Smackdown at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse sets the table for huge SummerSlam in Cleveland (photos) (2024)

CLEVELAND – World Wrestling Entertainment has referred to the last TV tapings before a big Premium Live Event as the “Go-Home” episodes.

Friday night, the “SummerSlam Go-Home” episode of Smackdown, taped live from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, lived up to the hype and then some. However, two of Cleveland’s hometown wrestlers left the arena with bitter disappointment. All of this happened on the this weekend’s main WWE event, the SummerSlam scheduled for Saturday at Cleveland Browns Stadium, which will stream live on Peaco*ck.

Related: WWE SummerSlam tickets: Where to buy seats for this weekend under $65

Friday’s Smackdown show was built around the opening segment between WWE Heavyweight Champion Cody Rhodes and SummerSlam challenger Solo Sikoa, the new leader of the Bloodline faction, the 9 p.m. segment featuring Westlake native and United States Champion Logan Paul’s “glorious homecoming,” and the main event that featured the team of DIY (Cleveland native Johnny Gargano and his partner Tommaso Ciampa) defending the WWE Tag Team Championship against The Bloodline (Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga).

Paul, who came out with three people he called “Cleveland dignitaries,” was greeted largely with boos and a few scattered cheers. He cut a promo on his SummerSlam opponent, LA Knight, who was easily one of the most over (cheered) wrestlers in the house Friday night, while at first trying to suck up to the Cleveland crowd before putting them down.

“Hey, Cleveland, I’m home,” Paul said to another round of boos. “LA Knight, I have never met a man so eager to take my belt off of me. Hey, bad news, bicep boy, you’re not my type. And you’re delusional if you think you’re going to strip me of my United States Championship, in my own hometown. Whether you want to admit it or not, I inspire this great city. I represent this great city. I am Cleveland. What kind of welcome is this?

“The reason LA Knight has so many fans, let’s be honest, people like you can relate to him. A bunch of try-hards that never made it. And look, sounds like y’all think I’m not a great champion. I guess I see your point. I’ve only had two title defenses in 273 days. But, hey, that’s two more title defenses than LA Knight will ever have.

“I’ll be honest, I can’t relate to you people, I’m great, I made it. So, today, we are here to recognize my greatness.”

Paul then promised to unveil a new championship banner for Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse to display celebrating his championship reign. On the reveal, a giant “Yeah” was spray painted across Paul’s face, which prompted Knight to come out to the top of the ramp.

“My man, you better get serious,” Knight said. “We’re 24 hours away from SummerSlam, we’re 24 hours out from you losing that U.S. title. And considering what happened last week, you’re lucky that’s the worst of what’s happening to you, right now. I’ll tell you what, you talk about being the best thing to come out of Cleveland, you’re from Westlake, aren’t you, you goof?”

The reference to Westlake elicited a large pop (cheer).

“Well, while you’re out here pretending to be Cleveland’s own, I’ll tell you what, you’re worried about homecomings, you’re worried about banners,” he added. “Since I ruined your banner, I’m going to do you a solid. Since tomorrow is going to be the worst day of your life, I’m going to give you a gift. I’m going to go back here, and I’m going to get you another banner, OK? So, hang out, I’ll be right back.”

Knight proceeded to go backstage and find Paul’s bright blue Hummer with the Prime logo written all over it. Knight jumped in the vehicle and drove off as Paul tried to run him down, ending the segment.

While Paul played his heel persona perfectly to elicit the boos from Cleveland, Gargano was cheered loudly and heavily … only to do the job (lose) in the main event, getting pinned by Fatu to lose the Tag Team title and bring some gold back to the Bloodline for the first time since WrestleMania.

While title changes on weekly TV are rare, especially title changes in Cleveland, this one left a sour taste in fans’ mouths.

Gargano was shown walking to the ring with Ciampa on the big screen and talked about what it meant to come home and defend the titles. He referenced his first WWE show in that building 28 years ago and how it inspired him to become a professional wrestler, and it was a dream come true to come home with a championship around his waist.

The match was a solid back-and-forth contest that had the fans roaring with every big move and every false finish. After it appeared that Gargano (who wrestled most of the match) was going to come away with the huge win after nailing a reverse Hurricanrana, Fatu jumped up and nailed Gargano with three huge maneuvers, capped by an Impaler DDT for the 3-count right in the middle of the ring.

After the match went off the air, Gargano was helped up by Ciampa and was given a warm ovation from the disappointed hometown crowd as an appreciation for his run as a tag champ and for the performance he put on in the ring.

The show began with Rhodes making his way down to the ring with the approximately 12,000-plus fans singing along with every word of his theme song. He called out Sikoa for a face-to-face talk. The fans almost drowned them out with “We want Roman” chants, referencing former WWE champion Roman Reigns who hasn’t been used since his loss to Rhodes at WrestleMania.

The segment itself wasn’t that great, but with the four other members of the Bloodline coming out through the crowd, Sikoa challenged Rhodes to another “Bloodline Rules Match” at SummerSlam. Rhodes, who mentioned beating Reigns in a “Bloodline Rules Match” at WrestleMania, agreed to the new stipulation. This appears to set the table for Reigns’ “surprise” return during the SummerSlam main event (we shall see).

In the other televised matches, Andrade El Idolopinned Carmelo Hayes in a surprisingly long match for two mid-carders, who took advantage of the spotlight and delivered a solid match, Santos Escobar (with Legado Del Fantasma pinned Apollo Crews (with Baron Corbin), and The Unholy Union (Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn) lost to Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair by disqualification but retained the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.

There were two matches taped for the WWE’s Speed Tournament show (aired exclusively through the company’s X (Twitter) account prior to the live event – Je’Von Evans pinned Ashante “Thee” Adoniswith 24 seconds remaining to advance, and Austin Theory and Montez Ford battled to a time-limit draw, eliminating both competitors for the tournament.

Two “dark” non-televised matches were held after the show went off the air at 10 p.m. First, Braun Strowman pinned Chad Gable. Then, after an extended opener in which Jey Uso kept requesting his theme song to restart so the fans that remained could continue to sing and dance along to it while chanting “Yeet,” the team of Uso, Rey Mysterio, Parma native The Miz and R-Truth defeated the Judgment Day team of World champion Damion Priest, Finn Balor, J.D. McDonough and Dominik Mysterio when the father Rey pinned the son Dom after his 6-1-9 finishing move.

Today’s SummerSlam was highly promoted, with Cleveland-themed SummerSlam and Rhodes gear advertised throughout the event. And, during commercial breaks, there were little fan segments like the DX Cam that kept the fans engaged throughout the evening.

All in all, it was a fun show. The babyfaces going over in the two dark matches helped send the crowd home happy after the disappointment of Gargano’s loss, and SummerSlam is shaping up to be an epic event that Cleveland and WWE fans can be proud of.

MORE INFO ON SUMMERSLAM

SummerSlam takes place Saturday at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Cody Rhodes will defend his undisputed WWE Universal Title against Solo Sikoa, Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan will square up against Rhea Ripley, CM Punk wrestles Drew McIntyre with special guest referee Seth “Freakin” Rollins and more. Cleveland natives Logan Paul, The Miz and Johnny Gargano will make appearances. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. with wrestling starting at 6:30 p.m. Go to clevelandbrownsstadium.com/all-events/wwe-summerslam for more information.

Get your seats from Seat Geek, Vivid Seats, StubHub, Viagogo, TicketCity and Ticketmaster.

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Dan Gilles is a freelancer from Lorain