Smackdown Review – 02.13.26

It’s been an action-filled week for WWE so let’s catch up: Raw | NXT | Evolve | Impact

This is shaping up as one of the bigger Smackdown shows in recent history, and it comes to us this evening on the SyFy Channel and Netflix from the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, TX. The announcing team for this evening’s festivities is Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett on match calls and analysis, Mark Nash on ring introductions, and Cathy Kelley on backstage interviews and breaking news segments. Let’s watch some wrestling!

Then, Now, Forever….TOGETHER

Here’s Cody Rhodes, presumably on his bus, looking pensive. Sami Zayn sits in the arena seats, also appearing nervous, and here’s Jacob Fatu pacing backstage. Those three will meet in an Elimination Chamber qualifier later. Here’s Alexa Bliss arriving, and up next for arrivals is WWE Women’s US Champ Giulia flanked by Kiana James. Zelina and Aleister Black are shown making their way backstage. Bliss, Giulia, and Zelina will also be in an EC qualifier during the show. A split-screen shows us WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill and her opponent tonight Jordynne Grace heading into the building prior to Cargill’s first televised defense of her championship.

Tessitore and Barrett are at the desk, and they throw it to the entrance of Tiffany Stratton. Stratton qualified for the Chamber match last week by pinning Chelsea Green. Stratton has a mic and talks about losing the championship after having an amazing rookie year. Stratton says she walks into the Chamber expecting to win, while the other five competitors will just hope to win. Because no one can ever have a chat without being interrupted, here’s Nia Jax and Lash Legend out to have a few words. Legend says that Stratton got lucky last week, and Stratton questions why Jax is so obsessed with her. Legend calls herself an upgrade from when Stratton palled around with Jax. Legend says Jax will win her qualifier next week and see Stratton in the Chamber. Jax and Legend object to the “Tiffy Time” chant that breaks out, and here’s WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Rhea Ripley and IYO Sky out as Stratton ducks out of the ring. Ripley says that she will be the one to walk out of the Chamber, or Sky will be, but before that they have to “beat the crap” out of Legend and Jax in the tag title match.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: RHIYO (Rhea Ripley and IYO Sky) vs Nia Jax and Lash Legend

It’s Sky and Jax to start and Jax hits a lofted headbutt and a big elbow drop to start. Jax mocks Sky’s “point to her head” taunt and bashes Sky around in a neutral corner. Sky puts up a boot and ducks a charge before walloping Jax with a shotgun dropkick. Ripley tags in and she and Sky hit a double-team move that ends with Sky double-stomping Jax in the gut. Ripley hits a running knee and covers for two. Ripley hits a dropkick that sends Jax to the floor, and then a charging Legend is also sent out. Sky hits a moonsault on both Jax and Legend and then runs Jax back in. Sky kicks Legend away but gets caught with a forearm and a Samoan Drop by Jax. Jax covers and gets two. Legend tags in and rams Sky’s head between the top and second rope. Legend hits a backdrop and stands on Sky for a cover that gets two. Legend puts on a rear chinlock and then clubbers Sky in the back. Jax tags in and hits a big Hip Attack on Sky. Jax covers and gets two. Jax yanks up Sky and tags in Legend who smashes Sky with rights. We go to commercials.

Legend tags in and her and Jax whip Sky into their corner. Sky slips a charge and hits a dropkick while standing on Jax’s back that sends Legend flying. Ripley gets the hot tag and starts smashing Legend around after eliminating Jax. Ripley wants a rana but Legend snatches her up. Ripley fights out of that and sends Legend packing. Jax charges in and Ripley hits her with a helicopter DDT that gets two. Sky tags in and Jax smashes Ripley off before walloping Sky with a big forearm. Ripley hoists up Jax for a powerbomb and Sky follows with a moonsault. Legend pushes Ripley into Sky’s cover to break it up at two. Legend sends Sky to the floor and goes out after her to smash Sky into a ring post and then the announce table. Ripley hits Legend with a dropkick and the bell sounds.

Double count-out, I’m assuming? There wasn’t an announcement and Tessitore goes “the ref lost control of the match” and since when is that an excuse? I’m baffled at the lack of a finish here, quite frankly. Like, neither Legend or Jax would be hurt by a pin and given how many super-teams there are right now plus the Chamber matches, it wouldn’t have killed Ripley and Sky to eat a pin either. Like…I’m kind of baffled by this booking. This was fine, nowhere near “awesome” as the crowd tried to tell me, and we’ll just call the whole thing 2.5* and move on with our lives.

No winner – DCO (? – no announcement)

Post-match sees the fight continue on the floor and Legend ends up crushing Ripley with a pump kick. Legend yanks out a SLIM JIM TABLE. Legend mounts Ripley on the table, but Ripley fights her way off of it. Sky smashes Jax with a cross-body that sends Jax through the table, while Legend crushes Ripley with a spear that sends her through the barricade at the timekeeper’s area. A bunch of refs pour out from the back as everyone is down on the floor.

Here’s Cathy Kelley with Cody Rhodes. Kelley asks about Rhodes path to Wrestlemania and Rhodes mentions how many eyes are on him and his opponents tonight. Rhodes says then he’ll ask himself “Where am I?”. Rhodes says he’s two matches away from main-eventing Wrestlemania and then of course name-drops the Von Erichs since they’re in Dallas.

Here’s WWE Men’s US Champion Carmelo Hayes running into Matt Cardona and Apollo Crews backstage. Crews mentions that he loves Hayes open challenge concepts continuing on from previous folks and he’d like to be in that mix, and Cardona mentions he also would like to be in. Hayes says the Open Challenge is closed tonight, and leaves. Hayes then runs into The Miz who chastises Hayes for offering shots to “just anybody” and Hayes says “Anyone but you.” Miz is highly offended at this and says Hayes is testing his THREE CORE VALUES. The three words are “master, inspire, zone in”. Miz says he’s going to teach Hayes a lesson and Hayes sends out the Burn Unit by saying “I hope you teach better than you wrestle” before leaving. Cardona sidles up to point out that “zone in” is actually two words and Miz says there’s a hyphen in there. Cardona and Crews continue to chat about the US title as we go to commercials.

Here’s Aleister Black to chat about Randy Orton’s victory in the EC qualifier last week, and wonders what Orton will do if Cody wins tonight’s qualifier since they’re such good friends. Zelina wants to know how far she can push Bliss and Giulia before they break. Zelina promises that tonight change will come.

Here’s Carmelo Hayes out for a chat. Let’s see who interrupts him! Hayes gets a chant and says he’s chosen to bring prestige and honor to the title like the guys before him did. Hayes says his matches are the best on Smackdown or Raw, and then mentions the Road to Wrestlemania. Hayes says he will be in a qualifying match for the Chamber next week, and when he shoots, Melo Don’t Miss. Hayes then calls out Ilja Dragunov who emerges from the back. As Dragunov enters the ring, here’s Solo Sikoa flanked by the MFT’s. Sikoa mentions Dragunov losing twice to Hayes and says he should get to the back of the line. Dragunov says Sikoa’s family abandoned him last week during his qualifying match, and Sikoa admonishes Dragunov to never speak about his family. Hayes wants Sikoa to have his guys put up their tag titles, and Sikoa says since they ran their mouths, it didn’t have to be like this. The MFT’s and Sikoa start attacking Hayes and Dragunov, and here’s Matt Cardona and Apollo Crews out to help. Finally, to even the numbers fully, here’s Shinsuke Nakamura to make it five on five. The faces quickly take control, and here’s Smackdown GM Nick Aldis out to make a ten man tag PLAYA. We go to commercials.

WWE Men’s US Champion Carmelo Hayes, Ilja Dragunov, Matt Cardona, Apollo Crews and Shinsuke Nakamura vs WWE Men’s Tag Team Champions Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga, Talla Tonga, Tonga Loa, and JC Mateo

Crews tags in Cardona as we’re joined IN PROGRESS. Cardona drops Loa and then hits him with a double knee. Cardona hits a shotgun dropkick and covers Loa for two. Sikoa drops Cardona with a shot from the apron and Loa smashes Cardona with a lariat. Loa slams Cardona and tags in Tama Tonga. Tonga barks at the face team and then chokes Cardona over the second rope. Talla Tonga tags in and clubbers away on Cardona’s back. Tonga hoists Cardona and hits a running fall-away slam. Loa tags in and Cardona manages a face buster before tagging in Dragunov. Dragunov hits a high boot on a charging Loa and then smashes him with a running knee. Dragunov ascends and fights off Mateo, but that allow Loa time enough to wallop Dragunov down to the floor. Talla Tonga comes flying at Dragunov with a lariat and we go to commercials.

Mateo has Dragunov in a rear chinlock but Dragunov fights his way out of it when the show returns. Mateo tags in Sikoa and he gets caught with a Dragunov enziguri. Dragunov tags in Hayes and he starts smashing Sikoa around. Hayes hits a springboard reverse clothesline and then crushes a charging Tama Tonga with a springboard legdrop. Hayes hits La Mistica on Sikoa and the cover is broken up at two. Everyone flies in and hits moves during a sequence that ends with Talla Tongs crushing Cardona with a lariat after he had delivered Ruff Ryders to Loa and Sikoa. Hayes gets caught, as does Dragunov, and Tonga chokeslams both of them. Cardona drops Tonga with a high knee and Nakamura flies in with a Kinshasha that sends Tonga to the floor. Crews hits a tope con hilo on Tonga, but back in the ring Mateo catches Nakamura with a Tour of the Islands. Dragunov comes in and hits Mateo with Torpedo Moscow and the H-Bomb. Sikoa yanks Dragunov off but eats a Hayes superkick. Sikoa misses a charge and gets a First 48 from Hayes. Hayes ascends and Tama Tonga pushes Hayes off into a Sikoa Samoan Spike. Dragunov smashes Sikoa with a Torpedo Moscow and they go to the floor, so Tama Tonga flies in to wallop Hayes with a Cutthroat. Tonga covers Hayes and gets three.

So this broke down completely in the second act as there were no tags whatsoever for the last three or so minutes of the match. The crowd predictably ate this chaos up with a spoon, and I guess it was entertaining if you don’t really care too much about the rules of actual tag wrestling. I would call this match “content” and that’s about as kind as I can be to it. I didn’t really want to see Hayes and Dragunov AGAIN so this was the compromise we got and it is what it is. Not very easy to rate, though. 2.5*

Winners – Solo Sikoa/The MFT’s (Tama Tonga Cutthroat on Hayes)

Post-match sees Sikoa hold up THE LANTERN as the Wyatt Sicks appear in the crowd.

We go to highlights of the Women’s Royal Rumble match that focus on Charlotte Flair dumping Alexa Bliss from the match. Charlotte Flair approaches Bliss backstage and apologizes for the Rumble. Flair wants Bliss to be her Galentine and offers her some black roses and a signed picture of Flair. Flair says she’s going to be ringside with Bliss tonight for the qualifying match, and Bliss insists that Flair bring the picture with her. We go to commercials.

This show is having TONS of production issues tonight. Very rare for the usually slick and processed productions that WWE puts out.

Nick Aldis is backstage with R-Truth and Damien Priest and Aldis lets Priest know that he’s in a Chamber qualifying match next week against Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams. Kit Wilson charges in and has a poem for the group, which accuses Aldis of not expressing his feelings and calling him TOXIC. Wilson is offended when Truth and Priest laugh at him, and Truth proceeds to have a poem of his own. Wilson calls all of them TOXIC and leaves.

