WWE Saturday Night's Main Event - 7/18/2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 We Loved

Saturday Night's Main Event returned for a show that was equal parts WWE event and celebration of the New York Knicks. There was a title change, plenty of Knicks players, and the usual wrestling. If you want to read all about it, then let me direct you to the Saturday Night's Main Event 7/18/2026 Results Page.

Now it's time to get into the good and the bad from Saturday's slight show in Madison Square Garden. Some writers took umbrage with the overall low-grade vibe of the event, and some writers just couldn't stand the absence of Nikki Bella from the proceedings. But there was also plenty to celebrate, like the match between Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, or that sweet, sweet Danhausen action. If you want to keep the conversation conversating, the comments section will be open, as always.

Enough with the introductions, though. It's time for some Loveds and some Hateds.

This Saturday Night's Main Event managed to feel like an extended Fanatics special feature rather than a wrestling show, reminding everyone that Madison Square Garden is, in fact, where the New York Knicks, NBA Champions, play their hoops. Danhausen's match with JD McDonagh was built up to a Karl Anthony Towns cameo, effectively winning the match for him with chokeslams to McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio.

That might have been fine on its own as a nod to the champs. But the main event of the night was booked to be a segment with Roman Reigns and Jalen Brunson, rather than a wrestling match. That segment strove to answer the question of how many basketball players and accompanying angles are too many, with Brunson and Reigns' celebration of one another and the Knicks being interrupted by Seth Rollins and Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers.

This was obviously a riff on Haliburton's villainy in the eyes of Knicks fans, having eliminated them from the Conference play-offs in 2025. And if one didn't know that, they did once Michael Cole had bellowed it enough times.

Haliburton proved to be a mere distraction as Rollins ran in the ring to attack Reigns. Brunson stood in Rollins' way as he went for a stomp, thus allowing Reigns to finish the segment standing tall. It was really something you would see happen on Jimmy Kimmel or, as said before, a Fanatics special feature.

This was a show for the sake of having a show, and one that hardly lived up to the venue it emanated from. There were spots of good wrestling here and there, but even then, everything was inconsequential, aside from the Women's Tag title change of course. Shows are often remembered for how they end, and this one ended in a bit of a mess. Unless the vision is to book a Haliburton and Rollins versus Brunson and Reigns match – which, why? – Then there seems very little point in making them a focal aspect in this feud that had been, at the very least, trying to take itself seriously.

It's another example of WWE sacrificing its own product for the everlasting chase for mainstream acceptance. The company now leases its time to whoever will draw the most eyes, as if someone watching for Jalen Brunson or Tyrese Haliburton is going to stay to watch Johnny Gargano planking.

If the rest of the show was in any way gripping or compelling, then it wouldn't be so bad. But it's not, and there are more shows than ever to showcase that.

Written by Max Everett

I'm glad Danhausen got himself a match at Madison Square Garden, after sheer dumb luck elevated him to mainstream stardom, at least in the sports world, and in New York City, with his cursing, then uncursing, of the New York Knicks. I wasn't thrilled it was against JD McDonagh, but there was a nice, cohesive storyline there with Judgment Day demanding Danhausen curse Oba Femi, then the "Very Nice, Very Evil" one just leaving with their money. WWE even summed up the story in a nice video package ahead of the no disqualification match.

When McDonagh and Danhausen got started with very little shenanigans, I wondered if maybe WWE was attempting to put Danhausen over as a somewhat serious (as serious as Danhausen can be) in-ring competitor in Madison Square Garden, and I was beginning to think that they chose a terrible time to do such a thing, but that also wasn't surprising in the slightest. Then, Danhausen got the Knicks jersey on and chaos started to ensue, with help from "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio, and we were really off to the races with the return of the Minihausens.

With Judgment Day distracted by the Minihausens, Danhausen grabbed the stuffed animal cat in a cage he had on last night's edition of "WWE SmackDown." I had no idea what that meant, and thought it was just some silly, random nonsense on the blue brand, but when Danhausen put the cage in his cloning machine at the top of the ramp, out came Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, or as he's better known, KAT. I didn't put two-and-two together with the "cat" segment on "SmackDown," and from what I saw on social media, nobody else on my feeds did either, so it was a fun surprise.

And, holy heck, does KAT have one heck of a chokeslam, and McDonagh and Mysterio sold them well. The move looked fantastically devastating from the seven-foot-tall star. With McDonagh down and Mysterio neutralized through a Slim Jims table, Danhausen hit the former with a Danhausen Death Drop for the victory.

We were already getting Jalen Brunson, who couldn't get physical anyway, post-surgery, with Roman Reigns at the end of the night, so adding in KAT, via stuffed cat, with Danhausen was really fun. The match didn't overstay its welcome on the show, either, and I thought overall, it worked really well.

