WWE SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Aug. 12, 2022) with a live show emanating from PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, featuring all the latest build to the upcoming Clash at the Castle pay-per-view (PPV) scheduled for early next month in Cardiff, Wales.

Advertised for tonight: Gunther defends the Intercontinental championship against Shinsuke Nakamura, Raquel Rodriguez & Aliyah vs. Shotzi & Xia Li in the Women’s tag team championship tournament, Liv Morgan and Shayna Baszler have a contract signing to make their SmackDown women’s championship match official for Clash at the Castle, and more!

Come right back here at 8 pm ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on FOX. It will be below this line here. (Note: Going forward, there will be no ban on GIFs or images in the live blog threads. Feel free to post as you wish.)

You say, you have lost the way, got no aim, just livin’ for today. Look up to the sky above and see the morning sun again. You got so much power inside, so cry it out my friends, while I liveblog this here pro wrestling show for you, folks.

The show opens with commentary hyping the card up.

Blackheart and Rodriguez to start, early victory roll with her hand on the ropes but referee Darryl Sharma catches Shotzi and warns her off! DDT countered with a slam, action to the floor and they brawl with Natalya and Shayna Baszler on the floor!

The women actually in the match brawl and we go to break.

Back from commercial, Li in control on Aliyah, wicked double-team flipping DDT but Raquel makes the save! Heels keeping Aliyah isolated, Rodriguez with the hot tag! Clearing house, Blackheart reverses a powerbomb into a Frankensteiner, shiranui connects... SO CLOSE!

Xia tags in and Rodriguez has her number...

Aliyah & Raquel Rodriguez win by pinfall with the one-arm powerbomb from Rodriguez on Xia Li.

We get a video package recapping last week’s main event.

Killer Kross cuts a promo from a smoky room about how his blackened soul has been reborn and Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns are the chosen ones, which must be nice, but he and Scarlett were cast out of paradise and forgotten. But they were prepared, and they waited for the perfect time to strike.

And now they’ll show us, and everybody pays the toll. Tick, tock.

He walks to a doorway and we see Drew McIntyre leaving to make his entrance.

He makes his entrance and we go to break.

Back from commercial, Drew Mcintyre greets the crowd.

He says this is an exciting time and new faces are showing up, and Karrion Kross jumped him from behind last week. Lots of people think he’ll rant and rave about the things he’s gonna do, and he’s been waiting for a year, so what better impact than attacking the #1 contender and staring the champion down?

But one problem, that contender is Drew McIntyre, and he was gonna get back up and deliver this message— his hands are full now, but they’ll play a game later. He has three options— knockout, hospital, or graveyard, and he’ll send him back to the dungeon he crawled out of.

And this brings us to his shocking news— Roman Reigns isn’t here tonight. Roman surrounds himself with Yes Men, and he’s as good as he says he is, but it took Reigns his family, weapons, and sacrificing Paul Heyman to finish off Brock Lesnar, but Drew beat Brock with only his bare hands.

And he’s making up places, the island of relevancy isn’t real—

She gets up on the apron... AND THE USOS BLINDSIDE MCINTYRE AND BEAT HIM DOWN! They lay Drew out with the 1D! They tell Scarlett to her man that if he steps up to the Tribal Chief, they’ll put his ass down, and this is the Tribal Chief’s territory.

Scarlett says he has the same message for them, and we go to break.

Back from commercial, we get a video package for the history of the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

Shinsuke Nakamura is interviewed backstage.

He says to tell GUNTHER “c’mon!”

Kofi Kingston attacks Viking Raiders with a kendo stick during their entrance and beats them unholy with it! Erik gets his shield up to block and Ivar knocks Kofi out with a thrown shield to the face! Dragging Kingston’s unconscious body on the stage... IVAR WITH A 747 SPLASH OFF THE BARRICADE AND INTO THE STAGE!

And so we go to break.

Back from commercial, a hesitant Sami Zayn walks up and knocks on Roman Reigns’ door.

The Usos come angrily out of the room and Sami pleads his case—

DREW MCINTYRE IS HERE TO BEAT THE USOS DOWN!

Obviously not including current AEW World Tag Team Champion Shane “Swevre” Strickland, of course, but hey whatcha gonna do?

Dolla and Scott to start, the returning star beating the enhancement talent down, a vicious knee and a tag to Adonis, and this match goes exactly like you thought it would...

Hit Row win by pinfall with the Heavy Hitter on Brandon Scott.

Hit Row all get on the mic and introduce themselves as the OG 3.

We get a memorial graphic for the legendary “Judo” Gene LeBell, who once allegedly choked Steven Seagal out so hard he pooped himself. Allegedly.

We get a recap of Shayna Baszler becoming #1 contender to the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship and go to break.

Back from commercial, we see Imperium backstage when an interview rolls up.

GUNTHER tells her to go off and tell Shinsuke that tonight, he’ll suffer at the hands of the Ring General.

The ring is set up for a contract signing between Liv Morgan and Shayna Baszler.