Women’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: Alexa Bliss vs WWE Women’s US Champion Giulia vs Zelina

Charlotte Flair is out with Bliss, as promised. Zelina comes out to Aleister Black’s theme, but she’s alone. Kiana James accompanies Giulia. Three roll ups to start, and everyone gets a one-count. Bliss goes for Sister Abigail on Giulia but Zelina breaks her out. Bliss gets smashed into a turnbuckle and bails to the floor, so Giulia wallops Zelina with a right. Giulia hits a snap suplex and then slaps Zelina with a boot to the back. Giulia covers Zelina and gets two. Zelina fires up with a Saito suplex and here’s Bliss back in. Bliss dumps Giulia down and then hits her rolling leg drop. Bliss hits a tackle on Giulia on the floor before turning into a Zelina Meteora. We go to commercials.

Giulia is working Bliss over in a corner and Zelina flies in to smash Giulia off of Bliss. Giulia snaps Zelina down and then starts charging Bliss and Zelina. Zelina gets distracted by James and Giulia gets a double-underhook superplex from the top rope. Bliss trucks Giulia and then smashes Zelina with forearms. Bliss hits a shotgun dropkick on Giulia and then drops Zelina and Giulia with a rolling neckbreaker. Bliss gets two two-counts and then ascends. Giulia cuts that off and then Zelina also ascends behind Giulia. Zelina hits a second rope side suplex and covers Giulia for two. They start slugging it out and Giulia goes to a series of headbutts. Giulia hurts her knee by missing a charge and Bliss ascends again. Bliss catches Giulia’s knees on the Twisted Bliss attempt. Zelina hits the Code Red on Giulia and Bliss breaks her cover up at two. Bliss hits a DDT on Zelina and Giulia breaks that up with an Arrivederci knee. Giulia hits the Northern Lights Bomb on Bliss and Zelina breaks up the cover at two. Zelina smashes James off the apron and then dumps Giulia. Zelina runs into the Sister Abigail and Bliss covers and gets three. Bliss joins Rhea Ripley and Tiffany Stratton for the Women’s Chamber match.

This was a big old mess but they got there in the end. It felt like Giulia and Zelina weren’t always exactly on the same page and Bliss kind of had to work around that. James went back to being the inept sidekick after a few weeks of really being solid in the ring, and Flair played no part at all. It was all just move after move after move in the second act and as much as I’d like to be kind to this, it just never landed from a cohesion standpoint. 2.5*

Winner – Alexa Bliss (Sister Abigail on Zelina)

Here’s Tiffany Stratton running into Jordynne Grace backstage and they’d like to see each other at Wrestlemania. Grace leaves as a wheelchair-bound Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre come into the scene. Green blames her ankle injury on Stratton. Green says Stratton is riddled with jealousy, and Fyre wants an apology and compensation. Stratton says all Green would have had to do to get an apology would be to stand up and ask, but she can’t! We go to commercials.

Here’s Rey Fenix warming up and Sami Zayn wanders up to encourage Fenix to teach Trick Williams a lesson tonight. Fenix says he will and goes to leave, but Zayn pulls him back and says he’s grateful for Fenix’s words about him inspiring the locker room. Fenix says he knows Zayn’s got this tonight and off he goes. Trick Williams makes his entrance and grabs a mic.

Trick does Booker T’s bit from NXT during his entrance music to the crowds delight. Trick mentions “Mr Can’t Get The Job Done” Sami Zayn telling another sob story. Trick runs Zayn down and says his begging for another opportunity makes him sick. Trick says if Zayn is moping around tonight the big dogs Jacob Fatu and Cody Rhodes will eat him up. Trick says next week he’ll come out and do whatever it takes to qualify for the Chamber. Rey Fenix makes his entrance as we go to commercials.

Trick Williams vs Rey Fenix

Trick works a headlock to start and then he trucks Fenix to the mat. Trick shrugs off Fenix and then flexes for the crowd. Fenix fires up with some forearms and a high boot. Fenix hits a back handspring elbow but Trick catches him and drives him into a corner. Fenix slips out and hits a roundhouse kick and follows with a missile dropkick. Fenix covers and gets two. Williams crushes Fenix with the Trick Kick and then runs him into a corner. Trick chops away before Fenix fires up with some chops of his own. Trick cuts that off with a body slam but Fenix grabs a quick roll-up for two. Trick shakes that off and hits a jumping neckbreaker and a gigantic lariat before covering and getting two. We go to commercials.

