SmackDown results, Feb. 21, 2025: The Rock to Cody Rhodes: “I want you to be my champion”
Skip to main content
The Rock is coming to Elimination Chamber
SHOW
SMACKDOWN
RESULTS
TIME AND LOCATION
FRIDAY, FEB 21 | 8/7 PMC
WHERE TO WATCH
WHEN TO WATCH
FRIDAY, FEB 21 | 8/7 PMC
Check out everything that happened on the latest explosive episode of Friday Night SmackDown.
Jimmy Uso def. Drew McIntyre
Jimmy Uso stunned Drew McIntyre after The Scottish Psychopath spent too much time trying to embarrass him.
McIntyre berated Uso in the corner only for Uso to counter the Alabama Slam into a winning pinfall.
After the match, McIntyre destroyed Uso with a brutal beatdown.
Carmelo Hayes & The Miz def. LA Knight & R-Truth
Carmelo Hayes and The Miz picked up a tag team victory, albeit thanks to an assist from United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura.
LA Knight and R-Truth were in a strong position, but Nakamura emerged and took out Knight, leaving Truth to fall victim to a Skull-Crushing Finale/First 48 combo.
WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton def. Candice LeRae
Tiffany Stratton proved why she’s the WWE Women’s Champion as she earned a big win against Candice LeRae.
After The Center of The Universe scored the victory, Nia Jax and LeRae launched an attack on the champion. WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus came to the rescue, only to fall victim to the dangerous duo as well.
Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez attacked Naomi and Bianca Belair
The Rock to Cody Rhodes: “I want you to be my Champion”
WWE Tag Team Champions #DIY vs. Pretty Deadly ended in a No-Contest
Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano are still the WWE Tag Team Champions, but their title reign might be in more danger than ever.
Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins came down to the ring and attacked both teams before Motor City Machine Guns entered the fray and fell victim to the same fate.
Damian Priest & Braun Strowman def. Jacob Fatu & Solo Sikoa
Despite teaming together in an official match, Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu are still not on the same page.
The monstrous Fatu was rolling, but an errant superkick missed Priest and blasted Sikoa, allowing The Archer of Infamy to hit South of Heaven to win the match and send the former Bloodline members into further disarray.
John Cena prepares for his final Elimination Chamber: SmackDown highlights, Feb. 21, 2025
John Cena prepares for his final Elimination Chamber: SmackDown highlights, Feb. 21, 2025
Photos: Don’t miss these amazing images from SmackDown
The Rock announces WrestleMania 42 is coming to New Orleans: Feb. 21, 2025
Cody Rhodes is informed that The Rock wants to speak with him: SmackDown highlights, Feb. 21, 2025
Featured Videos
SmackDown Results : Quick Hits
SmackDown Results : Full Details
BREAKING NEWS
SmackDown results: Feb. 21, 2025
Featured Superstars
SmackDown recap & reactions (Feb. 21, 2025): Soulman The Rock
FILED UNDER:
The Final Boss makes a big announcement but also says he wants the WWE champion’s soul.
It took no time at all for WWE to establish that The Rock basically runs the show around these parts. That’s because SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis opened this week’s episode by telling WWE Champion Cody Rhodes he was being pulled from a previously scheduled six-man tag team match for reasons he could not even say.
“If you smell what I’m cooking.”
Commentary made it clear that this indeed the work of The Final Boss and we’ll have to wait for later to learn exactly what this means.
Finally, it came time for The Final Boss to make his appearance and you can bet we got the man himself showing off his goosebumps while walking out to the ring. “Goosebumps activated,” as commentary put it.
I don’t need to hear that ever again.
As rumored throughout the day, The Rock announced that WrestleMania would be coming back to New Orleans next year. WrestleMania 42 will be live from the Superdome in 2026. They played some pyro and got a big pop showing off the logo for it.
The show will air on April 11 & 12.
The crowd chanted “holy shit” and Rock started singing about the Saints marching in. This guy just can’t help himself, huh?
He turned heel on the crowd quickly when they tried to sing along with him. The Final Boss sings alone, and all that. He called everyone in the building STD having trailer park trash.
He said he isn’t here just to make an announcement. He was also here to call someone out.
WWE Champion Cody Rhodes.
Rhodes did his entire entrance and then they hugged and shared a kiss on the cheek to close it out. When the music stopped, the fans chanted the champ’s name and Rock made note of how good it must feel for him.
“They love you, man.”
Rock mentioned the two basically became friends after everything that went down and have remained as such in recent times. Even still, he wanted to call him out and say Cody is a great champion and he knows that. They’ve texted over the months and as a matter of fact even their moms have become good friends.
