that got everyone talking for all the
wrong reasons. Unfortunately, Seth seemed to get any injury, calling
for the match to be cut short and a win

(01:49):
for Night. There's a lot of speculation about whether the
set injury is real and is it all at work.
As far as I know, we haven't had anything officially
confirmed either way as of yet, but there are really
strong rumors doing the rounds on several other podcasts suggesting
it's a work and that Seth springs a surprise attack

(02:12):
at SummerSlam, cashing in the title, possibly screwing Punk in
the process, etc. Etc. So let's see where we go
with that one. Drew versus Randy was okay, I guess
Randy beat Drew and we got the setup for the
whole Jelly Roll Logan Paul match for SummerSlam. Let's see

(02:39):
what they do with that. Solo versus Jimmy for the
US title was a solo win, and then we move
on to Evolution Eo versus Rea for the Women's title
as predicted, an absolute banger of a match, interrupted by
Naomi to make it a triple threat, and she took

(02:59):
the title, which I thought was absolutely brilliant stuff. Loved it.
Tiffy versus Trish for the title again as predicted, Tiffy retains,
Becky versus Bailey versus lyra Of for the Intercontinental champions
Becky retains twenty Women Battle Royale. We didn't get any

(03:19):
surprises here in terms of returns. Nikki Bella didn't really
do much and we got a Stephanie Vacker win setting
her up for a title match in Paris, which is brilliant.
She is, I think top of the list at the moment,
absolutely a brilliant wrestler, Absolutely fantastic Jay versus Naomi no

(03:43):
holds barb match. Jade takes the win, and this was
great actually, as it left people thinking there's no way
that Naomi would cash in, and then she did, which
was fabulous. The Women's tag title match roxane and retained,
but we have a Summer Slam match already set up
for Charlotte and Bliss to take on the tag Chace.

(04:06):
Our thought Evolution was very good and lived up to
my expectations. Certainly, do we need it every year, Probably not,
but I would love to see it on the calendar
of WWE as a semi regular pla. And then of
course we had our Roman return and what a pop
he got when he first came out hooking up with Jay,

(04:28):
getting revenge on the weasel that is Paul Hayman. Just brilliant.
Are we headed for Roman Set at some point down
the line? I think that's where we're going, But when
and how we get there that's the fun. And we
can't start the review without a word for Hulk Hogan, who,
as you know, died this week age seventy one. For

(04:50):
whatever you may have thought of him, the guy was
a foundation stone of the WWE for sure. So let's
get to it for our main event, and let's review
the SmackDown that aired on July twenty fifth from Cleveland,
and we start off with a tribute to Hogan, which

(05:12):
Triple H delivered, and many of the roster past and
present on the stage to pay tribute. And as we
kick off tonight's show proper, we have Joe Tess trying
to sum up a complex man's life talking about Hogan.
Wade calls him the most important figure in WWE history.

(05:37):
We don't get started, and we get logan Paul out
in Cleveland is his hometown and even they hate him.
We get it confirmed that Drew Logan Paul versus Randy
and Jelly Row. Jelly Roll will be on Summer Slam Saturday.
Paul starts off by telling Cleveland it's good to be home,

(05:58):
and they bow him. He claims the thank you Hogan
chance as thank you Logan chance, so typically classless from
him as always well done Logan Paul. He says Cleveland
raised him, but it didn't make him. In fact, he
made the city. He says he isn't like them. They

(06:20):
have nothing in common. He says he made it out
and you all didn't. And he says tonight is about
the community and he's giving them all the opportunity to
see his show live. He says he's going to show
jelly Roll what a real hometown hero looks like. At
that point, we get jelly Roll's music kits, which is

(06:41):
actually pretty catchy, and he comes out to a big
reaction from the crowd. He tells, Paul, you think you're
an inspiration. The only thing you have inspired is little
lasshole kids filming themselves being little ass holes, which I
thought was absolutely brilliant and oh my god, so true brilliant.

(07:02):
He says he's sick of Logan acting like people from
Cleveland actually like him. Logan tells him this is impulsive TV,
so shut him out and show some respect. He says
he brought him out so he understands who he is
getting in the ring with at SummerSlam. Logan says that

(07:24):
Jelly Roll has nothing to offer but a few cheap shots,
So who does he think he is and what has
he done? Jelly Roll tells him that he's going to
put him in a body bag at SummerSlam. It's escalating
fairly quickly. Jelly tells Logan that he has had to
struggle his whole life, unlike Logan, who's never had to struggle,

(07:47):
and he's been a silver spoon kid his whole life.
Jelly says that he's getting in the ring for all
the poor kids who have had to deal with high
school jocks like Logan their whole life. He says he's
getting in the ring to bring a light he is

(08:07):
he has there as he's been a WWE fan for
his whole life and it represented him and represented the
whole crowd. Jelly Roll says that his story has inspired millions,
and he calls Logan a prime pedaling punkast bitch, which
again is just a quality line. At that point, Drew

(08:31):
arrives and removes his shirt Hogan style and Jelly's back up.
Rko makes his entrance. He looks like he's about to talk,
he's got a mic in his hand, but instead he
just chins Drew and however, we get the heels taking
the advantage and Paul beats down on Jelly in the ring. Thankfully,

(08:53):
Randy comes back and takes care of Drew, giving Jelly
a chance to get some great shots in on Logan.
Jelly it's give him his flowers phenomenal slam, which leaves
us with Randy and Jelly standing tool. Now I think
that this was an important opening segment. We were in,

(09:14):
I think desperate need of some context and some story
behind this, and now we have it, the silver Spoon
Logan Paul versus the everyman Jelly roll. Yes, I like it.
It's very good, old school good versus evil, and we
have the two legends Drew and Randy in the ring
to keep things on track in terms of wrestling. I

(09:37):
wasn't bothered about this match at all, but this segment
has worked a treat on me and now you can
count me in very much a very very good, strong
start to the show. We then get a vignette from
Andreade and Phoenix, Andrede says he knows who Phoenix is,

(09:58):
which is always and is your tag team partner. Phoenix
says that he also knows who Andrada is well see
above comment. They say they are money and they are
on a different level. It's only a matter of time
till the goal is around their waste. That's all I

(10:19):
got to say about that. I'm not pretty bothered. Yes
they're an awesome tag team, Yes they've got some wicked moves,
but it does feel like they've been a bit shoehorned together.
Hey look, maybe I'm wrong. Has been known like literally
every week, But at this moment, I'm not really bothered
by Andrada and Phoenix, apart from the fact that obviously
they're completely fire in the ring. Anyway. Now we go

(10:44):
to our first in ring wrestling action of the evening,
and it's Bliss versus Prayers with Charlotte in toe getting
a good reaction with black pom poms and I absolutely
love it. The tag match is confirmed for Summer Islam.
Saturday kicks off with Bliss in charge and Wade reminding
us that last week, Charlotte got the win over Raquel

(11:07):
with a nice assist from Bliss. We do start off
with Bliss in charge and Charlotte stepping in when Raquel
tries to get involved outside the ring. Bliss is absolutely
handing Perez her ask as she goes for sister Abigail,
only for Perez to break it by raking her eyes.
We get Raquel with the blind side on Bliss as

(11:29):
Charlotte again takes her out. Bliss is about to go
for twisted Bliss this time, but it's distracted by Riquel,
who returns to beat down Charlotte. Bliss changes tack and
hits a sweet twisted Bliss on Raquel from the top
to the outside, saving Charlotte. But off of that distraction,

(11:51):
Roxanne gets a quick roll up with one hand on
the ropes, gets the free crown and takes the win.
So we go to the go Home Summer Slam show
next week with this one at one win each. A
decent match that didn't last long. I would like to
have seen it go a bit longer, but I guess
they're wanting to keep their powder dry for SummerSlam, and

(12:14):
that's okay. Some nice developments in the Bliss Charlotte friendship
in inverted commas and we are Defo being sold to
Perez and Raquela. On the same page. After the match,
we see that Bliss is bleeding from her nose, which
looks kind of real, So I hope this is okay
and she doesn't have a busted nose all our Becky