Ronda Rousey comes through the crowd with a duffel bag and goes in the ring. She drops the bag on the contract and gets on the mic.

She empties the duffel bag on the table and it’s full of money, which she says is double her fine. Security comes to escort her out, she steps up to them judo throws one but stops short of the armbar when everybody pleads with her.

Shayna Baszler meets her on the stage and tells her that’s not how WWE works and she should play by the rules to get what she wants, but Ronda just tells her she used to be a killer and storms off.

Baszler walks to the ring and says last week we all watched her win the gauntlet match and Liv is just the next one on the list and the next to fall, and she signs the contract.

Morgan makes her entrance, arm still in a huge brace.

She gets on the mic and says Shayna’s just a cut-rate Ronda Rousey and she beat her twice, so she’s gonna win in Wales, and she signs the contract.

Baszler takes her down and tortures the injured arm before stomping her elbow, leaving Liv in screaming agony! A shoulder armbreaker for good measure! She goes for another one but Morgan has the wherewithal to counter with a bulldog through the table!

The Usos berate Sami Zayn for running away earlier and tell him if he doesn’t get step up he’ll get left behind, and they head off to look for Drew to send us to break.

Back from commercial, the Usos make their entrance.

They get on the mic and call Drew McIntyre down for a tag match and he comes down and it’s on!

McIntyre running hot early, treating it like a handicap but he gets overwhelmed and Madcap Moss runs in to make the save and be his tag partner! They clear the Usos from the ring and we go to break.

Back from commercial, Moss in a bad way but he gets a back suplex off and some separation! Tag to Drew, running hot, neckbreaker into the kip-up, countdown denied when Sami Zayn runs in! He runs away, the distraction lets Jimmy get a superkick, Jey off the top... MCINTYRE KICKS OUT OF THE DIVING SPLASH!

Sami argues with referee Ryan Tran, tag back to Jimmy, lying in wait for the 1D but Madcap pulls Jey out of the ring and throws him into the barricade! Uso clotheslines him into the timekeeper’s barricade, Drew blocks a Samoan Drop, superkick gets the headbutt, off the ropes...

Drew McIntyre & Madcap Moss win by pinfall with a Claymore from McIntyre on Jimmy Uso.

Post-match, Jey runs in and Drew lays him out with Future Shock! Counting down, Sami shoves Uso out of the way... CLAYMORE TAKES ZAYN OFF HIS FEET!

We go backstage to a Maximum Male Models photoshoot.

Los Lotharios crash the party and try to sell Max Dupri on signing them, but he says they’re just not MMM material. Lotharios decide they were actually talking to Maxxine Dupri and tell her to give them a call.

We get a video package for our Intercontinental Championship match and we go to break.

Back from commercial, Ricochet is interviewed backstage.

He laughs about Pat McAfee kicking Happy Corbin in his bits last week, and says he’s more locked in than he’s been in a long time and he’s ready to run full-speed back to the Intercontinental Championship.

Happy Corbin blindsides him and says they’re just getting started before kicking his heels at him and walking off.

We get a video package hyping Nikkita Lyons and Zoey Stark up as two hungry women ready to take on the best Raw and SmackDown can offer.

We get entrances and introductions for our main event and go to break.

Feeling out, Nakamura gets GUNTHER in the corner and breaks clean, mocking the Ringkampf “hands behind the back” pose. Trading waistlocks, the Ring General gets him in the corne rthis time but Shinsuke slips out and lays chest and leg kicks in! A hamstring kick sends GUNTHER sprawling, side headlock applied, shot off, leapfrog, big boot lays him out!

Uppercuts from the champion, a chop, STF applied, Nakamura gets the ropes! Shinsuke with a flying armbar, GUNTHER keeps his hands clasped, picks the legs, stomps to the head, Nakamura reverses with an inside cradle for two! 540 kick, both men on their knees, Shinsuke laying strikes in, kicks to the arm!

GUNTHER gets him up in the turnbuckles, torturing him, letting him crash to the floor and we go to break.

Back from commercial, GUNTHER with a dropkick, looking for the powerbomb but his injured arm gives out! Big boot, the Ring General headed up top, Shinsuke catches him into a triangle choke! Deadlift counter, Nakamura reverses to a Kimura lock, GUNTHER reverses that, butterfly suplex connects!

Arm hurting, the champ throws a few forearms, Shinsuke with kicks, elbow to the knee blocks, GUNTHER runs right into Kinshasa... NOT ENOUGH! Good Vibrations, Nakamura to the floor to get in Ludwig Kaiser’s face, he returns to a shotgun dropkick from the Ring General! Up for the powerbomb, Nakamura reverses, Kinshasa to the back of the neck!

Lying in wait, GUNTHER rises... AND COUNTERS WITH A LARIAT FOR A NEARFALL! Sleeper hold, Shinsuke fading, ramming the champion into the turnbuckles, trying to break his grip and successfully does so! Shotgun dropkick to the back, GUNTHER gets him up again...

GUNTHER wins by pinfall with the Tenryu Powerbomb to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

That’s the show, folks.