Friday Night SmackDown Review - February 7, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso Attacked Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga

Uso started the show almost exactly the same way he started Raw on Monday night. That's not a bad thing when you consider how over with the audience he is at the moment. He and Rhodes have history and they played off of that here, but I don't think a single soul actually thinks Uso will choose to challenge him at WrestleMania 41. Fatu and Tonga interrupting them set up the tag team main event for later on in the night.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Bianca Belair def. Piper Niven to Qualify for the Women's Elimination Chamber Match

We've seen Belair vs. Niven several times over the years (including as recently as a few months ago), but they have such strong chemistry together that it's hard to complain. The end result was never in question, but I enjoyed this for what it was. Naomi will have an Elimination Chamber qualifier as well on next Friday's SmackDown against Chelsea Green. I assume Jade Cargill legitimately being injured is the only reason why her storyline with Belair and Naomi hasn't been progressed yet.

Pretty Deadly Interrupted WWE Tag Team Champions #DIY; Pretty Deadly def. #DIY (Non-Title)

As I've said before, I appreciate the extra television time the tag team division has gotten since SmackDown expended to three hours. I also appreciated that #DIY were given mic time in the ring for a change and it sounded like they got good heat. I wasn't a fan of the impromptu match with Pretty Deadly because it turned out to be total throwaway, but I guess that's one way of protecting #DIY in defeat while simultaneously earning Pretty Deadly a title shot.

Drew McIntyre def. LA Knight and Jimmy Uso in a Triple Threat Match to Qualify for the Men's Elimination Chamber Match

The promos that preceded the match were solid, and although they were clearly designed to kill time, they did make the matchup more meaningful, especially given the stakes. These three worked really well together and delivered an entertaining Triple Threat. I figured McIntyre would win, but I didn't expect him to pin Knight to do so. I'd love to see McIntyre vs. Knight at WrestleMania over the rumored match between McIntyre and Damian Priest.

Carmelo Hayes def. Akira Tozawa

You'd think Hayes' lengthy losing streak would've led to him getting traded to Raw, but apparently not. Instead, he was put up against the man he attacked at the Royal Rumble and prevented from entering the men's Rumble. I honestly thought Tozawa might score the upset, but I'm fine with Hayes picking up the victory. If that was going to be the outcome, I don't know why this needed to last as long as it did and go through a commercial break.

Charlotte Flair, WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton and Nia Jax Interrupted Each Other

Flair's promo delivery was slightly better here than it was on Monday's Raw during her segment with Rhea Ripley, but not by much. There can't be any question that Flair is facing Stratton at WrestleMania, right? We also got confirmation that Jax vs. Stratton for the WWE Women's Championship will finally happen on next week's SmackDown. You'd think that'd be saved for Elimination Chamber, but I guess not. Regardless, this was a decent segment that accomplished what it needed to.

Alexa Bliss def. Candice LeRae to Qualify for the Women's Elimination Chamber Match

Before the women's Royal Rumble last weekend, Bliss had been out for the ring for just over two years and that was evident here. That isn't say this was a bad match by any means, but Bliss' ring rust made this an average outing at best (not to mention the crowd was quiet for a majority of it). Interestingly, there was a Wyatt Sicks-esque flash during the bout, so Bliss should be involved with them in some form or fashion soon.

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso def. Tama Tonga and Jacob Fatu

By the time they got done with their entrances, these four only had about 10 or so minutes to work with. The match also almost immediately cut to a commercial break. Ridiculous. I felt like I had seen this before, and sure enough, it was only last month that Rhodes teamed up with Jimmy Uso against Tonga and Fatu. This was serviceable, but these random SmackDown main events need to end. Worse yet, Solo Sikoa attacked Rhodes afterward, so it appears that rivalry is being revisited. Ugh.

Overall Show

I don't want to dunk on the entire episode because this was an improvement over most editions of SmackDown we've gotten so far this year, but not only does the three-hour format still suck, we now have to deal with Rhodes vs. Sikoa again at the top of the card. It's honestly comical that Rhodes can't seem to escape The Bloodline, or whatever they're going to be called going forward. There were some highlights throughout the night and I dug the Triple Threat, but it's wild how much of a difference in quality there is between Raw and SmackDown right now. It's almost night and day.

SEE MORE: SmackDown Reviews