(12:36):
Lynch all those years ago in twenty eighteen. Again though,
good building for the Summer Slam match. Now backstage, we
have Kathy Kelly who is with Jade Queen of the
Ring my ass Cargill, sorry, but I'm still not buying
that she is ready in any way, shape or form

(12:58):
for any time. Kathy asks her how she is feeling
a week out for my title shot. Jade, with a
generic answer, says next week she will show everyone she
is a natural born champion and walks away. Chelsea Green
approaches Kathy and asks her is she sure she wants
to talk about Jade. She says that she was screwed

(13:19):
at Queen of the Ring. She says Jade is stupid
and slow. Predictably Jade's behind, Chelsea punches her in the
face and they brawl through Gorilla and towards the ring,
Jade is carrying Chelsea on her shoulders tosses her into
the ring where there is a The bell rings, so
we have Chelsea versus Jade. She's weird. It just happened

(13:43):
to be a ref hanging out in the ring doing nothing,
and the bell just rang and there's a match. Who
made the match? No, I'm not having this at all.
This finishes quickly as Jade hits Jaded and wins. Jade's
beaten down them by the secret Harvist. After the match,
and for some unknown reason, Tiffy comes out to make

(14:04):
the save. The two team up and clear the ring.
I mean, what and what what is the point of this?
I guess they set up Chelsea to be squashed by
Jade to make her look strong, But of all the
people on a roster, why do Chelsea day? They could

(14:25):
have literally used any other woman. It looks like they
are decided on moving Chelsea into the mis role, which
is a massive shame as she's brilliant and why in
storyline world would Tivvy come out and save Jade. Surely
Jade getting a pre Summat slam beatdown is good news

(14:49):
for Tiffy. Weird and don't like it. I fear we
are getting WWE. They're just going to push Jade to
the top, whatever happens. For me. This has a massive
whiff of Vince pushing Roman to the moon pre his
OTC babyface Roman, regardless of how everyone else felt. Basically,

(15:11):
we're being instructed by WWE that Jade is awesome and
therefore she's getting pushed. And I just think sy backstage
now and we have blissed. She's been comforted by Charlotte,
who says maybe they can be friends after they win
at SummerSlam. And I have to say, again, brilliant stuff

(15:32):
by WWE with Charlotte here. They have turned me one
hundred percent round on Charlotte and I am now rooting
for her and Bliss as a team. And yes, I
am an absolute mark. We've now got Cody in his
new dressed down look, which I think is pretty cool.
I'm enjoying him being a bit less politician. He says.

(15:54):
He comes to the ring and he says, yesterday WWE
lost a giant in Hogan. He again acknowledges the complexity
of feeling around him, but says his contributions are massive
and he thanks Hogan for everything. He goes on to
talk about the match between him and Sena at SummerSlam.

(16:14):
He says it will be violent, and sometimes that is
what doing the right thing looks like. He says that
he doesn't want to wrestle this Scena. He doesn't want
to fight a guy who didn't want this match and
is counting down the day till he's out of the door.
He wants to fight the real Scena. He says, the
title Seena has is the biggest and best in the

(16:37):
business and that means something. He says he wants the
old Sena who used to talk to Stu on the
way to the ring where the title the right way
round and run down to the ring so they can
beat the hustle, loyalty, and respect out of each other.
He says he wants the real Scena as he needs
to know that the story meant something and was real.

(17:00):
So if some channels would be to believed, we apparently, maybe,
allegedly possibly might be getting a double turn at Summer Slam,
with Cody finally turning. Heel, now, I am not one
of those who thinks that would be good. I mean,
we turn him and we turned Sena. Fine, Okay, Sena

(17:20):
leaves in December, and Cody is still heel. I think
if you look at the roster, we are really heavy
on heels right now. So I'm not sure the promo
were short and sweet, a bit more build. I guess
nothink we didn't already really know, but we keep pressing
to Summer Slam, and I'm assuming surely we must have

(17:43):
a Sena appearance on next week's SmackDown. We get a
recap then of last Friday's slightly on car crash angle
on what led up to the still cage match at
Summer Slam and Solo's quote unquote arrest by some real
dodgy looking police, and a promo from Fatou, who tells

