WWE SmackDown Results July 31st, 2020: Winners, Grades, Video Highlights for latest Friday Night SmackDown
Bayley & Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross hyped the SmackDown Women's title match between Cross and Bayley while Big E talked about facing the Miz tonight. Lacey Evans and Naomi were looking forward to their match as well while AJ Styles was confident in his title defense tonight against Gran Metalik.
SmackDown finally kicked off with Bray Wyatt and the FireFly Funhouse. Wyatt said the Fiend wanted Braun Strowman's title and was looking for him at the swamp. He added that no one would be safe until Braun was found.
AJ Styles (c) vs. Gran Metalik - Intercontinental Title match
SmackDown kicked off with the first title match of the night and AJ looked to have the upper hand early on as Metalik was being knocked about by the champ. AJ hit a huge backbreaker and then a stalling vertical suplex as he controlled the pace of the match.
We returned after the commercials to see Metalik in control as he hit a top rope move but was dropped by some kicks from AJ. Metalik got a near fall from a DDT before hitting a missile dropkick, continuing to wear down the champ.
Styles countered an attempt at a top rope move before locking in the Calf Crusher for the submission victory. After the match, Lince Dorado was helping Metalik up but Styles attacked Dorado and hit a Styles Clash.
Result: AJ Styles def. Gran Metalik to retain the Intercontinental Title
Match rating: A
Backstage on SmackDown, King Corbin was pretending to be friends with Shorty G to get him to fight Matt Riddle for the 'king's ransom'. Gable didn't look too convinced.
We got a recap of last week's bar fight between Sheamus and Jeff Hardy before SmackDown continued with Hardy arriving backstage.