WWE SmackDown preview (Aug. 6, 2021): This is all John Cena’s fault

SmackDown airs tonight (Aug. 6) live from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. This is the third SmackDown episode during the five week build towards the upcoming SummerSlam 2021 event on August 21.

This is all John Cena’s fault

After last week’s contract signing between Roman Reigns and Finn Bálor went off the rails, Bálor is scheduled to go one-on-one with sad Baron Corbin tonight. But the fact of the matter is that Bálor is fighting the wrong guy; his anger for losing out on a Universal championship match at SummerSlam should be primarily focused on John Cena.

Yes, Corbin was the first person who interrupted the contract signing, and he did put his hands on Finn. But it’s not like Bálor was beaten up to the point where he was sent to a local medical facility or something. Corbin simply threw Finn over the timekeeper’s barricade; that’s hardly the most devastating outcome. After Cena made the save to get rid of Baron, he surely could have just walked over to Finn and handed the SummerSlam contract back to him when he was able to stand up. That’s what a morally upstanding person would have done.

But as Bray Wyatt exposed in the Firefly Fun House match at WrestleMania 36, that’s just not who John Cena is. Cena is a fraud who pretends to push positive sentiments like working hard to earn your rewards. The truth is that he’s a selfish egomaniac who will do whatever it takes to get ahead, and he proved it once again last week when he signed his name on Finn Bálor’s SummerSlam contract. Adam Pearce was then dumb enough to officially approve Cena’s bogus tactic.

Bálor got screwed out of the title match with Reigns at SummerSlam, and John Cena is the guy to blame for it. That’s who Finn should be looking to beat the hell out of tonight.

The title scene

After a lengthy hiatus, Sasha Banks made her exciting return to WWE last week. She pretended to be aligned with Bianca Belair, before ultimately turning her back on the SmackDown women’s champion and staking her claim to the gold. We’re waiting to hear Sasha explain why she attacked Bianca, but we don’t really have to strain our imaginations trying to figure it out. At this point, a rematch from WrestleMania 37 between these two superstars feels like a lock for the SummerSlam card.

Intercontinental champion Apollo Crews is being pursued by several wrestlers such as Big E, Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro, and maybe even the Dirty Dawgs. Last week’s episode of SmackDown included a trios match that saw Nakamura pin Crews with a Kinshasa. Shinsuke appears to be next in line for a title match with Apollo.

The Usos defeated The Mysterios at Money in the Bank and became the new SmackDown tag team champions. Jimmy Uso has since competed against both Rey and Dominik Mysterio in separate singles matches on SmackDown, with one win and one loss to show for it. That was enough for the Mysterios to officially earn a championship rematch for SummerSlam. Their upcoming title match could use some extra juice to it, so WWE will probably spend the next couple weeks of television setting up a gimmick or stipulation for the fight.

Natalya is currently sidelined with ankle surgery, but she hopes to be back in about a month. The Women’s tag team titles will probably be inactive during this time, which suddenly halts the momentum of Shotzi & Nox.

Reggie is trying to show that he’s a more interesting 24/7 champion than R-Truth. WWE keeps booking him in actual matches where he defends the 24/7 title in the ring, which is returning some focus to the title that it hasn’t had in a while. But really, it’s probably just an excuse to show off Reggie’s fancy new entrance.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

- Seth Rollins viciously attacked Edge during a commercial break last week. Will Edge be in good enough shape to make it to SmackDown tonight, or does his part-time contract mean he gets the night off?

- Toni Storm debuted on the main roster two weeks ago with a win over Zelina Vega. Will she get another opportunity to showcase her talents tonight, or is the build to SummerSlam a bit too crowded for such a match right now?

- Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn didn’t get on television last week either, but there was a clip going around of Owens giving Zayn a stunner during a commercial break after Sami insulted the local sports teams. These guys are going to fight forever, so we’ll see if any of this spills over onto television tonight.

- Chad Gable and Otis were briefly distracted by the 24/7 title last week, but I’m pretty sure their issue with the Street Profits is far from over.

What will you be looking for on SmackDown tonight?