WWE Friday Night SmackDown Review: 27/02
- Linus O'Howell
- 43 minutes ago
- 6 min read
The Men's Elimination Chamber Competitors Come Face-to-Face, Solo Sikoa VS Uncle Howdy
This week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown got off to a frantic start as Jey Uso was shown being lifted into an ambulance as Trick Williams laughed about it! The cameras then switched from backstage to the main arena as Drew McIntyre also seemed to be quite glad to see Jey down hurt! This brought out Cody Rhodes who wanted to start a fight with Drew, but McIntyre wasn’t having any of it, before Randy Orton interrupted! Randy couldn’t get much out either as Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, and LA Knight all swiftly followed, with the best interactions by far coming between Trick and LA! Eventually, Knight dropped Williams before Orton floored Evans with an RKO, and I still have no idea what’s going on right now; there are so many men in the Main Event scene!
Grade: B
After Tiffany Stratton issued a challenge to Asuka, it was time for the opening match of the night as Uncle Howdy looked to finally reclaim his lantern off Solo Sikoa! Last week, Uncle Howdy had told Solo to leave all of his family in the back to see if he can deliver on his own! In fairness to Solo, they did stay in the back throughout the duration of the match, and that was ultimately Sikoa’s downfall! See, after injuring his hand on the ring post, Solo wasn’t in a position where he could successfully deliver a Samoan Spike, meaning he had to try other things! This didn’t work out for The Street Champion at all, with Howdy eventually scoring the win with a Sister Abigail! After the match was over, Uncle Howdy looked to take back his sacred lantern, only for the MFTs to beat him up and scamper away with it still in their possession! This feud needs to end now!
Grade: B-
Kairi Sane VS Tiffany Stratton, Oba Femi VS The Miz, Carmelo Hayes’ United States Championship Open Challenge
Drew McIntyre was happy to leave the building for a second-straight week, whilst The Vision pulled up with the proposal of Logan Paul being added to the Elimination Chamber Match (in place of Jey Uso)! Nick Aldis said that he’d take Paul Heyman’s offer into consideration, before RHIYO’s interview segment got interrupted by Jade Cargill! Jacob Fatu also had thoughts about the Elimination Chamber, telling Aldis that he deserves a spot in it, before Tiffany Stratton was supposed to take on Asuka! However, The Empress of Tomorrow called a genius audible, making it clear that it would be Kairi Sane who would be taking on this match, not her! I love it when wrestlers are actually smart, and this move made all of the sense in the world! The match itself between Tiffany and Kairi was decent, I thought they were some good moments, although there were a few occasions where it felt quite scrappy! A couple of the landings that Stratton took didn’t look great, whilst on the flipside, Sane’s DDT onto the apron looked incredible! As expected, Tiffy Time was eventually able to get the win via her Prettiest Moonsault Ever, and for me, the best part about all of this was Chelsea Green on commentary!
Grade: B-
After Nick Aldis informed Logan Paul that he would be in tomorrow’s Elimination Chamber Match, as long as he beats Jacob Fatu, The Miz was set for a rude awakening when he took on Oba Femi! Just like last week, we didn’t get any action for the first few minutes, with both guys going back and forth on the microphone! The Miz really wanted to try and help Oba, saying that he could teach him like The Undertaker did for him, but Femi wasn’t having any of it! Eventually, The Ruler was able to destroy The A-Lister, hitting a Fall From Grace to score another easy victory! It feels very much like we’re treading water with Oba Femi right now; I’m hoping we’ll get a proper feud for him soon!
Grade: C+
After Ilja Dragunov made it clear to Carmelo Hayes that he wouldn’t be answering tonight’s Open Challenge as he doesn’t feel like he deserves a shot at gold, Melo headed down to the ring to host another one of his United States Championship Open Challenges! The call this week was answered by Matt Cardona, and I’m really starting to wonder whether Cardona should’ve returned in NXT (full-time)! The reason I think this is because, outside the initial reaction, the crowd doesn’t seem too interested in the former Zack Ryder, whilst on NXT, Matt would be an absolute star! That’s just my personal thoughts, but anyway, I did think this match was quite good! The number of bumps that Carmelo took to his head was absolutely insane; it very much gave me flashbacks to NXT No Mercy 2023 (when Hayes put on an instant-classic with Dragunov)! Despite being beaten up for the most part, Melo was able to score another successful Title retention with a First-48, and I really do like the fact that Hayes seems to have multiple moves that can win him matches!
Grade: B
Candice LeRae VS Jordynne Grace, RHIYO VS The Irresistible Forces: WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships
After R-Truth stupidly advertised ESPN to a bunch of Tag Teams, Kit Wilson called them all toxic for laughing at Johnny Gargano! This then sort of led into the next match as Candice LeRae was set to go one-on-one with Jordynne Grace! Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t care at all here, and they weren’t helped by the extremely slow pace that we were given! Candice is a majorly underrated performer, whilst Jordynne is damn good! However, they weren’t able to showcase that here, with by far the more interesting aspect being Johnny Gargano at ringside! See, after lying down on the announce table throughout the contest, Gargano eventually decided to just get up and leave, walking off in a way that would convince you that he was sleepwalking! Anyway, all of this distracted LeRae, opening the door for JG to get the win, and yeah, this was the second match in a row where Jordynne Grace has been overshadowed by things going on at ringside!
Grade: C
After Jade Cargill and Raquel Rodriguez came face-to-face, Cody Rhodes wished Jacob Fatu luck (weirdly), only for Sami Zayn to then walk in and question Jacob as to whether he was the one who attacked Jey Uso! This led to both men getting into a war of words, with Sami eventually apologising (just like he did with Cody last week), and yeah, this is clearly leading somewhere! Anyway, it was then time for the second Championship match of the night as The Irresistible Forces looked to dethrone RHIYO of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships! In a similar way to the match earlier in the night between Tiffany and Kairi, there were parts of this match that I really liked, that clicked quite well, but there were other moments that felt all over the place! Iyo Sky and Nia Jax had a couple of moments where they just about got away with things, meaning it actually came across as more impressive than it really should’ve, but yeah, there just felt like there was an awful lot of jeopardy throughout this! However, what I will say is that this match did actually matter, mostly because we got a Title change! See, after Rhea Ripley dropped Nia with a Riptide, Lash Legend took full advantage, flooring Ripley with a Lash Extension to get the win, meaning The Irresistible Forces are now the brand-new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions! I’m very glad that Lash and Nia won here, because it makes sense for them to be Champs whilst they come across this dominant!
Grade: B-
Men’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: Jacob Fatu VS Logan Paul
After Aleister Black once again seemed pleased with his mind games on Randy Orton, it was Main Event time as Jacob Fatu and Logan Paul clashed over the one remaining spot in this year’s Men’s Elimination Chamber Match! It felt pretty clear that Jacob Fatu was going to win here, with WWE easily being able to tell the story of The Vision not being good enough to win without the original trio of Rollins, Reed, and Breakker! It also made storyline sense for Jacob to win, with him currently being well involved in the ongoing WWE Championship saga! However, this is WWE, so not everything has to (or will) make sense! Despite managing to kick out following the first lot of shenanigans, the mystery masked man was revealed to just be some random dude, throwing everyone off their game! However, Drew McIntyre would then be back to smash Fatu in the face with his Undisputed WWE Title, opening the door for Paul to steal the victory! This was a very surprising decision, but I will say that Logan Paul will probably kill it tonight!
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