4 Mistakes WWE made on SmackDown before SummerSlam 2026

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Nia Jax seemed at peace with getting screwed out of the Interim WWE Women’s Championship Ladder Match. Some of the brawls and promos were decent, but Trick Williams needs new material instead of cutting the same promo every week.

Baron Corbin said more in one promo than Trick has in all of his. WWE made the next four mistakes on SmackDown before SummerSlam 2026.

#4. WWE ignores a SummerSlam feud

Fatal Influence will face the Bellas and Paige in a six-woman tag match at SummerSlam. Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles from Brie and Paige, but none of the women appeared on the go-home SmackDown.

That’s strange booking for a featured match at the second biggest PLE of the year. Recaps of the Hell in a Cell encounter and the Seth Rolilns/Roman Reigns feud were shown. The women’s tag champions were not.

Not featuring those performers tells casual fans that they aren’t as important as recapping matches from RAW. There was more than enough time, and even a pre-taped message from both sides would have sufficed.

#3. Giulia gets buried

Giulia came to the main roster with some fanfare. She won the Women’s United States Championship twice but was terribly booked both times. Triple H ignored her as champion.

She had some momentum after turning face, but that was completely wasted. On SmackDown, Giulia lost to Lash Legend, someone who’s been wrestling for half the time she has, in under five minutes.

The Beautiful Madness should be rebounding, but WWE has botched the women’s divisions in 2026. If that wasn’t bad enough, why wasn’t Nia Jax, who was cheated out of her spot by both Jade Cargill and Charlotte Flair, added or given a chance to qualify?

#2. The anticipated title-for-title match ends in a no contest

WWE made fans wait for nearly two months for the showdown between the War Raiders and the duo of Damian Priest and R-Truth. Erik and Ivar had confronted the WWE Tag Team Champions several times about a title vs. title match.

Priest shrugged it off at nearly every turn, postponing the showdown. It made it seem like he was stalling or waiting for a particular venue. Madison Square Garden made sense, but it wasn’t booked.

The match between the two teams was saved for the SummerSlam go-home episode of SmackDown.

After weeks of teasing it and making it seem like a big deal, the actual match was only announced backstage by Priest in passing last week. Having a no contest or double disqualification is a cheap way to ruin it.

#1. Two competitors in a SummerSlam title match lose to lackeys

Tiffany Stratton and Chelsea Green are both in the ladder match to crown an Interim WWE Women’s Champion in Rhea Ripley’s absence. They teamed together against B-Fab and Michin, who still come out to Jade Cargill’s music.

That alone means they shouldn’t be beating two women who have held singles gold on more than one occasion. Cargill interfered to give her lackeys a big win heading into SummerSlam.

The same could have been accomplished with the faces winning but enduring a post-match beatdown. Stratton and Green aren’t likely to win the title, so getting a victory on SmackDown should have been the objective.