(18:08):
Solo that he loved him, but he tried to get
him frayed and sent back to jail, and he said
he was never ever going to go back to jail,
he says, though he doesn't mind getting locked in a
steel cage for the US title, and he's going to
dog walk his ass now into the mis. Yes, you've
heard me, the mis, he says. Six weeks ago Fatou

(18:29):
took him out, and it's given him time to remember
who he is. He says he isn't a target, He's
a main character, and with that in mind, he's set
up a match tonight against Fatou. Now I'd forgotten Misses
from Cleveland, so I guess this was nailed on. That
match is coming up now, and we get miss out

(18:50):
to a decent hometown pop. Before we go to that match,
we get a promo from Priest, who is building his
beef with Black. They have a match next week, but
unfortunately as only on SmackDown, not at Suna Slam. Let's
see how that match between those two goes could be awesome,
could be a complete damp squib, but I'm interested to see,

(19:14):
as you guys know what wwe do with Black and
similarly with Priest, because they're both great talents. We then
get back to this match. Fatou is out and gets
a much bigger pop than hometown Mis and I fear
for them is here. He may be about to get

(19:35):
his head ripped off. This one starts off with Mis
trying his best, but Fatou predictably beating the what is
out of him? The crowd one hundred on Fatoo side
and he is kicking ass. We get Solo and his
MFT coming down. To the ring, which distracts Fattou, allowing
Miz to attack and start making some in into the match.

(20:01):
Fatu flies out of the ring, taking out the MFT
and Miss Fatuu ends it quickly with a pop up
Simo and the pin getting the win, but in our heartbeat,
the MFT are in the ring and beating down Fatou.
This brings out Jimmy with a chair to make the
save and he takes out the MFT, but is leveled

(20:24):
by Talatonga and the rest of the gang then carry
on where they left off, but Fatou, as we've come
to expect, launches an awesome fight back and ty Solo
lot of a chair around his neck and looks to
hip the hit the hip attack, but it's flattened by
Talatonga on his way across the ring. We end up

(20:46):
with Solo and his MFT standing tall over Jacob Fattuu
and chops in after him. So I'm going to go
early here and say I think we're getting a Fattou
win at Summer Slam without his crew. Solo is unfortunately
barely average these days, and Miss, on his return from

(21:09):
injury into his hometown, is once again fed into the storyline.
And chewed up and now do you see what I
mean about the path of Chelsea Green and the miss
It's like they're just tools. Backstage, Kathy has the Profits

(21:30):
with BFAB. She asked for their perspective on tonight's match.
BFAB says they are a specific enemy and need to
be dealt with in a specific way. Dorkin stays it
doesn't matter as they are next. So hang on, wait, wait, wait,
If Beefab is now back with the Profit profits, did
we decide that her and Meeching are no longer a thing?

(21:52):
That's a shame. That was looking interesting. They were both
thriving in that environment. Anyway. Profits are interrupted by Dy
who say they blew their title run. They should step
aside and DIY handle it. Candice tells them they have
a plan and all they have to do is stay

(22:12):
out of the way. We then get a trailer for Unreal,
which starts this week. Now, for anyone who's been living
under a rock, this looks to tell the story of
the writing room and how all this comes about in WWE.
There's a lot of contention around the WWE fans podcast, Twitter, etc.

(22:38):
Is this a genuine look behind the curtain or is
this also part of storyline? I don't know. I'm really
looking forward to it in equal measure of not looking
forward to it. It feels like Christmas might be about
to get ruined. But also I really really want to
have a peek behind the curtain, see what goes on,
see what the processes are, the thought that goes on.

