Friday Night SmackDown Review - February 19, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Universal Champion Roman Reigns Interrupted Edge; Jey Uso Attacked Sami Zayn

Much like a few weeks ago, we got another glimpse at what we can expect heading into WrestleMania 37 if Edge ends up choosing to face Reigns for the Universal Championship. This was a strong back-and-forth from them. I have no idea what purpose Zayn was supposed to serve here, especially since he obviously isn't winning at Elimination Chamber, but his mic work was good. I'm so sold on Edge vs. Reigns and it isn't even official for WrestleMania yet.

Shinsuke Nakamura def. Apollo Crews

If Crews wasn't already a heel before, he certainly is now coming off his vicious attack on Nakamura and Big E. The match was well-wrestled while it lasted, but you know it could have been even better with more time. The Big E vs. Crews feud continues, even though Crews has done nothing to earn another opportunity at the title aside from injuring Big E here. Still, it's been a compelling program and it's a great use of both men at this point in time. Will Nakamura remain in the title hunt or is this solely meant to keep him busy before he goes after Reigns, possibly at Fastlane?

Seth Rollins Addressed His Attack on Cesaro

What's interesting about Rollins' return so far is that he's coming out to his old entrance music and he's not calling himself The Messiah anymore, though he's still portraying that character. I'm fine with that because I've enjoyed his work in that role, but I know not everyone else feels the same way. This was a solid promo from him and it got me excited for the eventual encounter between him and Cesaro. I'd save that match for the Fastlane pay-per-view and then segue from that into Rollins vs. Bryan at WrestleMania.

Tamina and Natalya def. The Riott Squad

If none of these women are going to be elevated to the SmackDown Women's Championship picture any time soon, I feel like this feud is doomed to go on forever. I like The Riott Squad, but their string of meaningless matches with Natalya and Tamina aren't accomplishing anything and haven't been very good. Billie Kay causing distractions at ringside hasn't gotten old, too. I'm not sure where any of this is supposed to be going and I can't say I care.

SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks, Bianca Belair and Reginald Interrupted WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler on Ding Dong, Hello! with Bayley; Reginald, Banks and Belair def. Jax, Baszler and Bayley

Jax and Baszler have been making the rounds this week with appearances on Raw, NXT and now SmackDown. The women's tag titles haven't been this sought after in a while, so that's been refreshing. The talking segment and the subsequent six-person tag team match were fine. I guess Reginald is a babyface now because of how poorly Carmella treats her, but I'm not buying it yet. Apparently this was enough to earn Belair and Banks a shot at the tag titles at Elimination Chamber even though it was Reginald who pinned Jax. Okay then.

Rey and Dominik Mysterio def. Otis and Chad Gable by Disqualification

It looks like Rey and Dominik might be entering the tag team scene if the past two weeks have been any indication, something I've wanted to see for months. If Dominik is going to stay on the main roster (when in reality he should be in NXT or 205 Live for further development), then teaming with his father is for the best. Unfortunately, this was a dud of a match at a minute long. Otis attacked the Mysterios afterward, so it appears he and Gable are heels now. I would've just waited to until Jimmy Uso was cleared to bring them back as a heel team, but I guess WWE didn't have patience. It doesn't matter much since Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode are heel champions, anyway.

Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens and Cesaro def. Sami Zayn, King Corbin and Jey Uso

This served as a nice preview of what we can expect from these six stars inside the Elimination Chamber on Sunday. Of course, Cesaro is the only person I really want to see face Reigns at this point in time (and even he won't win), but this was an entertaining main event for what it was worth. Edge and Paul Heyman did their best on commentary playing up the possibilities of Reigns defending against any one of these men at WrestleMania, but Edge vs. Reigns is the 'Mania match to me. In fact, Reigns spearing Edge to close out the show was the highlight of the segment to me.

Overall Show

SmackDown is typically a significantly better show than Raw, but I don't know if that was the case this week. This episode was all over the place and did very little to leave me looking forward to Elimination Chamber. From an in-ring standpoint, only the main event was anything notable, and even that was pretty paint-by-numbers. Crews cementing his heel turn stood out to me as well, but that was about it. This was a fairly ho-hum show on the whole.