Friday Night SmackDown Review - February 6, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Cody Rhodes Attacked and Addressed Undisputed WWE Champion Drew McIntyre

I was looking forward to hearing what McIntyre had to say in response to Roman Reigns and CM Punk from Monday's Raw, but Rhodes going after him before he could was logical considering McIntyre was responsible for Rhodes' Royal Rumble elimination. Rhodes cut an excellent, intense promo, but I really need this rivalry to be over so we can move on, even though I know they're probably locked in through WrestleMania 42.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions RHIYO def. Women's United States Champion Giulia and Kiana James

I continue to fail to see what chemistry Giulia and James have as partners that justifies them staying together. I just don't get the pairing at all. That said, this was an enjoyable outing and RHIYO being as over as they are obviously helped. My only issue with it was Giulia was getting pinned. What's the obsession with protecting James all of a sudden? I'm fine with it if Rhea Ripley gets a shot at the Women's United States Championship out of it because she was the one who pinned Giulia, but I don't see that happening.

United States Champion Carmelo Hayes def. The Miz (Non-Title)

It's so strange that for a match almost a year in the making, this was announced out of nowhere and not advertised in advance. That isn't to say this is some sort of marquee matchup that would've attracted millions of viewers, but from a storyline standpoint, it would have made sense to advertise it. At least it wasn't for the title because Hayes pointed out beforehand that Ilja Dragunov beat Miz last week and thus Miz has done nothing to earn an opportunity.

Tiffany Stratton def. Chelsea Green and Lash Legend in a Triple Threat Match to Qualify for the Women's Elimination Chamber Match

In addition to this being a well-worked match, any one of these women could have realistically won, so that made the match even better. Okay, Green was probably the least likely and was only in there to eat the loss, but she's popular enough that you could have made the case for her, too. I have no issue with Stratton qualifying because she's the biggest star of the three, but I have no interest in her actually winning inside the Elimination Chamber.

Oba Femi def. Kit Wilson

I like that Femi is playing up the "free agent" card by appearing on both Raw and SmackDown until he's officially assigned to one of the brands. He didn't wrestle on Raw this week, but he did make short work of Wilson here. It was a smart use of both guys and the match was exactly what it was supposed to be: a straightforward squash. Femi received a hell of a reaction from the crowd here, so he's already off to a strong start on the main roster.

Jacob Fatu Attacked Undisputed WWE Champion Drew McIntyre

As soon as McIntyre started making his entrance, I assume Fatu would come out and attack him after what happened with McIntyre and Rhodes earlier and that's exactly what they did. This was another nice brawl to further the feud between the two, except we didn't hear from Fatu here. Fatu and Rhodes will be in the same Elimination Chamber qualifier next week along with Sami Zayn, so I'm curious to see who advances there.

WWE Tag Team Champion Tama Tonga def. Shinsuke Nakamura

This has been built up for weeks in backstage segments and I have no idea why. It's cool that their history from New Japan Pro-Wrestling has been acknowledge, but what's the endgame supposed to be? Tonga has picked up a bunch of wins in recent months, so maybe this is leading to him inserting himself into the United States Championship mix, but he's also one-half of the tag champs at the moment. This was a decent match, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about this.

WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill and Jordynne Grace Confronted The Judgment Day; Grace and Cargill def. Judgment Day (Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan)

No one honestly believes Morgan is going to choose to face Cargill at WrestleMania, but I get what they'd want to drag out her decision since the men's Rumble winner made his decision on Monday night. This was pretty basic stuff to set up the subsequent tag team match, which was adequate while it lasted. It was then announced that Cargill is finally going to defend her WWE Women's Championship against Grace on next week's episode.

Trick Williams Confronted Undisputed WWE Champion Drew McIntyre

Third time was the charm for McIntyre getting to speak without being attacked. While it wasn't on the level of Reigns and Punk's promos from Raw, it was still a great rebuttal and some of his lines had me laughing (specifically when he accused them of "aura farming," despite being guilty of it himself). Meanwhile, Williams shined on the mic once again and was super over with this crowd.

Randy Orton def. WWE Tag Team Champion Solo Sikoa def. Solo Sikoa and Aleister Black to Qualify for the Men's Elimination Chamber Match

It was implied that The MFTs didn't get involved because they were taken out by The Wyatt Sicks beforehand, so I appreciated that there wasn't any interference. It was a nice main event, and although the outcome was predictable, Orton being as over as he is kept the crowd engaged. I'm glad Black wasn't pinned, but was this really worth not putting him in the men's Royal Rumble?

Overall Show

The build for Elimination Chamber is underway, but we're also getting more developments heading into WrestleMania. It was far from the most exciting episode and the three hours are becoming tougher to endure with each week that passes, but this edition in particular was formatted effectively and the qualifiers will make some matches more meaningful for the next few weeks.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews