Welcome to Wwesport.com.’s weekly assessment of “WWE SmackDown,” the show that is generally boring, but that sometimes — sometimes — has a famous movie star stepping up on almost total lack of notice to announce the location of WrestleMania 42 and tell the Undisputed WWE Champion he wants his soul. We know, we know, that’s the only thing you want to read about because it’s the only thing of consequence that truly happened Friday night — we get it, and obviously we have opinions about it. But we have ideas on other things, too! All very personal and subjective, of course; if objectivity is more your jam and you simply want the facts, check out our “SmackDown” results page.
For all the rest of you, it’s time to get into all of the WINC staff’s strongest feelings, but obviously we have neither the space nor the willingness to cover the length and breadth of the entire three-hour show. Only the hottest takes and the most heated feelings for the Wrestling Inc. audience! From Jimmy Uso’s big win to Liv Morgan vs. Naomi being canceled-but-not-really to, yeah, Cody Rhodes and The Rock, here are three things we despised and three things we loved during the 2/21/25 episode of “WWE SmackDown.”
Loved: BIG JIM getting the dub
Kicking off the event where The Rock asked for Cody Rhodes’ soul was a lot more humble venture between Jimmy Uso and Drew McIntyre: a match. And it wasn’t anything too special by any stretch of the means, serving to add another fragment to the story of McIntyre’s vengeance against the Original Bloodline heading into Elimination Chamber, where he is amongst the forerunners for a shot at Rhodes’ WWE Championship at WrestleMania – pending whatever it is “The Final Boss” actually has in store if at all, much like last year. McIntyre and Uso had a lively beginning, one that really went through the motions of a TV bout in a fluid and natural style, highlighted by McIntyre exploiting the physical advantage and Uso countering with short sustained spurts.
It actually seemed as like it was going to be another win for McI ntyre at the expense of Uso, who is himself still trying to find his feet as his twin brother prepares to main event WrestleMania. But instead there was an unexpected twist, with Uso throwing McIntyre onto his shoulders for a three-count to take the victory. He didn’t have long to celebrate his win as McIntyre swiftly beat him down after the match, but it was cool to see Uso presented as a competent singles competitor and picking up a win over a multi-time WWE Champion – one that has reigned in this decade at least – as the question still looms over what he does in the absence of his kin. There is a charming energy present with Uso much in the same way that has catapulted his brother, so it wouldn’t be the worst thing to see this win evolve into something major later down the line. It was a wonderful opener and a refreshing break from the status quo, if nothing else.
Hated: Melo Don’t Miz
If this episode is any clue, we are reportedly placing Carmelo Hayes in a tag team with The Miz now. This is a terrible notion, made by foolish people, at least one of them is a former member of D-Generation X. This is why we don’t put Road Dogg in creative.
Why is it foolish, you ask? (You don’t ask, you already know, but I will tell you anyway.) First of all, the ongoing usage of Hayes is the best justification for Paul Levesque being racist since he put Bianca Belair in the tag division, and the latest instance of that misuse is, ironically, putting Hayes in the tag division. To be clear, I enjoy tag team wrestling. Tag team wrestling is better than the wrestling you prefer. Unfortunately, WWE doesn’t feel the same way (and really never have) which is why putting people like Hayes and Belair in the tag division feels like a big demotion. In a just and rational world, it wouldn’t be, but I cannot image someone knowledgeable with WWE has a product looking at Hayes getting a washed up 44-year-old tag partner and going “Yes, this is a positive career move.”
Hayes has been wrestling for more than a decade and spent THREE YEARS hosting “NXT.” He was a first round draft pick upon getting called up and instantly had a bout with Cody Rhodes, and it is the last time anyone on the blue brand seemingly had an interesting creative concept for him. Pairing him with The Miz does not count as a creative idea — you known somebody backstage just came up with the “Melo Don’t Miz” mishmash and they loved it and proceeded with it, despite not having a direction (welcome to “SmackDown”). With Hayes in severe need of heating, they joined up with one of the coldest talents on the roster, in the coldest division on the roster, on the coldest event in … wrestling, I suppose, at the moment. Like, all of wrestling. Brilliant move.
Friday’s tag match involved R-Truth (who admittedly had a hilarious spot where he thought he and Miz were still a team) and LA Knight while more talented wrestlers were nowhere to be found; it had a wonky interference finish like basically every match on this show; and if the Skull-Crushing Finale/Codebreaker combination is going to be a thing, let’s hope it looks better in the future. But I’m not banking on that – as far as I’m concerned, Melo Mizzed fairly awful enough.
