Mere hours before an explosive Elimination Chamber premium live event from Perth, Australia, WWE SmackDown hit the Fox airwaves to set the stage for the extravaganza.
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, clashed in a star-studded main event.
Elsewhere on the card, The Final Testament wrote the latest chapter in his rivalry with Bobby Lashley, B-Fab, and The Street Profits, NXT Tag Team Champion Bron Breakker made his main roster debut, and the team of Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate sought to pick up momentum ahead of their championship opportunity Saturday as they battled JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio of The Judgment Day.
What went down, who emerged victoriously, and what did it mean for Saturday morning’s blockbuster spectacular?
Find out with this recap 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
- The Street Profits vs. The Authors of Pain
- Liv Morgan vs. Tiffany Stratton
- Bron Breakker’s in-ring debut
Tiffany Stratton secured momentum for herself 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 overcame an aggressive, intense, and determined Morgan and took advantage of an ill-timed distraction by Bianca Belair, who had been seated at ringside. The spoiled daddy’s girl sent Morgan into The EST, then scored the pinfall off a rollup.
The match featured some solid action, with Stratton continuing to stand out as a star of WWE’s future. Morgan has done well with the renewed edge to her character and it would not be out of the question to see her translate it into a heel turn shortly.
Potentially in a feud with Belair, which the outcome here would easily set up.
Backstage, Bobby Lashley interrupted a Drew McIntyre promo and reminded him about their clash 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 on the grand stage.
McIntyre set the bar for his WrestleMania season: win the World Heavyweight Championship or his career is useless. One promo, heightened stakes. More great stuff from the hottest heel in the business.
Result
Stratton defeated Morgan
Grade
B-
Top Moments and Takeaways
- The show has the look and feel of a pretaped broadcast, for better and worse.
- Morgan continued to showcase her renewed aggression early on in the match, staying true to her “revenge tour” persona.
- The show has the look and feel of a pretaped broadcast, for better or worse.
- Stratton still does not look nearly as inexperienced as her relative youth in this industry would suggest. A 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, ultimately driving the air out of him with the spear.
This was exactly the sort of uncompetitive squash match it needed to be. Breakker looked like a world-beater, the crowd responded favorably to it, and one of the most anticipated arrivals on the main roster concluded with the focal point standing tall amid an impressed audience.
As he should.
Result
Breakker defeated Chen
Grade
A
Top Moments and Takeaways
- A vignette aired featuring Cedric Alexander and Ashante Thee Adonis trying to nail down a look for their new tag team.
- Backstage, Roman Reigns criticized Jimmy Uso for ratting out Paul Heyman before revealing it was he who “called the play” and sent his cousin to Raw to attack Jey Uso. From there, he told Heyman to bring him Grayson Waller.
- Breakker is such an explosive performer. His speed and intensity is going to carry him a long way on the main roster, where he should be a relatively big star in short order.
Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne will challenge The Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and Damian Priest Saturday for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship but Friday night, they sent a message to the reigning champions with a win over their teammates, JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio.
A very good, high-energy tag match saw the No. 1 contenders roll late, thanks to an explosive hot tag from Bate to Dunne and The Bruiserweight’s beatdown of the opposition.
The British Strong Style lads delivered a double pumphandle powerbomb to McDonagh to secure the win, then fended off the champions to stand tall ahead of their highest-profile match.
The best match of the show so far.
Result
Dunne and Bate defeated McDonagh and Mysterio
Grade
B+
Top Moments and Takeaways
- It was readily apparent that Bate, Dunne, and McDonagh had mixed it up before across the British indie scene. The chemistry here was off the charts.
- It never ceases to amaze this writer how over Dunne is and how long he was saddled with the Butch character. His run may end up being a question of “what if” in regards to how much he could have accomplished had he been allowed to be The Bruiserweight from the get-go.
The Final Testament gained another upper hand in their rivalry with Bobby Lashley, B-Fab, and The Street Profits 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 as the action broke down, leading to ringside fights between B-Fab and Scarlett, as well as Lashley and Karrion Kross. Akam and Rezar took advantage of the utter chaos, scoring the pinfall victory
The right team went over here, with The Final Testament continuing to build credibility and legitimacy for itself by way of the victory. Lashley and Co. will ultimately need a win, almost as much as the faction needs a name but for now, the heels are building much-needed equity with the audience as the creative team rehabs Kross, in particular.
Result
AOP defeated The Street Profits
Grade
B
Top Moments and Takeaways
- Backstage, SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis assisted a limping Dakota Kai as she was the victim of an attack.
- Kross blasted Lashley’s right elbow with a steel chair, prompting Corey Graves and Wade Barrett to immediately question the implications on the Elimination Chamber, in which The All-Mighty was scheduled to compete for a shot at the world title. Could he be written out of the match, setting up a surprise entrant?
- Backstage, Bayley checked on Kai, who admitted that she was not sure who attacked her.
The hotly contested match-up between LA Knight and Drew McIntyre ended in chaos Friday night as the six men involved in Saturday’s Men’s Elimination Chamber brawled to close the show.
The match itself rolled along until McIntyre tossed Knight into Kevin Owens at the commentary position. KO laid hands on The Scottish Warrior, drawing the disqualification finish.
Cue the brawl, an exchange of finishers between the competitors, an appearance from Lashley (clearly not hurt enough to miss the Chamber match), and an RKO from out of nowhere from Randy Orton to close the show.
The match between Knight and McIntyre was quite good and it is a shame we will not see a definitive end to it, but this did exactly what it set out to in that it hyped Saturday morning’s Men’s Elimination Chamber Match.
An emphatic exclamation point to the broadcast, if nothing else.
Result
McIntyre defeated Knight via disqualification
Grade
B
Top Moments and Takeaways
- McIntyre wasted little time rocking Knight with a Glasgow Kiss early on.
- Paul joined Barrett and Graves at the commentary table and Owens made his presence felt at the table moments later.
- “I don’t really like anyone in that match except for Randy Orton but if I have to, I’ll stun Randy Orton,” Owens said on commentary.
- “Remember when you were laying on this table but it was destroyed,” Owens asked Paul.
The February 23 show had one goal: put a final bow on the hype for the Elimination Chamber premium live event and it did just that.
Every segment had some sort of implication on Saturday’s event, with feuds intensified, key Superstars highlighted, and the show-closing segment featuring the obligatory brawl between six guys vying for a world title opportunity.
There was focus, purpose and most importantly, other than the opening moments, it never felt like a pretaped show. Most everything made sense, the crowd was hot, and the company stuck the landing.
A quality go-home show.
Overall Grade: B