Fenix is chopping away when the show returns. Fenix hits a lariat but Trick is unfazed and the next time Fenix charges Trick tosses him high in the air and down to the mat. Fenix catches Trick with a spinning back heel and both guys are down. Fenix hits a couple of roundhouses and then Fenix hits Adios Amigos and covers Trick for two. Fenix ascends and he hits a high cross-body on Trick before ascending again for a top rope splash. Fenix’s cover gets a long two. Trick bails and Fenix ascends to hit another huge cross-body to the floor. Fenix runs Trick back in and gets caught with a Trick uppercut while ascending. Fenix stands on top of the ring post and hits a double stomp to Trick’s head before covering and getting two. Fenix mises a moonsault and gets caught with the Trick Shot. Trick covers and gets three.

Hey look, a terrific match. We’re only an hour and fifty minutes into this show. I kid, I kid. This was merely “good” but so far, it’s MOTN. Fenix got a lot of shine here considering how far down the card he’s slipped, and Trick took some good punishment and SOLD. I like to point out when people actually sell in wrestling because man oh man, it’s becoming kind of a lost art. This was fun, the crowd enjoyed it, Trick cut a good heel promo before it, and won clean as a sheet in the end. It’s all good from me. 3.75*

Winner – Trick Williams (Trick Shot)

Rhea Ripley and IYO Sky are backstage and seem to be hurting, and here’s a screaming Giulia and Kiana James to enter the scene. Sky mentions taking the US title from Giulia who just starts screaming as they back off. Jade Cargill wanders in and stares down Ripley and Sky before leaving without a word being said. Tessitore and Barrett toss to a promo package on Jordynne Grace and Jade Cargill that shows their history and the build-up for the title match, which is next.

Here’s a promo from Jacob Fatu about the Elimination Chamber. Fatu mentions that people have used his past against him, but he’s not backing down from Cody and Sami during the qualifier. Excellent promo!

WWE Women’s World Championship: Jade Cargill (C) vs Jordynne Grace

Mark Nash does the in-ring intros and as he’s introducing Cargill, Liv Morgan, WWE Men’s Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio and Raquel Rodriguez emerge from the back. Dom has engineered a Valentine’s Day date set up for his crew with nuggies and roses so they can take in the match. Sadly, a “Dirty Dom” chant breaks out during this women’s title match, but he’s arguably the biggest star at ringside and so you get what you get, especially in Texas.

Cargill and Grace lock up and they crash together several times before Cargill hits a snap suplex. Cargill runs into a high boot and then catches Grace, but Grace turns it into a sleeper while on Cargill’s back. Cargill hits a backdrop and then they both roll to the the floor as Grace refuses to release the hold. Cargill finally breaks it by slamming Grace into a ring post. Cargill misses a forearm that goes into the post and she rolls back in, but Grace drags her out to smash the damaged arm on the floor. Grace hits a splash and then breaks the ref count. Grace gets backdropped into the timekeeper’s area and Cargill breaks up the count. Cargill steals a nuggie from the Judgement Day table as we go to commercials. (Yes, you read that right. We’re out here telling stories tonight, kids.)

Grace breaks out of a rear chinlock as the show returns. Barrett makes a “Bottle of Dom” joke as the fake champagne bottle at the JD table has a picture of Mysterio’s face on it. HYUCK. Grace smashes Cargill’s arm and hits another high boot. Grace hits a bunch of headbutts and then smashes Cargill into a top turnbuckle. Grace hits a vertical suplex and covers for two. Cargill hits a big kick but Grace fires up with a spinebuster. Cargill hits a spinebuster of her own and covers Grace for two. (I should point out that the ring sponsors tonight include CarShield and MadDog 20/20 as apparently TKO will now take money from just about anyone!) Grace gets a roll-up for two, and then gets another one for two. Grace hoists Cargill up for a powerslam driver that gets two. They go nose-to-nose and start slugging it out. Grace hits a back elbow and then hoists Cargill, but Cargill slips off and hits a huge pump kick. Cargill snatches Grace up for Jaded before covering and getting three.

