Triple H Starts the Show, AJ Styles VS Drew McIntyre: World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match
After a monumental WrestleMania XL Kickoff in Las Vegas, Friday Night SmackDown kicked off with Triple H making his way down to the ring to a big ovation. Triple H made it perfectly clear that he is the man in charge of things around here and that’s why the Main Event of WrestleMania 40 will definitely be Roman Reigns VS Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Hunter then left as Nick Aldis and Adam Pearce announced that there will be an Elimination Chamber match in Perth, Australia, and the winner of that match would face Seth “Freakin” Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at The Showcase of The Immortals. However, before we could get there, we needed to have some Qualifying matches and this started off with AJ Styles taking on Drew McIntyre. As a segment, this was effective in many ways and Drew McIntyre’s promo at the end was also pretty good.
Grade: B-
LA Knight arrived to join commentary for the first match of the night which was fun, and I thought the match itself was pretty decent. Drew and AJ both know each other pretty well and this also did a good job in furthering the ongoing feud between Styles and Knight. Late in the match, LA decided to pour water on AJ before he ultimately distracted The Phenomenal One enough for McIntyre to hit the Claymore Kick for the victory. Drew should definitely win the Chamber match in Perth before he goes on to win the World Title at WrestleMania.
Grade: C+
Bianca Belair VS Michin: Women’s World Championship Number 1 Contender’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match, Bayley Promo, DIY VS Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate: Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Match
Sami Zayn talked about how he needs to beat Randy Orton in order to keep his WrestleMania dreams alive before Pretty Deadly had a funny video segment where Kit Wilson showcased his bandaged-up hand. It was then time for an Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match on the Women’s side as Bianca Belair went one-on-one with Michin. This was a decent contest, Michin looked good throughout, but the winner was so obvious that it did take away pretty much the entire jeopardy from this contest. In the end, a K.O.D. was enough for Belair to get the victory and The EST of WWE is definitely now one of the favourites to win the Chamber Match two weeks today.
Grade: C+
Bron Breakker walked into Triple H’s office to ask him his advice as to which brand he should sign for. Paul Heyman then walked in to reunite with Bron before Heyman told Hunter that he’d return next week with both “The Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns and The Rock. Bayley then made her way down to the ring as she wanted to address what happened last week. Bayley talked about how hurt she was regarding Damage CTRL’s breakup last week before she thanked the fans for always believing in her. This brought out Dakota Kai who apologised for everything that went on before The Role Model asked Dakota what side she was on. Iyo Sky and The Kabuki Warriors then arrived before King Kota chased them off with a Steel Chair. This was a good segment that will prove important in this storyline going forward. Whether this means Dakota Kai’s going to side with Bayley or not is another thing though.
Grade: B-
Randy Orton talked about his path to WrestleMania before Bobby Lashley said he’s going to make WrestleMania “All Mighty”. It was then time to find out who would face The Judgment Day for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships at Elimination Chamber as DIY took on the team of Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate. I thought this was a really good match where both teams brought it. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa are awesome, but Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate also showed that they are great too. After multiple hard-hitting strikes, it was ultimately a Bitter End from Dunne to Gargano that scored the victory for British Strong Style. Will Dunne and Bate win at the Chamber? I doubt it, but that would certainly be cool.
Grade: B
Randy Orton VS Sami Zayn: World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match
After Kevin Owens told Dominik Mysterio that he’ll be facing him in an Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match next week and Nick Aldis revealed to Logan Paul that he’ll be facing his old Tag Team partner The Miz, it was Main Event time as Randy Orton and Sami Zayn went at it for a spot inside the Elimination Chamber. Amazingly, this was a good SmackDown Main Event that focused more on the Wrestling than the storyline/angle. Both Randy and Sami brought their own unique offense to the table and it ultimately worked quite well. In the end, a nice RKO from Orton was enough for The Viper to get the win before the show went off the air with Orton standing face-to-face with Drew McIntyre. I’m now very intrigued to see how Sami Zayn’s Road to WrestleMania goes from here.