He finally spoke openly about how much power he wields as a member of the board with TKO. He wants Cody to be a great champion, something higher than even the champion he is now.
“I want you to be my champion.”
Cody wasn’t on board with this because he is the champion of the fans. You know, the people. The Rock said he loves that but he wants Rhodes to be at his level. He’s got a few million Instagram followers but Rocky has something like half a billion. He said he can make every dream of Cody’s come true, for his wife, his child, everyone close to him.
Just become his champion.
Cody looked on like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The Rock continued by saying the one thing he’s wanted more than anything is a brother. His goal last year was to face his cousin, Roman Reigns, for the WWE championship. When he came back he talked to Nick Khan and Triple H and tried to put together that match and Rhodes stood up to him, and he even slapped him. He’s special, and that’s why The Rock wants to make his every dream and desire come true.
Then, the rub — he doesn’t need an answer now and Rhodes can simply give it to him at Elimination Chamber in Toronto. So they added yet another hook for what was already shaping up to be a major show.
Rock finished by saying the one thing he wants more than anything is “that.” Rhodes thought he was talking about the WWE championship. Rock clarified that no, he doesn’t want the belt.
“I want your soul.”
He cupped Cody’s face, said he would see him in Toronto on Mar. 1, and walked right out with a smile on his face. Rhodes looked troubled, like he didn’t know what he was supposed to say or do.
The Rock kept stopping and taking his glasses off to look back at the ring.
This felt really over done, like they were trying to play up to an emotion that just wasn’t there. They wanted to give this an enormity it simply didn’t have.
Early in the show, Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu again teased tension between each other when the latter asserted his dominance by outright telling Solo that if last week wasn’t an accident “you wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
Solo initially said he wanted to be in their corner for the match tonight but Fatu demanded they team together. So Sikoa went off to make it happen.
That’s what led us into the main event, where they squared up with Damian Priest and Braun Strowman. Naturally, a miscommunication led to Fatu laying Sikoa out, giving Priest the opening to hit South of Heaven to score the pinfall victory for his squad. Not having The Rock interact with Fatu on this show hurt, and then seeing how they booked this and went out with Jacob having been run through by Braun Strowman also hurt a bit.
What are we doing?
All the rest
I think I expected more from The Rock’s story.
Grade: C+
Your turn.
Follow Cageside Seats online:
Site search
Cageside Seats main menu
Share this story
MORE FROM CAGESIDE SEATS
Sign up for the newsletter
Sign up for the Cageside Seats Daily Roundup newsletter!
MOST READ
Loading comments…
WWE SmackDown Results, Winners And Grades As The Rock Calls Out Cody Rhodes
The Rock returned on WWE SmackDown in New Orleans to confront Cody Rhodes.
WWE SmackDown aired a very special episode with the surprise news that The Rock would be returning in New Orleans. The Rock posted a clip featuring a Rolex watch with the city of New Orleans as the backdrop.
“New Orleans, the Final Boss has arrived. This exact Rolex was the gift from our WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. To me, about 5 hours before our WrestleMania match at WM40. Its time.” wrote The Rock on Twitter.
The Rock, who was recently announced for a Martin Scorsese movie alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, returned to a warm reception and wasted no time cursing on air, teasing a big announcement. The Rock then said “Finally, WrestleMania is coming back to New Orleans,” officially announcing WrestleMania 42 live from the SuperDome.
Rock promptly turned heel, calling New Orleans STD-having trailer trash. He then called out WWE champion Cody Rhodes.
Rock said Cody is a great WWE champion. Rock reminded Cody that The Rock is on the Board of Directors at TKO. Rock said he wanted Cody Rhodes to be his champion. Cody said he wanted to be the fan’s champions. Rock continued to entice Rhodes to be his champion by saying he could make Cody’s dreams come true. Rock told Cody to think about his answer and give him the answer on March 1 at the Elimination Chamber.
It was a fantastic promo segment that left fans and analysts with more questions than answers as most great stories do. The WrestleMania plot thickens.
Last year, The Rock disputed a report from oft-disputed reporter Dave Meltzer, which suggested Rock would may not appear at WrestleMania. “Don’t believe any of that bulls—t,” wrote The Rock in response to an Instagram comment.
Rock dismissed another Meltzer report that there was a double standard in WWE which allows The Rock more leeway to curse on air. “This story is complete horses—t,” said The Rock on Twitter in another profanity laced response.
Forbes Daily: Join over 1 million Forbes Daily subscribers and get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.