I’m not sure if Cargill actually hurt her arm on the ring post or not, but she sold it the whole match and Grace certainly paid attention to it. This whole thing was pretty much carried by Grace, as I kind of expected, but Jade held her own here. Personally, I wish that Dom and Raquel had not made the trip and we had just gotten Morgan maybe on commentary, but they made a different choice and it took focus from the match. This wasn’t bad, but it never got to the point where I felt like I was witnessing something I’d have to tell people about later. 2.75*

Winner AND STILL WWE Women’s Champion – Jade Cargill (Jaded)

Post-match sees Cargill go down and give Morgan a warning about challenging her for Wrestlemania. Morgan seems wildly unaffected by it.

Here’s FrAxiom and The Motor City Machine Guns again laughing about the depressed John Wrestling and Candice LeRae, who is trying to cheer him up in vain. Gargano mentions his tag partner is gone, and that he has nothing left. LeRae pushes the cart that Gargano is laying on away while claiming she’s going to fix things. Here’s Solo Sikoa and the MFT’s wandering in and calling the Guns and FrAxiom “chumps” and telling them to take notes. Sikoa sees a drawing of his head on THE LANTERN and he rips it down in anger as the Wyatts logo comes up.

Jordynne Grace, Matt Cardona, and Carmelo Hayes visited the Medal of Honor Museum on Thursday. We go to commercials.

Here’s Oba Femi being offered a contract by Nick Aldis when Kit Wilson comes back into Aldis’s office. Aldis takes Wilson’s poetry book and it happens to be on the page where there’s a poem about Femi. Aldis reads the poem and Femi asks if that’s how Wilson feels. Femi challenges Wilson for next week, and Wilson apparently accepts.

Tessitore runs down the matches announced for next week including a Women’s EC qualifier with Charlotte Flair, Nia Jax and Kiana James, and the Men’s EC qualifier with Trick Williams, Carmelo Hayes, and Damien Priest.

Cathy Kelley is with WWE Men’s Undisputed Champion Drew McIntyre and McIntyre talks about Randy “Can’t Win The Big One Anymore” Orton and Los Angeles Knight. McIntyre runs down everyone in tonight’s qualifier and here’s Sami Zayn to interrupt. McIntyre mentions that Zayn told him that there was a small part of him that wanted McIntyre to win in Germany. McIntyre predicts Zayn will win tonight and wishes him luck before leaving a baffled Zayn. Zayn heads through Gorilla as his music hits. We go to commercials.

Men’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match: Sami Zayn vs Jacob Fatu vs Cody Rhodes

Fatu hits a superkick that sends Zayn to the floor and then he and Rhodes start slugging it out. Fatu hits a headbutt but Rhodes fires up with his drop uppercut punch. Fatu slips the Cody Cutter and smashes Rhodes with a back heel kick. Fatu misses a running senton and Rhodes sends Fatu to the floor with a lariat. Zayn is back in and he starts chopping away at Rhodes. Zayn sends Rhodes to the floor with a lariat and then hits a tope con hilo on Rhodes and Fatu. We go to commercials.

Rhodes and Fatu are slugging it out when the show returns. Rhodes slips a Fatu charge and then hits Zayn and Fatu with back to back snap powerslams. Rhodes goes to the jabs and the flip-flop-and-fly, but Zayn blocks the elbow. Rhodes hits a Disaster Kick and covers Zayn for two. Rhodes gets caught with a Zayn knee and then Fatu smashes into both of them from behind. Fatu stomps away at Zayn and then hits a rope-assisted running moonsault that gets two. Rhodes comes in and walks into a Zayn small package that gets two. Fatu breaks up a Rhodes roll-up at two with a running senton. Fatu slugs away at Zayn and then smashes Rhodes in the opposite corner with a running splash. Fatu hits the running splash on Zayn and then goes over to start throwing bombs at Rhodes. Fatu hits the Hip Attack on Rhodes and then hits a pop-up Samoan Drop on a charging Zayn. Rhodes breaks that cover up at two as we take our final commercial break of the evening.

