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Just hours before an explosive live Elimination Chamber premium event from Perth, Australia, WWE SmackDown hit the Fox airwaves to set the stage for the show.
LA Knight and Drew McIntyre, two Superstars with their eyes set on winning the Elimination Chamber and cashing their ticket to WrestleMania 40 and a date with Seth “Freakin” Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship, faced off in a packed main event of stars.
Elsewhere on the card, The Final Testament wrote the latest chapter in their rivalry with Bobby Lashley, B-Fab and The Street Profits, NXT Tag Team Champion Bron Breakker made his main roster debut and the team Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate looked to gain momentum ahead of their championship opportunity on Saturday as they battled The Judgment Day’s JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio.
What happened, who emerged victorious and what did it mean for Saturday morning’s blockbuster spectacular?
Find out with this summary of the February 23 broadcast.
Announced in advance for Friday’s show were:
- LA Knight vs. Drew McIntyre
- New Catch Republic (Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne) vs. JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio
- Street profits versus the perpetrators of pain
- Liv Morgan vs. Tiffany Stratton
- Bron Breakker’s in-ring debut
Tiffany Stratton secured her push ahead of Saturday morning’s Elimination Chamber Match for a shot at the Women’s World Championship with a hard-fought, albeit tainted, victory over Liv Morgan to kick off SmackDown.
Stratton outmaneuvered Morgan, aggressive, intense and determined, and took advantage of an ill-timed distraction from Bianca Belair, who was sitting at ringside. Spoiled Daddy’s Daughter sent Morgan to the EST and then got the pinfall in a recap.
The match featured solid action, and Stratton continued to stand out as a WWE star of the future. Morgan has done well with his character’s renewed edge and it wouldn’t be out of the question to see her translate that into a heel turn soon.
Potentially in a feud with Belair, which the outcome here would easily create.
Backstage, Bobby Lashley interrupted a Drew McIntyre promo and reminded him of their match at WrestleMania 37, when The All-Mighty defeated The Scottish Warrior to retain the WWE Championship, ruining the latter’s dream of a defining moment in the great stage.
McIntyre set the bar for his WrestleMania season: win the World Heavyweight Championship or his career will be worthless. A promotion, a lot at stake. More great stuff from the best badass in the business.
Result
Stratton defeated Morgan
Qualification
B-
Main moments and conclusions
- The show has the feel of a pre-recorded broadcast, for better or worse.
- Morgan continued to show his renewed aggression early in the match, staying true to his “revenge tour” persona.
- The show has the feel of a pre-recorded broadcast, for better or worse.
- Stratton still doesn’t seem as inexperienced as her relative youth in this industry would suggest. Natural.
Bron Breakker’s meteoric rise to stardom in WWE began Friday night with a one-sided dismantling of fellow NXT superstar Dante Chen.
Breakker decimated the outmatched competitor and finally knocked the air out of him with his spear.
This was exactly the kind of non-competitive squash match it needed to be. Breakker looked like a world champion, the crowd responded favorably and one of the most anticipated arrivals to the main roster concluded with the focal point standing tall amid an impressed audience.
As it should.
Result
Breakker defeated Chen
Qualification
TO
Main moments and conclusions
- A vignette aired in which Cedric Alexander and Ashante Thee Adonis were trying to define a style for their new team.
- Backstage, Roman Reigns criticized Jimmy Uso for ratting out Paul Heyman before revealing that he was the one who “called the play” and sent his cousin to Raw to attack Jey Uso. From there, he told Heyman that he brought in Grayson Waller.
- Breakker is an explosive artist. His speed and intensity will take him far on the main roster, where he should become a relatively big star in no time.
Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne will challenge The Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and Damian Priest on Saturday for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, but on Friday night they sent a message to the reigning champions with a victory over their teammates, JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio.
A very good high energy tag match saw the No. 1 contenders come in late, thanks to an explosive hot tag from Bate to Dunne and The Bruiserweight’s beating of the opposition.
The British boys of Strong Style hit a double powerbomb on McDonagh to secure the victory, then defended the champions to hold their own before their highest-profile match.
The best match of the show so far.
Result
Dunne and Bate defeated McDonagh and Mysterio
Qualification
B+
Main moments and conclusions
- It was evident that Bate, Dunne and McDonagh had mixed together before on the British independent scene. The chemistry here was off the charts.
- It never ceases to amaze this writer how over his head Dunne is and how long he was saddled with the Butch character. His career may end up being a question of “what if?” regarding how much he could have accomplished if he had been allowed to be The Bruiserweight from the beginning.
The Final Testament gained another advantage in their rivalry with Bobby Lashley, B-Fab and The Street Profits on Friday with the Authors of Pain’s victory over Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins in tag team action.
The match started slow, but picked up late when the action stopped, leading to fights in the ring between B-Fab and Scarlett, as well as between Lashley and Karrion Kross. Akam and Rezar took advantage of the total chaos and achieved the final victory.
The right team got here, and The Final Testament continued to build credibility and legitimacy through victory. Ultimately, Lashley and company will need a win almost as much as the faction needs a name, but for now, the heels are creating some much-needed equity with the audience as the creative team rehabilitates Kross, in particular.
Result
AOP defeated The Street Profits
Qualification
b
Main moments and conclusions
- Backstage, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis helped a limping Dakota Kai while she was the victim of an attack.
- Kross hit Lashley’s right elbow with a steel chair, causing Corey Graves and Wade Barrett to immediately question the implications at Elimination Chamber, where The All-Mighty was scheduled to compete for a title shot. world. Could he be eliminated from the match, creating a surprise entrant?
- Backstage, Bayley checked on Kai, who admitted she wasn’t sure who attacked her.
The hotly contested showdown between LA Knight and Drew McIntyre ended in chaos on Friday night as the six men involved in Saturday’s Men’s Elimination Chamber fight to close the show.
The match itself continued until McIntyre tossed Knight into Kevin Owens in the commentary position. KO put his hands on The Scottish Warrior, causing the disqualification.
Cue the fight, an exchange of finishes between the competitors, an appearance by Lashley (clearly not hurt enough to miss the Chamber match), and an out-of-nowhere RKO by Randy Orton to close the show.
The Knight vs. McIntyre match was pretty good and it’s a shame we don’t see a definitive ending, but it did exactly what it set out to do: promote Saturday morning’s men’s Elimination Chamber match.
An emphatic exclamation point for the broadcast, at least.
Result
McIntyre defeated Knight by disqualification
Qualification
b
Main moments and conclusions
- McIntyre wasted little time hitting Knight with a Glasgow Kiss early on.
- Paul joined Barrett and Graves at the announce table and Owens made his presence felt at the table moments later.
- “I don’t really like anyone in that match except Randy Orton, but if I have to, I’ll stun Randy Orton,” Owens said on commentary.
- “Remember when you were lying on this table but it was destroyed,” Owens asked Paul.
The February 23 show had one goal: to put a finishing touch on the hype for Elimination Chamber’s premium live event, and that’s what it achieved.
Every segment had some sort of involvement in Saturday’s event, with fights escalating, key superstars highlighted, and the show’s closing segment featuring the obligatory fight between six guys vying for a world title shot.
There was focus, purpose and, most importantly, aside from the opening moments, it never felt like a pre-recorded show. Almost everything made sense, the crowd was heated and the company blocked the landing.
A quality show to come home to.
Overall grade: B