WWE SmackDown - 7/3/2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 We Loved

The second-half of last week's double "WWE SmackDown" taping aired on USA. The Independence Eve show had a pretty big main event, which saw Cody Rhodes clinch a title shot against WWE Champion Sami Zayn. If you want to read more about the show, the WWE SmackDown 7/3/2026 Results Page has you covered.

For now, it's time for the Wrestling Inc. crew to get into the good and the bad of Friday's show in Atlantic City, NJ. As always, there were some things to really love, like the fact that this was the first of the latest stretch of two-hour "SmackDown" broadcasts, making the show mercifully shorter. There was also a tremendous AAA Cruiserweight Championship Match. There was also plenty to hate, like the messy, predictable world title scene, and the dreary state of the women's division. If you want to keep the conversation going, the comments section is always open to you.

Let's get this out of the way, so we can all go blow off fireworks and eat hot dogs. Here's the best and the worst of the July 3rd "WWE SmackDown."

Jade Cargill, Michin, B-Fab, Charlotte Flair, Chelsea Green, and Tiffany Stratton are all talented competitors in their own right. In theory, the Six-Woman Tag Team Match between them should've been good to watch. While the action itself was pretty solid, there were still two glaring issues that I had with all of this that were hard for me to ignore.

First off, I didn't particularly enjoy the ending of the match that saw Chelsea Green become distracted by B-Fab on the ring apron to allow for Cargill to deliver Jaded to her for the win. B-Fab was an active competitor in this match, so it didn't really make much sense to me when Green became distracted by her hopping onto the ring apron. B-Fab would already be on the ring apron or around the ring, and the ending might've worked if it were a match that B-Fab wasn't actively competing in. However, she was in the match (which is something Green would've known) and she should expect to see her without becoming fully distracted from what she was doing inside the ring.

Secondly, the whole storyline between Cargill, Michin, B-Fab, Flair, Stratton, Green, and Alexa Bliss is becoming really hard to follow. I know that there's overlap between various competitors, from Cargill unsuccessfully challenging Stratton for the Women's United States Championship at Night of Champions to Green wanting to befriend Stratton and Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab having issues with Flair and Bliss. With that much overlap taking place, though, it's really hard to track who has issues with whom, who likes whom, and what everyone is fighting about inside the ring. It feels a bit like WWE is trying to bring together various smaller storylines into one bigger plot point, but I'm not entirely sure that's a good idea or the move that they should've gone with here.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

If WWE isn't going to do anything special, or even anything, really, with Rey Fenix, I want to continue to see him defend his AAA Cruiserweight Championship on "SmackDown." His previous matches with Nathan Frazer and Axiom were great, and I really loved his bout tonight against AAA Latin American Champion El Hijo del Vikingo.

I'm a big fan of Vikingo's, though I suppose it should be acknowledged that he was reportedly injured rehearsing for a match ahead of this week's "WWE NXT," so thankfully, this match was taped. I really love his style, and he's one of the stars I gravitated toward the quickest when I started watching AAA here and there following WWE's acquisition of the company. If you're a wrestling fan on social media at all, you've probably heard of Vikingo (like I had before starting to tune in), so giving him some time on "SmackDown" against Fenix was a great choice.

I thought the crowd actually responded really well to Vikingo and this match, though, of course, knowing WWE, some of that could have been piped in. I did see some fans physically clapping along to the "This is awesome!" chants, though, so at least some of that was real. Before that, I thought I heard "Lucha libre!" chants, which were also cool. If crowds are going to respond like that, even in Atlantic City, and no shade there, but it's not exactly a hotspot of Lucha culture, we're more likely to continue to see AAA stars and title defenses on the main roster, despite the blue brand losing an hour.

The pair had a really fun, fast-paced match, and I'm glad "SmackDown" is two hours now, because I felt like I had the energy to focus on it a little better. Vikingo has some crazy moves he doesn't look like he should be able to do, like the springboard 450, and he looked great alongside Fenix. Fenix's Mexican Muscle Buster is also always impressive to see and a fantastic finisher.

While I don't think it's impossible that a AAA title changes hands on the main roster, Fenix's three defenses on the blue brand have looked solid, and it doesn't seem like he'll be losing it anytime soon. Hopefully, WWE has some more challengers lined up for Fenix, as the fast-paced nature of his bouts works so well to liven up a show. I also hope Vikingo gets well soon if he is indeed injured, as he is also a breath of fresh air on the main roster, and I think both shows could benefit from sporadic appearances from the Latin American Champion.

Written by Daisy Ruth

For weeks on end, Danhausen was the bright spark on an often drab Friday night. Just a few minutes of dumb fun with the little demon-gremlin-wrestler-thing, annoying every and anyone that dared to enter his makeshift laboratory. Chief among those people being annoyed was the Miz and Kit Wilson, enraged to the point of electrocuting themselves into rather literal shells of themselves.