I believe this puts Danhausen at 5-0 in matches in WWE, and his undefeated record with curses is even more impressive. I'm not sure what's next for Danhausen post-MSG and Knicks championship win, maybe we'll finally find out who is in his laboratory, but whatever it is, it's bound to be fun and ridiculous.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I have to start out by saying I don't hate the overall fact that Fatal Influence's Lainey Reid and Fallon Henley won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships. In fact, I loved that part of tonight, down to the sequence where Jacy Jayne helped flip Paige over during the champion's roll-up attempt, so Reid was on top, with Paige's shoulders to the mat, to get the victory.

I guess I've had my own storyline booked in my head for the titles and for Nikki Bella's return, that Fatal Influence just straight up winning the gold, without any involvement from Nikki to turn heel on Paige and break up her tag team with Brie Bella, just fell flat for me. While I'm glad they won the gold, and a more capable team should have the titles, Nikki's return isn't going to feel as interesting to me.

With the reports of Nikki's impending return and her name being brought up again in creative, and the fact that she was back to wearing high heels at Fanatics Fest today, I really thought we'd see her involved tonight. With Paige stepping in for her at WrestleMania 42, and Paige being the first woman to hold tag gold alongside Brie, something the Bella Twins have wanted for so long, there was a perfect story there. "Scream Mode" isn't on television every week, and there had to be some kind of way to drag out their story with Fatal Influence to SummerSlam.

Even if Nikki wasn't fully cleared, she could have somehow gotten involved at ringside for Brie and Paige to lose to Reid and Henley at "The Biggest Party of the Summer." The Bellas could have turned heel on Paige there, allowing for Fatal Influence to get the victory. Sure, Reid and Henley's victory at Madison Square Garden is huge, but I think this could have worked better on an even bigger stage, leading to a more cohesive story.

Maybe WWE doesn't want the reunited Bellas to turn heel since I'm certain they're big merchandise movers. Reid and Henley are going to be great heel tag champs, no matter where they picked up the victory. Maybe Brie and Paige do get a rematch at SummerSlam, and that's where my Nikki booking could come into play. I'm holding out hope, but without the championships on Paige and Brie, a Bella turn just doesn't have the same impact.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Bayley and Lyra Valkyria beat each other senseless on Saturday. The match didn't come with a fancy stipulation or a title. It was just two women kicking the ever-loving s*** out of each other. Bayley broke open Valkyria's nose, Valkyria dropped Bayley onto the steel steps after the match, both women dropped each other on their necks over and over again.

It was a ridiculous match, and the best wrestling of the night by a mile. A fight, a competition, it was everything that a good wrestling match should be. Valkyria's new edge has added a lot to her character, and Bayley has been in "Proving Herself" mode for her whole career. All the ingredients were right for a combustible bit of pugilism.

Sure, Danhausen had NY Knicks, and the women's tag title match had a title change, but there was nothing like the bout between the two former WWE NXT Women's Champions.

Written by Ross Berman

Ever since Oba Femi gave up his world title opportunity to face Brock Lesnar, something has felt off about the former NXT Champion. He's been an undeniably popular act for months now, but as I listened to him quote Rorschach from "Watchmen," something bristled.

It feels like they're making Oba Femi a shell of the man he once was. There was a terrifying poetry to the way that Femi talked in NXT, but on the main roster, he's all quips and stilted phrases. It's like WWE tried to fix what wasn't broken, and now I am biting my nails, as we head to SummerSlam, worried that they've outright broken what worked about Oba in the first place.

It's always hard to talk about intangibles, like charisma, personality, etc., but whatever you want to call "it," Oba Femi had it. Maybe he was just a big fish in a little pond in NXT, but seeing him smiling with Stephanie McMahon, giving an awkward interview that seemed to be about nothing more than killing time, it just felt like what made Femi "cool" is slowly leaking out of the former champion. I hope I'm wrong. I hope he beats Brock Lesnar and gets his spark back. But like the title said, I have a bad feeling about this.

Written by Ross Berman.

We may complain a lot about interference being an overused professional wrestling trope in modern-day WWE matches, but there is still a time and place for it to occur. The tag team match pitting Cody Rhodes and CM Punk against Sami Zayn, and GUNTHER is one such example of a time and place for interference to occur and be properly used to push forward a story.

I may be in a bit of a minority here, but I wasn't that engaged in the tag team match until the closing moments went down. It's not every day that you see a General Manager cost one of the performers on his brand a tag team match out of spite and building tensions, but Nick Aldis pulling the referee out of the ring to stop a count when GUNTHER had pinned Rhodes, which made it automatically stand out as something different right out of the gate. I was also starting to become a little less interested in the ongoing storyline between GUNTHER and Aldis, but this was the perfect major plot point to bring back my interest in this and become a little more excited about a prospective SummerSlam match between them.

Written by Olivia Quinlan