Backstage, Nick Aldis told Cody Rhodes that The Rock pulled Rhodes from the main event and would like to meet with him in the ring.
Jimmy Uso shockingly upset Drew McIntyre with a rollup. Drew immediately attacked Jimmy and insisted that this meant nothing to him. Given the fact that McIntyre destroyed Jimmy right after losing to get his heat back, Drew is right.
After WWE officials intervened, McIntyre sulked off. He then returned and hit Jimmy Uso with a Claymore and literally laughed off his loss.
I have a fleeting feeling that the “Melo Don’t Miz” odd couple will be Carmelo Hayes’ ticket to the top of WWE’s sports entertainment TV show.
In another hilarious R-Truth mishap, Truth recruited hometown legend “Louisiana” Knight (LA Knight) as his tag team partner.
At this point, R-Truth’s John Cena comeback is getting just as big of a reaction as Cena’s actual comeback, if not bigger.
The Miz pinned R-Truth after Shinsuke Nakamura interfered and attacked LA Knight. Melo has padded his record with wins over lower card competition like Boise State does every year.
Tiffany Stratton cut a promo saying everybody is obsessed with her, but she would hold the WWE Women’s Championship and dethrone Charlotte Flair as the Top Girl in WWE.
Nia Jax and Candice LeRae interrupted Tiffany Stratton and threatened to jump her. Referee Daphanie LaShaunn stepped in before SmackDown went to break.
After cooler heads prevailed, Tiffany and Candice began their match. Charlotte Flair interrupted early into the match as Stratton’s opps seem to be multiplying by the second.
Charlotte Flair, now on commentary, corrected Tiffany Stratton by calling herself the “Top Woman,” not the “Top Girl.”
Stratton completely missed Jax and LeRae with a moonsault in a true “didn’t get all of it” moment.
After a win with the PME, Nia Jax and Candice LeRae attacked Stratton. Stratton was saved, not by Charlotte Flair, but Trish Stratus who seems to be her only friend left standing. Nia squashed both Tiffany and Trish with a Banzai Drop.
Charlotte stood over a fallen Stratton yet again and pointed to the WrestleMania sign.
Liv Morgan vs. Naomi was not cancelled, contrary to reports, however Naomi was attacked by Liv and Raquel before the match began. So technically it was cancelled.
The Rock’s theme song had a Cash Money-themed hip hop interlude before it resumed to his standard theme music. Of course, he received a rousing reaction.
Babyface Rock (for now) picked up a fan’s phone, which they dropped on the floor, and returned it to the fan.
The Rock, who had to be bleeped out within his first few words, announced WrestleMania 42 for New Orleans. WWE had to bleep fans out as they chanted “holy s—t.”
Heel Rock then turned heel on New Orleans, telling fans to sit down, shut up and let The Final Boss sing When the Saints Go Marching In.
Heel Rock returned in full swing after calling New Orleans the largest collection of “STD-having trailer=park trash The Rock has ever seen.”
Tweener Rock gave Cody Rhodes a warm hug before speaking. Fans chanted loudly for Cody.
Rocky said he and Cody Rhodes became good friends over the past year as fans booed. Rock showed New Orleans a picture of Mama Rhodes and Mama Rock.
The Rock said he wanted Cody Rhodes to be his champion, but Rhodes said he wants to be their champion. The People’s Champion. Rock big-leagued Cody by saying he has half a billion IG followers vs. Rhodes’ millions.
The Rock continued to vacillate between Good Rock and Bad Rock by referring to himself and Cody as Mama’s Boys and Girl Dads. Rock then snapped on a fan and threatened to “slap the syphilis off their face.”
Rock said he always wanted a brother. He told Cody to think about his offer of being The Rock’s champion. The Rock said he didn’t want the WWE Championship. He wanted Cody’s soul. A truly incredible start to what seems like a main event WrestleMania angle.
DIY had the impossible task of following The Rock and Cody Rhodes, but they were still able to get heat.
DIY told fans to rise to their feet for a moment of silence for Pretty Deadly. Wade Barrett obliged, but fans loudly booed.
Shortly after the WWE Tag Team Championship match got underway, the Street Profits attacked both tag teams and the match ended in a no contest.
Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu continued to tease tension in a backstage segment earlier in the show. Solo once again professed his love for Fatu.
A distraction from Fatu led to a nearfall for Solo after a Spinning Solo.
As Solo teed up the Samoan Spike, Priest teased a chokeslam. Fatu then accidentally superkicked Solo. Priest won with a South of Heaven.
One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.