(23:02):
So I will watch it, possibly like I used to
watch words or gummage as a kid. Which is throwing
my fingers and slightly behind the sofa because I'm not
sure I really want to know, but I'm certainly intrigued
and more wwe programming that we have got to make
time for in our week, Thank God for Netflix. Backstage,

(23:26):
we have Selena facing up to Julia. Yes, yawn, Selena.
We have Keana James as her management and spokesperson, and
she tells Lena that she will get her rematch next week. Ugh,
let's hope that that marks the end of that and
let Julia go on to face any of the other

(23:48):
massively impressive women on the roster. I thought we did
away with rematches for this very reason. It's just we
get caught in a vortex of rematch, rematch, rematch and
the same stories over and over, so let's hope this
is a one and done next week Julia retaining hopefully

(24:09):
against Selena. Now to our main event this evening, which
is the tag title match Why It's six versus Andrade
and Ray Phoenix. This one kicks off with the Challenges
getting ahead and Andrade managing to hit three amigos, but
Loomis and Gay Gaysey excuse me, quickly managed to fight

(24:31):
back some impressive moves from Phoenix. Phoenix though a kip
up straight into a superkick which looked really really cool.
A double tag brings in Andrade, who does well, taking
out both the tag team champs and getting a very
close cover. Gasey and Loumas, though take back the upper

(24:52):
hand and get a cover which is only broken at
the last nanosecond by Phoenix. Andrade hits the message and
to be honest, looks to have it one, but the
ref is yanked from the ring by Niki Cross, who
finds it all hilarious, so this one goes to a
dq finish. We get the bell rung almost immediately, which

(25:16):
means the wy At six retain, and after the bell
we get Eric Rowan come to the ring and one
by one, takes out all the manager, all the members
of the Tag locker room who come to the ring
one by one and have a go at him. Finally,
the Prophets come out to a decent pop actually, and
seem to be making headway against Rowan, but Nick Or

(25:39):
just makes an appearance with his mic at ringside with
DIY and it's all gone completely crazy. Nick says that
he has had enough of this. Despite what he'd set
up a couple of weeks ago, everyone seems to still
want to go, so he makes a much match for SummerSlam,

(26:00):
and it's tables, ladders and chairs for the whole Tag Division.
I mean, that is going to be a spectacle and
a half with the athleticism and the moves that some
of these Tag Division partnerships are capable of. Blind me,
I'm relieved I don't have to summarize that much for

(26:20):
the podcast. It will be absolute carnage. But what a
match that is going to be. That is going to
be something quite specialized. Really looking forward to that. Absolutely
one for the ages. I'm sure so well done WWE.
The show comes to an end with the whole Tag

(26:42):
team division brawling. We've got what looks like every producer,
every referee, every WWE official out there trying to break
things up, but it is absolute carnage as the WYAT
six make their way away from the action, still whole
in their tag team titles. And I don't think you

(27:05):
can call who's going to win that TLC tag team
match at Summer Slam. Yeah, it could be any of them.
They are all super supremely talented, and all I know is, yes,
please sign me up. That's going to be awesome. We
also got tonight the day by day card of Summer Slam,

(27:29):
so we know who's going to be on the Saturday,
who's going to be on the Sunday. So obviously on
next week's show we'll be making some predictions, so we'll
go through who's on Saturday and who's on the Sunday.
So I thought tonight was a great show, some good building,
some good story development, not a massive amount of actual wrestling,

(27:49):
but I don't mind that so much. We are on
route to the second biggest pearly of the year and
the stories need to get out there and be told,
particularly as this is the first two night SummerSlam. There's
an awful lot of quite detailed storytelling that needs to
go on there, So I'm okay with there being a

(28:11):
more minimum amount of wrestling on tonight's show, as long
as that doesn't become the norm, because obviously we love
the stories, but we also really love the wrestling, which is,
let's be honest, why we're all watch him. So we
continue to go home show next week, and I for one,
am very excited about this Summer Slam. I want to

(28:35):
say a massive luck to the Lionesses who face Spain
tomorrow afternoon. We would love to see them retain their
European championships and bring football home once again. So come
on the Lionesses, and anyway, guys, that does it for
me this week. Reach out on Twitter let me know

(28:56):
what you thought of this show, which I thought was
quite a different show, and I'd be interested to see
what you thought. I am AMANDASD review, so reach out,
let's talk wrestling. That does it for this week's show.
Thank you for having me in your ears once again,
and remember, until next time, be kind to come on

(29:17):
the linuses.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Thanks for listening to the WWE podcast. Don't forget to
subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss
a show or head to wwepodcast dot com and for
all of these shows add free head over to Patreon
dot com slash WWE Podcast. Until then, we'll see you

(29:42):
next time.
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