The July 4 edition of WWE SmackDown has been pre-taped ahead of time.
As was first reported back in May, the next episode of the blue brand would be pre-taped as it falls on the national holiday. To give the roster and crew time off with their families, the show was pre-taped after the June 30th edition of WWE Raw went off the air in
The show focused on the fallout from Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia, which saw John Cena retain the WWE Championship over CM Punk in the main event, largely due to a number of run-ins and interference from Seth Rollins. Additionally, Cody Rhodes won the King of the Ring tournament and Jade Cargill won the Queen of the Ring tournament.
This was also the first episode of SmackDown in 2025 to be 2 hours in length, signalling the end of the 3-hour era that began back in January.
Those in attendance were able to provide spoilers to the matches and segments that took place at the SmackDown taping. The spoilers have been obtained via F4WOnline.
WWE SmackDown Spoilers July 4:
- Cody Rhodes came out to start the show when he was interrupted by Randy Orton, who admitted was hesitant in completing the punt kick on Rhodes at Night of Champions. Rhodes promised to take out John Cena at SummerSlam. A returning Drew McIntyre then interrupted Orton and Cody and attempted to turn them against one another. Orton then laid him out to end the segment.
- A backstage segment saw Nick Aldis convince Charlotte Flair to team up with Alexa Bliss against the Secret Hervice for a spot in the four-way Women’s Tag Team title match at Evolution. He also set up a tag match later in the tapings pitting Jacob Fatu and Jimmy Uso against two members of Solo Sikoa’s group.
- In another backstage segment, a match between Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton was made official for Saturday Night’s Main Event.
- Flair and Bliss defeated Secret Hervice to qualify for the four-way Women’s Tag Team title match at Evolution.
- Aldis was backstage with the SmackDown tag team division. One member of each of the four teams teamed up to take on the Wyatt Sicks.
- Wyatt Sicks defeated Johnny Gargano, Berto, Montez Ford, and Chris Sabin.
- Tiffany Stratton came out to talk about her match with Jade Cargill at SummerSlam. However, she said she wanted to defend the WWE Women’s title at Evolution. Cargill interrupted, but Stratton revealed she wanted to defend the title against Trish Stratus, who came out and exchanged words with Stratton, setting up the match.
- Andrade and Rey Fenix defeated Fraxiom
- Backstage, Damien Priest attempted to explain R-Truth’s actions to Aleister Black, leading to a match between Black and Truth for next week. Tension continued to build between Black and Priest.
- Jacob Fatu and Jimmy Uso defeated Solo Sikoa and JC Mateo.
Featured image: WWE