Loved: Alexa Bliss vignette creates ominous scene for Elimination Chamber
I am such a fan of Alexa Bliss and I’m so interested to see where her narrative goes, that watching a video vignette for her ahead of the Elimination Chamber next week was another small highlight of tonight’s program for me. While it didn’t give too much away about what the intentions are for Bliss when it comes to the Wyatt Sicks, the video was done so beautifully that there were subtle hints and just an overall creepy, Wyatt-esque vibe that worked incredibly well for me. I didn’t catch any overt Wyatt Sicks hints throughout the video, but I still appreciated what I saw.
Bliss isn’t speaking unnaturally in the video, but the picture cracks like the preview trailers for the Wyatt Sicks when she’s describing things have changed, yet also kept the same in WWE since she’s been gone. She mentions that the desperations and insecurities remain the same, and she was even less subtle about her spookiness when she mentioned turning the Elimination Chamber into something like a playground – referencing her Alexa’s Playground segments with The Fiend and the fact she even appeared on a swing in her pod in a previous Chamber match. The small cuts and the very brief vocal modulation when she said “I am in charge” of the division was just right.
I don’t think Bliss is winning the Chamber or even advancing to WrestleMania this year at all because she’s really just come back with no current plot, but I think the Chamber is going to be where she reunites with her Wyatt Sicks “family.” I can image her loosing, then heading up the ramp dejectedly and being met by Nikki Cross and Uncle Howdy at the top of the stage. Even if that doesn’t happen, this video had me wondering about what may happen for Bliss, and keeping her at the front of fans’ minds following her comeback can only be a good thing, especially during a hectic WrestleMania season.
Hated: Messy match cancellations
Normally, it wouldn’t be that big of a concern if WWE were to cancel a promoted match by having one celebrity or stars take out the other star or stars in something that has been a routine for WWE over the years. This escalates to Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez attacking Bianca Belair and Naomi to thwart the planned singles match between Morgan and Naomi. However, in this particular scenario, WWE had previously made a huge alteration to another advertised at the start of the event by removing Cody Rhodes to turn the planned Six Man Tag Team Match into a regular tag team match.
Changing yet another promoted match felt exceedingly unnecessary, and was quite worthless in the case of Morgan and Naomi. While I can respect WWE attempting to do something different, it still would’ve been more effective to go through with the singles match in order to create hype for the upcoming WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match on “Raw” with some interference, counter-interference, and a quick roll up to end things depending on who they wanted to go over and the outcome of Monday’s match. When combined with the fact that all of the women’s segments were clumped into one part of the show and meant that the only other women’s match was Tiffany Stratton vs. Candice LeRae, it wasn’t fun or entertaining viewing especially in light of the recent reports of a women’s division that’s unhappy with their current booking.
Hated: The Rock’s odd segment could’ve been a women’s match
I’ll be honest – as soon as The Rock was announced for a visit on “WWE SmackDown”, I was already annoyed. By the time the section was complete, I was even more upset, especially because it was so ridiculous. It took up a significant portion of time (par for the norm any time he comes back) and didn’t accomplish much of anything.
The Rock stepped out to a completely different entrance and that was the first hint this was going to be weird. He announced that “WrestleMania 42” will be in New Orleans, as planned. Then, he called Cody Rhodes to the ring and things got pretty weird. He droned on about how they’ve been close friends since “WrestleMania 40”, to which the crowd booed. He also presented a photo of their moms, who have apparently become besties too.
Then, The Rock continued talking about Rhodes being a popular champion and that he wants him to become his champion, whatever the hell that means. He also talked about how he has checks notes more Instagram followers than Rhodes. I can promise you this commercial was as strange as it sounds. The Rock seemed to be going out there with no notes and was just winging. At times, Rhodes appeared absolutely baffled by what was happening. Rocky told Rhodes he wanted “The American Nightmare” to be his champion and “make all your dreams come true.” He assigned him a deadline of “Elimination Chamber” to give him a response. Rhodes still didn’t get what he was asking and enquired if he wanted his title. The Rock said, “I want your soul” and caressed his face. Yes, truly.
It’s been a couple hours and I still don’t know what it was all about. What I do know is that the women’s match between Naomi and Liv could’ve transpired. They got scammed out of a match for no reason other than to give a TKO board member TV time. At a time when the women’s division is apparently unhappy with their booking and creative direction, this certainly didn’t do much to indicate that they take it seriously or shift perceptions. The portion after the “WrestleMania” announcement didn’t achieve much of anything but befuddle anybody watching. It’s like The Rock had a Friday free and urged WWE to just clear the third hour for him, which made the already over-long program drag even worse than normal.
