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Credit: WWE.com
With the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view arriving on February 21st, this week’s show was all about building the event and the feuds that will make up the card.
Roman Reigns promised us a big announcement about the universal title this week, but after Kevin Owens surprised him with a Stunner last week, the Chief Tribal had to keep his eyes open.
This week also marked Seth Rollins’ return to the blue mark for the first time since Survivor Series, after he appeared during the men’s Royal Rumble match.
What does Reigns have to say about the Universal Championship? What did the Messiah plan now that he is back? Did Edge or Bianca Belair choose her opponent at WrestleMania?
Let’s take a look at everything that happened in this week’s episode of SmackDown.
Updates will start after the first segment / start. Be sure to update this page for live results.
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Reigns, Paul Heyman and Jey Uso came out at the top of the show. Adam Pearce was waiting in the ring with a binder. Reigns told Pearce that he had no authority over the champion and was only there to serve him.
The Tribal Chief said he would put Edge in retirement again if they ended up fighting at WrestleMania. He promised to keep the title for as long as he wanted before asking about the Elimination Chamber.
Pearce said he had a contract that said Reigns would defend the Universal Championship within the Elimination Chamber. Heyman took over and said that Pearce Reigns would only defend the title at PPV, but he would not do that inside the chamber.
Pearce said he would think about it, but in the meantime, Uso and Owens would be in qualifying matches for a seat on the chamber. Reigns got in Pearce’s face, but ended up leaving without doing anything violent.
Grade: B-
Analyze
This was a solid segment, but it didn’t reveal anything that we didn’t already know. We knew there would be qualifying games and we knew that Reigns would defend the title in some way at PPV.
The Tribal Chief is great in this role, but this segment has bordered on repetitive. We’ve seen him assert his authority with Pearce before, so that hasn’t changed at all.
The U-turn, possibly gaining a place in the chamber, was the most interesting thing to come out of it. Heyman, Reigns and Pearce were all good, but this segment was almost unnecessary.
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Sonya Deville turned a doubles match with Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin facing Rey and Dominik Mysterio into a chamber tie for both members of the winning team.
Zayn did a promo before the fight that ended with him being overthrown by father and son. The referee asked for the bell and the king started to fight against Rey. Zayn tripped over Rey, so Dom hit him with a suicide dive that almost ended with the young Superstar falling on the advertisers table.
We came back from a break to see Rey trying to fight Corbin. Dom and Zayn got together and the young Mysterio hit a good DDT tornado to almost fall.
Corbin took the 619 from both opponents, but Zayn ended up hitting Dom with a Helluva Kick for the pin and the victory.
Grade: B-
Analyze
Watching a father and son come together in a WWE ring is always fun, but when it comes to that rivalry, WWE needs to put a fork in it because it should have already been done.
Corbin has fought both singles and tag matches with no meaningful plot behind them so many times that it’s almost obvious that no one has any idea what to do with the Mysterios now.
Zayn’s pre-game promotion was as good as you’d expect. He’s amazing at making a correspondence look like a major event because he’s so passionate about his presentation.
With regard to the fight, the four guys did a decent job. The victory of Zayn and Corbin was also the right decision. Dominik is not ready for a game like the camera.
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Big E was in the ring to launch an open challenge for the IC title when Apollo Crews appeared. The champion said he didn’t get another chance after failing so many times, so Shinsuke Nakamura took the chance.
Crews stood by the ring to watch while Big E took control after the break. He hit Nakamura with a few forearms and splashed on his apron. Crews wore the apron for a distraction and Nakamura took advantage of it with a kick to the head.
The Rockstar hit a flying knee from the middle rope for a count of two. Big E planted a urinal for another near fall. While Big E was getting ready to hit his finisher, Crews gave a dropkick to cause a disqualification.
Grade: C +
Analyze
It was a short match, so none of the Superstar involved had enough time to make it more than a normal encounter. What mattered was what came after.
Crews has been causing a heel turn for weeks, but it finally happened on Friday, when he hit Big E with that dropkick. Now, Crews needs to prove that he can be a convincing bad guy.
Big E and Crews have great chemistry, but they already had five title fights in 2021. If this rivalry continues, it needs to be over soon.