That was fun for the first couple of weeks, Miz and Wilson being the mindless thralls of Danhausen while the mystery of whatever it is he is actually doing in that lab simmered underneath it all. But as with everything WWE, there comes a time when drip-feeding through copy and paste segments really begins to get grating.

Enter this week, with Wilson and Miz hooked up to some contraption and Matt Cardona now the unofficial lab assistant. Danhausen told Cardona to pull the switch. He did, and then Wilson and Miz started getting electrocuted and yelling. Cardona asked what was wrong, Danhausen said the Judgment Day must have messed with it and took his leave, expecting Cardona to fix it. .

The Danhausen segments started to feel a little hollow and diluted as he was spread between the two weekly shows and incorporated Miz, Wilson, Cardona, and the Judgment Day. There is still a body lying on a slab, which was the original premise of the segments, without any further explanation or even a tease that there will be an explanation.

Instead, there's this. And it's very hard to even conceive that someone sat in a writing room – or on an LLM – and actually thought of this segment and further thought it was good for broadcast. But, credit where it is due, they actually managed to make Danhausen boring and ostensibly bad. And one does not imagine they have it in them to make it good again.

Written by Max Everett

When Tama and Talla Tonga broke away from Solo Sikoa, and then almost immediately interacted with Finn Balor, I was worried that WWE would begin chasing Bullet Club nostalgia. This week, it's clear that everyone is going in a much different direction. Balor will face his former Bullet Club comrade on next week's "SmackDown," and I could not be happier.

Everyone involved in this has, what can only be described as "Faction Fatigue," Tama and Talla have been stuck in a third or fourth iteration of Solo's bloodline, while Balor has been trapped in the LivDom Judgment Day vortex. All three of these folks need some time where they aren't tied to an entire unit. Tama and Talla as a team have a lot of potential, especially if Talla spends that time learning from his older brother.

There's always time for me to be wrong, but as it stands, I'm excited to see what happens with all three men, if given time for them to properly discover themselves.

Written by Ross Berman

While I'm glad Cody Rhodes didn't just get handed a rematch for the Undisputed WWE Championship against Sami Zayn, I really didn't like anything surrounding the title tonight. Rhodes won a number one contender's match for a shot at Zayn's title against Jey Uso in the main event tonight, and a lot about it doesn't sit right with me, though I'm not surprised.

First, Uso getting a shot at becoming the number one contender is a little more egregious than the former champion Rhodes getting a shot. Uso had his chance at winning a title opportunity at SummerSlam in the King of the Ring tournament, the tournament that quite literally just wrapped up last weekend, where Uso lost to Oba Femi. While Uso getting a shot at Zayn feels a bit more ridiculous, I guess Rhodes isn't that much better, considering he was the one who took the pin in the triple threat match. While I don't necessarily want to see it, GUNTHER really has the best argument for getting another shot. The "Ring General" was nowhere to be seen tonight.

I also don't love the fact that this match is happening on Monday's edition of "WWE Raw" in Chicago. I feel like that means Zayn's loss is just guaranteed at this point, which sucks. The show is in Chicago, and why else would a blue brand title get defended on that show unless CM Punk was returning following his post-WrestleMania hiatus? Seems highly likely to me that Rhodes just wins the title back, which I do not want to see right now, and he goes on to face Punk at the "Biggest Party of the Summer." I don't know if Punk gets involved, necessarily, but it just feels like there will be a stare-down or post-match promo between the men, with Zayn left on the sidelines.

I feel like Rhodes needs something else to do at this point. I'm by no means a hater of the "American Nightmare," but I think he's better off right now chasing a championship. I don't need to see him win back the title almost immediately, after a shock moment for Zayn in Saudi Arabia.

The fact that Uso was thrown into the mix on top of it all, despite his King of the Ring loss, also wasn't for me. He should be in Roman Reigns' dog house, no pun intended. All of this just feels very strange and not well thought out, which I guess has been the definition of WWE booking for quite some time now.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I know, as per the agreement, "SmackDown" will return to three hours somewhere down the line, but for right now, let us celebrate the fact that the least necessary third hour in wrestling has been eliminated. "Raw" is rarely ever three hours, "NXT" is never three hours, but WWE's Friday night programming has had an extra hour of godforsaken backwash for six months, and we're all finally free. This is a weekend that celebrates freedom, after all.

This week's "SmackDown" flew by. I wouldn't rank it as one of the best, but it wasn't long enough to overstay its welcome for once. It's a petty "Loved," I know, but life is short. We all only get so many hours, and watching "SmackDown" for two hours, instead of three, adds up over time, so I will take these precious hours we get back until January.

It helped the matches especially, as WWE had no reason to pull its usual gimmick of inflating a match through as many segments as possible. Matches were short and substantial, no promo segment was allowed to go embarrassingly long, and there was very little that could be discarded as "filler." A tight two-hour wrestling program really keeps a show from getting in its own way. We are briefly liberated from the laborious machinations of that unwieldy third hour, and for that, I will blow off some fireworks, eat a hot dog, and say "God bless the USA (Network)."

Written by Ross Berman