With The Road to WrestleMania ahead of us, WWE has kicked it into gear regarding building up the next premium live event—WWE Elimination Chamber taking place at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, February 28, 2026—as the first two participants for the titular cage matches have been determined, with some other qualifiers announced for next week and more.
On Friday Night SmackDown, Tiffany Stratton defeated Chelsea Green and Lash Legend to earn the first spot for the Women's Elimination Chamber match in a Triple Threat, which seems to be again the methodology Paul Levesque prefers for qualifiers (unless it is a Fatal 4-Way in some situations).
Later in the show, for the main event, Randy Orton won his Triple Threat match against Aleister Black and Solo Sikoa with the leader of the MFTs taking the pinfall after an RKO.
Announced for next week's episode of SmackDown, which will take place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on February 13th and will actually air at 8 p.m. ET on Syfy Network instead of the USA Network due to the Olympic Winter Games, are two more Triple Threat matches with Alexa Bliss vs. Giulia vs. Zelina Vega and Cody Rhodes vs. Jacob Fatu vs. Sami Zayn.
While we know there will be some qualifying matches on Monday Night Raw, nothing was formally announced for that yet, other than that Cathy Kelley mentioned in a backstage interview with Rhiyo that there is at least a qualifying match set up for Rhea Ripley, with the implication Iyo Sky might have one, too, as fans should expect.
Ripley and Sky will be in action next week on SmackDown as they defend the Women's Tag Team Championship titles against Nia Jax and Lash Legend, after retaining them over Giulia and Kiana James on this week's episode.
That's not the only women's title being defended on Syfy next week, though, as Jordynne Grace will have an opportunity to dethrone Jade Cargill for the WWE Women's Championship. This follows the two of them being in a tag team match against Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, wherein they picked up the victory over The Judgment Day.
Rounding out the lineup for next week's SmackDown is a singles match between Rey Fenix and Trick Williams to follow up on their feud that has been bubbling backstage for several weeks.
For the full results of WWE Friday Night SmackDown, click here.