Zayn and Rhodes are smacking a mounted Fatu. They combine on a superplex on Fatu and everyone is down. Zayn and Rhodes start slugging it out from their knees, and once they reach their feet the fight continues apace. Rhodes hits a kick and Zayn catches a charging Rhodes with the Exploder. Zayn lines up Rhodes but Fatu cuts off the Helluva Kick charge with a superkick and then gives one to Rhodes for good measure. Zayn catches Fatu with a kick and then gets a quick roll-up on Rhodes for two. Rhodes starts dropping elbows on Zayn’s head and Zayn fires up with the Blue Thunder Bomb that gets two. Zayn yanks Rhodes up and they start chopping away. Rhodes hits some jabs and the Bionic Elbow. Fatu smashes Rhodes from behind and dumps Rhodes to the floor. Fatu hits Zayn with a lariat and then charges to hit another one. Zayn misses a Helluva Kick and Fatu ascends. Fatu gets caught in a Zayn small package that gets a LONG two count. Rhodes flies in to hit a top rope Cody Cutter on Zayn, but Rhodes gets dumped by Fatu before he can cover. Fatu hits a moonsault on Zayn and the cover is broken up by Drew McIntyre with a Claymore Kick to Fatu. McIntyre runs Fatu into a ring post and then over the announce table. Rhodes flies out to start smashing McIntyre with rights but McIntyre recovers to smash Rhodes head-first into the ring post. McIntyre yanks up Fatu for a powerbomb through the announce table. McIntyre hits a Claymore on Rhodes and drags Zayn over to cover as the ref crawls back in. Rhodes gets the shoulder up at two. McIntyre flies back in and smashes Rhodes with rights but when he turns Zayn wallops McIntyre with a Helluva Kick. Rhodes fires up and snatches Zayn into the Cross Rhodes. Rhodes covers and gets three. Rhodes joins Randy Orton and LA Knight in the Men’s Chamber field.

Wildly overbooked at the end but since we’re apparently going to get the rumored three-way at Wrestlemania, I guess it all makes sense. I’m now wondering if Zayn is getting in to make it a four-way, too. THAT WILL PUT SOME BUTTS IN SEATS. Just kidding, everyone is somehow upset that they’ve only sold like 75K tickets for two nights like that’s a disaster, but go on and do your thing, internet. ANYHOO, this was fun up until the expected McIntyre interference. Everyone worked hard here, the story made sense, it never felt like anyone was on the floor for too long, and if this had a clean finish it was approaching the “very good” territory. As it is, it’s still MOTN and I’d suggest finding it on youtube as soon as it gets put up. 4*

Winner – Cody Rhodes (Cross Rhodes on Zayn)

Rhodes stares at the WM sign as the credits roll and we’re out.

The first hour was not great, but things picked up from there. I was expecting a BIG show, and we got a good but not great one instead. I think the Chamber qualifiers were good as was Trick-Fenix, and I was okay with Cargill-Grace even though the Judgement Day distraction was kind of annoying. The ten man tag was a mess, and the women’s tag title match could have been better but it was ruined by a shit non-finish. Most of the backstage stuff and the promo work was decent overall, although I have to be honest that I’m quickly tiring of this Kit Wilson gimmick and I hope Oba Femi destroys him thoroughly next week. We’ll call it thumbs in the middle leaning up but other than the Men’s EC qualifier and Trick-Fenix, not much you need to go out of your way to see.

Thanks for reading and commenting. It’s been a tough week for me, so I appreciated the chance to take my mind away for a few hours and write about wrestling. Be good to yourselves and your people. Enjoy your weekend, and be safe.