WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER 2/19: Final Hype for Elimination Chamber, Six-Man Tag Match for Chamber Participants

WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER
FEBRUARY 19, 2021
TAMPA, FL. IN THE THUNDERDOME AT TROPICANA FIELD
AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Michael Cole and Corey Graves

Match Results and Exclusives from Last Week

• King Corbin & Sami Zayn defeated Rey & Dominik Mysterio to qualify for the upcoming Elimination Chamber match to earn the right to face Roman Reigns the same night for the Universal Championship.
• Big E defeated Shinsuke Nakamura by DQ to retain the Intercontinental Championship. Apollo Crews attacked Big E to cause the DQ.
• Bayley defeated Liv Morgan.
• The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) defeated Otis & Chad Gable.
• Cesaro & Daniel Bryan defeated Smackdown Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode to qualify for the upcoming Elimination Chamber match mentioned earlier.

Items Advertised by WWE

Tonight’s edition of Smackdown will be the final show before this Sunday’s Elimination Chamber. Most of the card has been set, although this past Monday the Raw Women’s Championship match went up in the air with the announcement of Lacey Evans’ pregnancy. Nothing has been announced in terms of who will replace Lacey or if there will even be a Raw Women’s Championship match. Stay tuned for details. WWE’s preview is up for tonight, and only one item is advertised:

• Owens, Bryan & Cesaro battle Uso, Corbin & Zayn for Elimination Chamber momentum.

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Daniel Bryan & Cesaro & Kevin Owens vs. King Corbin & Jey Uso & Sami Zayn

Last week, Adam Pearce announced that Roman Reigns would have to defend his Universal Championship in an Elimination Chamber match at the titular PPV. Roman and Paul Heyman pushed back on Pearce, saying Roman is obligated to appear at major PPVs including Elimination Chamber, but he doesn’t have to compete in such a match. Paul cited the fan-less and Roman-less WrestleMania there was last year and how essential he is to this year’s event. Pearce immediately said Jey Uso, Roman’s cousin, and recent rival Kevin Owens would be in the match. He had work to do to determine whom else would partake, and the winner would get to face Roman the same night for the Universal Championship.

I mentioned in the recap who qualified. Tonight, the babyfaces of the match team up to face the heels as listed above. There is history across the competitors. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are long-time best friends and rivals. Sami and Daniel Bryan feuded over the Intercontinental Championship and had a match for said title at last year’s ‘Mania. Cesaro defeated Bryan recently but earned each other’s respect. Owens has had matches with Jey Uso on Smackdown intertwined in his feud with Roman. It feels like Corbin is in a feud with everyone.

Frank’s Analysis: Oh, the old “momentum” WWE likes to use. This is straight-forward WWE booking ahead of an Elimination Chamber PPV. They like to have different “flavors” of the upcoming match including having the heels and babyfaces face each other. As far as what will happen it’ll be to either forecast what will happen or thrown us off the scent.

Other Expectations and Final Thoughts

When WWE puts these one-item previews up it’s hard to figure out what else is planned. Big E is still involved with Apollo Crews and Sami Zayn over the Intercontinental Championship. They’ll likely set something up for Elimination Chamber on that end. The Mysterio story will likely continue after losing to Corbin and Sami last week. Nothing is lined up for the women of Smackdown at Elimination Chamber, so look for something there. With the Street Profits winning a match last week, they could set up a title match against Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode. We’ll see how WWE does as far as selling people on a PPV taking place in two days.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!