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The entire SmackDown cast was in the ring for Rollins’ return promotion. He talked about how becoming a father changed him in ways he didn’t expect.
He said he now realizes that he is the great leader that SmackDown needs to make him great. That was when the entire squad started to move away. The lights went on and he realized that the only person who remained was Cesaro, but even he eventually left.
Rollins cut Cesaro’s knee as he climbed the ramp and started to knock him over. Daniel Bryan and some officers came out to defend.
Grade: Ç
Analyze
Rollins said he changed with the birth of his baby, but started spitting out the same nonsense about being a savior. In fact, nothing has changed.
This would have been a perfect opportunity for him to abandon the Messiah’s things, but it looked more like he was folding. We’ll see where that goes, but for now, it looks like Rollins is the same man he was last year.
The promotion he gave was good, but it will not be among the most memorable. The cast that abandoned him didn’t have the impact they should have, but that’s because it didn’t make sense for everyone to be there in the first place.
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Liv Morgan left the gate with a dropkick as soon as the referee asked for the bell. Bayley hit an elbow back before Morgan sent it to the middle rope and hit a dropkick on the back of the head.
The model rolled out of the ring and when Morgan tried to dive into it, Bayley dodged and sent her to the barricade.
Morgan recovered and hit a facebuster for a count of two. Bayley dropped her from the middle rope and hit a shoulder that made Morgan scream in pain. Morgan hit an enziguiri out of nowhere.
Billie Kay went down to speak to Ruby Riott in the ring and the distraction led Bayley to hit Morgan with his finisher for the win.
Grade: C +
Analyze
Morgan and Bayley looked good in this fight, but the submission was very similar to everything we saw involving Kay and The Riott Squad.
Kay is a funny personality, but WWE is sailing the water with her character. She needs to join The Riott Squad or they need to make it clear that they don’t want her.
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Otis and Chad Gable fought Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins in the next match. Dawkins and Gable kicked off with a change of waistband on the carpet.
Ford applauded his technical exchange and was present to be able to take a look at Gable. The Street Profits took control momentarily, but Gable was able to land a belly-to-belly suplex so he could score on Otis.
The Dozer erupted and took the two men out. He hit the Caterpillar at Dawkins. Gable scored for a double team finisher, but Ford took out Otis first.
Dawkins planted a spinebuster in Gable to prepare Ford for a big splash to win.
Grade: B
Analyze
Otis and Gable’s team seemed random at first, but they formed a pair that makes sense. Both men have been successful in amateur wrestling and are using it as part of their characters.
As always, Ford and Dawkins worked together. They are one of the best teams working today and never miss an opportunity to show off.
It was not specifically stated that it was a title dispute, but it would not be surprising if Profits used victory as a lever when asked Pearce.
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Despite being attacked by Rollins, Cesaro managed to compete in the main event alongside Bryan. Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode looked confident when making their entrance. This was another round of the Chamber.
Bryan took control of Ziggler at first, but when Cesaro scored, Showoff went after his injured knee. As soon as he could, Cesaro left to recover.
Roode managed to avoid Bryan’s suicidal dive and hit Cesaro by mistake. Corbin and Zayn came to watch while the show went on a break. Reigns and Heyman were shown backstage when we got back.
Ziggler and Roode controlled The Yes Man for a long time. The Swiss superman finally took the hot brand and went crazy with his opponents. Roode attacked his knee when he was about to spin Ziggler by the feet.
Cesaro hit Ziggler with a torture rack backbreaker before catching the Sharpshooter for a submission victory. Use attacked them with a chair after the match. Corbin and Zayn joined immediately, but Zayn eventually took Corbin out too. KO ran to hit Stunners on everyone as if he were 1998 Stone Cold Steve Austin. The show ended with KO saying he was coming to Reigns.
Grade: B +
Analyze
The least shocking thing about Friday’s show was that it ended up being the best match of the night. Ziggler, Roode, Cesaro and Bryan are some of the most trusted artists in the world, so they had no problem working together.
So far, Zayn, Corbin, Bryan and Cesaro have qualified for the House. Owens and Uso should have a chance to qualify next week.
This was a decent episode of SmackDown, but it was a notch below some of the recent episodes in terms of story evolution. Much of what we saw seemed repetitive.