After appearing on this week’s episode of WWE Monday Night RAW, John Cena opened Friday’s episode of SmackDown, too. There, he once again challenged Roman Reigns to a match at WWE SummerSlam for the WWE Universal Championship.
"SmackDown with Roman Reigns as its champion absolutely sucks!" – @JohnCena#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/EiYqUmXxMZ
— WWE on TNT Sports (@wweontnt) July 24, 2021
Much like he did on RAW, Cena once again started his segment in the ring by praising the crowd, playing up the fact that a live crowd is finally back before he launched into a tirade against Reigns. He continued to taunt “The Tribal Chief,” saying that no one really likes his title run and that SmackDown has “sucked” ever since he won the belt.
"@WWERomanReigns as its Champion absolutely sucks." – @JohnCena #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/KDeOY0blBA
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) July 24, 2021
As he once again called out Reigns for a match at SummerSlam, Paul Heyman who made his way out to the ramp, and he told Cena that Reigns wouldn’t be coming out just because Cena told him to. Instead, Heyman said, Cena would get an answer to his title match request whenever Reigns was ready to show him that “The Tribal Chief” is here.
At the end of the night, Reigns finally made his way down to the ring, where he declined Cena’s challenge for a title match at SummerSlam. To Reigns, Cena and his entire schtick have been the same since 2005, and Reigns said neither he nor anyone in the WWE Universe wanted to see any more of it. However, while Reigns denied one challenge, another one quickly popped up.
Oh, @WWERomanReigns w/ @HeymanHustle actually went there. #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/3lFDuE3Xly
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) July 24, 2021
After returning to SmackDown and taking down Sami Zayn in a singles match, Finn Balor shocked the crowd by coming down to the ring to confront Reigns. Reigns initially asked if Balor was there to do as everyone else has and acknowledge him as “The Tribal Chief.” Instead, Balor said he wasn’t there to acknowledge anyone. He stated that if Reigns wasn’t going to accept Cena’s challenge, he might want to accept his own.
"If you're not interested in @JohnCena's challenge, maybe you're interested in mine?" ? #SmackDown@FinnBalor @WWERomanReigns @HeymanHustle pic.twitter.com/ZUpJGozayq
— WWE (@WWE) July 24, 2021
The crowd quickly got into it, starting up a “Roman’s scared!” chant that obviously got under Reigns’ skin. He briefly gathered his thoughts before he accepted Balor’s challenge, setting up a huge WWE Universal Championship match between the two.
