Tonight's episode of WWE SmackDown (February 21, 2025) emanates out of the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana and will air at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network.
This post here will be updated frequently throughout the night to reflect live coverage of Friday Night SmackDown, including all the match results, rundowns of the promos, and any other interesting or noteworthy things that take place. Keep refreshing for updates to find out all the winners and more!
Preview & Predictions for WWE SmackDown:
On tap for tonight's episode, The Rock is set to make a return. Naturally, nothing has been explained ahead of time of what his purpose will be, even though he's teased "Bold and disruptive. Unpredictable and dangerous." Considering he completely nuked his two potential storylines of feuding with Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns last month on the Netflix premiere of Monday Night Raw, he's either going to retcon that again and go back to those stories, turning his attention instead on Solo Sikoa, or showing up for the sake of doing virtually nothing like he did with his NXT appearance.
Speaking of The Bloodline, Sikoa, Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga are in action in a six-man tag match against Cody Rhodes, Damian Priest, and Braun Strowman. LA Knight would normally be in this mix, but he's feuding with Drew McIntyre, who will be facing Jimmy Uso—another person who should have something to do with Sikoa and company, but WWE has seemingly just moved on from that.
My guess is Uso will lose to McIntyre through some interference from Carmelo Hayes, the babyfaces will beat Sikoa's team due to some miscommunication that will further lead down the road of Sikoa against Fatu at WrestleMania, and The Rock will be almost a non-factor, and will likely just announce WrestleMania 42 coming to New Orleans.
On top of this, Pretty Deadly will assuredly fail at their attempt to win the WWE Tag Team Championship as there's no way #DIY will drop the titles to them when The Motor City Machine Guns and The Street Profits are the more prominent teams in this storyline.
Update before the show: The lineup has changed due to The Rock's appearance. WWE is now altering the lineup.
Here are your results for WWE SmackDown - February 21, 2025:
- Jimmy Uso defeated Drew McIntyre by pinfall. A pissed-off McIntyre attacked Uso after the bell, repeatedly slamming his head onto the mat, saying this loss means nothing to him and he's going to win Elimination Chamber and the title. Officials came out to stop him, only for McIntyre to turn around, go back into the ring, and take out Uso with a Claymore.
- Backstage, Solo Sikoa spoke to Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga. Sikoa tried to back out of the now tag team match (instead of six-man tag), but Fatu told him no, it will be those two, not Fatu and Tama Tonga.
- Melo Don't Miz (Carmelo Hayes and The Miz) defeated R-Truth and LA Knight by pinfall with some help from Shinsuke Nakamura's interference.
- Tiffany Stratton cut a promo about Charlotte Flair. She's hoping to overtake Flair's spot as the top woman in WWE.
- Tiffany Stratton defeated Candice LeRae by pinfall. Nia Jax attacked Stratton after the match, and Trish Stratus came out to make the save, only to also succumb to a beatdown.
- Backstage, Damian Priest and Cody Rhodes chatted. Priest said after Elimination Chamber, he's coming after Cody's title. Rhodes said he wouldn't want it any other way. Braun Strowman then came over to say no hard feelings for beating him in the Elimination Chamber qualifier last week. He and Priest are on the same page about handling business tonight with Fatu and Tonga.
- The planned match between Naomi and Liv Morgan didn't happen. Instead, Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez started to fight with Naomi and Bianca Belair before the bell rang, and it turned into a minute of fighting broken up by officials.
- After the commercial break, GM Nick Aldis sent Morgan and Rodriguez out of the arena. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven tried to convince Aldis to let them replace the tag team champions in the Elimination Chamber. Aldis says no, and that Green will be in action next week on SmackDown instead.
- The Rock announces WrestleMania 42 for New Orleans, sings "Oh When The Saints Go Marching In", badmouths the crowd, and calls out Cody Rhodes. He talks about how great of a champion Rhodes is and how they've become good friends, but he wants Cody to be his champion. Cody clarifies that he's the WWE Universe's champion. Rock tempts Cody that if he becomes his champion, all his dreams will come true. More than anything, he wants a brother, and that's what Cody can be. None of this makes any sense, and it ends with The Rock saying he wants an answer at Elimination Chamber. (An answer to what? All The Rock kept saying was "be my champion"). He doesn't want the WWE Championship, he wants Cody's soul.
- WWE Tag Team Championship Match: #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) (c) vs Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince and Kit Wilson) ended with The Street Profits attacking both teams for a no-contest.
- Kevin Owens cut a promo about what he's going to do to Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber, all while creepily peeping in on them through a window.
- Tag Team Match: Damian Priest and Braun Strowman defeated Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu by pinfall.
What are your thoughts on tonight's episode of Friday Night SmackDown? Drop your reactions in the comments below and spark a discussion!