WWE SmackDown takeaways: Hulk Hogan's 10-bell salute, huge SummerSlam tag team match set

USA Today

7 days ago

WWE Friday Night SmackDown on July 25 took place at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, and featured a tag team title match between The Wyatt Sicks and the team of Andrade and Rey Fenix.
The road to SummerSlam continued, but the show was dedicated to the memory of Hulk Hogan, who died Thursday at 71. Roxanne Perez got a win over Alexa Bliss, Jade Cargill squashed Chelsea Green, and Cody Rhodes cut a promo for his street fight against John Cena at SummerSlam.
Here's the top takeaways from this week's episode:
10-bell salute to Hulk Hogan
This week's show began with the entire locker room, including WWE Superstars from both past and present, standing shoulder to shoulder at the entrance, as an image of Hulk Hogan and the dates 1953-2025 was displayed on the screens.
Triple H gave a speech in memory of Hogan, touching on his importance to the world of professional wrestling. Then, the entire arena held silent as the 10-bell salute rang. "Hogan, Hogan" chants followed before a video package narrated by Triple H highlighted his career.
It's impossible to deny Hogan's impact on the world of professional wrestling. He was an iconic figure who truly elevated the business to new heights. It's difficult to imagine what wrestling would look like today without "The Hulkster" and later, "Hollywood Hogan."
The performer was a cornerstone of childhood memories and inspired many. However, the man, Terry Bollea, was flawed, and that too, is impossible to deny.
He made multiple racist remarks that left a permanent stain on his legacy. He prevented unionization efforts of his peers and rubbed many of them the wrong way for various reasons. That's why his death prompted mixed reactions.
Jelly Roll, Randy Orton take out Logan Paul, Drew McIntyre
The first promo segment of the show was an episode of "imPaulsive TV" with Logan Paul on the mic in his hometown.
Paul called himself an inspiration and delivered a few typical heel lines to the crowd before addressing Jelly Roll, who he will face at SummeSlam in a tag team match. Jelly Roll quickly appeared after Paul mentioned his name.
"The only thing you've ever inspired is little asshole kids filming themselves being assholes," Jelly Roll said.
Jelly Roll entered the ring as they continued to exchange words. Paul's teammate, Drew McIntyre appeared. Jelly Roll then sang a few lines of Randy Orton's entrance theme to summon his teammate.
After Orton entered the ring, he raised the mic to his mouth, but decided to just let his fists do the talking, and a brawl was on. Jelly Roll got dropped, but also rebounded to get a few licks in before clearing the ring as he and Orton celebrated.
This was a fun SummerSlam preview. Jelly Roll was fantastic on the mic. As far as being a pro wrestler goes, he has the talking part down, which some never get. But his moves? Well, they didn't look terrible, but he's got big shoes to fill from the recent run of celebs who competed in matches. This SummerSlam match could turn out to be a nice surprise. We'll see.
The Miz slaps Jacob Fatu, gets wrecked
The Miz showed up out of nowhere feeling like a big dog in his own backyard.
Jacob Fatu was in the middle of cutting a fiery promo backstage on Solo Sikoa when one of Cleveland's favorite sons, The Miz popped up. The Miz, who was taken out by Fatu a little while back, wanted revenge in his hometown.
The Miz slapped Fatu in the face. Fatu smiled and said, "Well, come on with it."
The two met in the ring, and The Miz quickly regretted his decision making. He did get a few moments of offense in after United States champ Solo Sikoa arrived with his MFTs to distract Fatu. After getting his focus back, The Miz was squashed.
After the match, Sikoa and his crew unloaded on Fatu. Jimmy Uso came out to make the save, but Talla Tonga shook off a chair shot and took him out.
All of this was to hype the cage match between Fatu and Sikoa at SummerSlam. The Miz actually made it believable he was going to do something to Fatu in the promo backstage, but he always brings the appropriate energy on the mic. Seeing Sikoa and crew stand tall over Fatu bodes well for "The Samoan Werewolf" ahead of SummerSlam, as it makes it more likely he'll get that back when the cage closes.
Wyatt Sicks disqualified, retain tag titles; huge SummerSlam TLC announced
The main event of the show featured the Wyatt Sicks, who were set to defend their tag titles for the first time against Andrade and Rey Fenix.
The match was as expected. Both teams put on high-flying displays of offense to keep the crowd interested. However, as the match progressed, it was clear Andrade and Fenix were the better team in the ring. Their momentum carried them into what would have been a title-changing moment, but Nikki Cross broke up the pin by pulling the referee out of the ring, which caused a disqualification.
From that point, all hell broke loose – a recurring theme with the SmackDown tag team division.
In the blink of an eye, the entire division made their way out, causing a huge melee. DIY was last to run out with Nick Aldis following closely. As The Street Profits launched themselves onto a sea of bodies outside of the ring, Aldis entered the ring to announce that he's tired of seeing nonstop chaos with the division. So, at SummerSlam, the tag titles will be up for grabs in a 6-team TLC match.
Yeah, Aldis, I'm sick of it too.
Week in and week out, it's always the whole division on screen at once. It's like the writers are incapable of making interesting stories for these teams on their own. Maybe this newly announced TLC match will signal the end of beating us over the head with multi-way matches over and over and over again.
Can those matches be fun? Absolutely. The problem is WWE has used it as a crutch with the division instead of developing stories. Let's only hope this SummerSlam match lives up to the 4-way that should have been on the WrestleMania card.