This Week's WWE SmackDown Ending Explained (Feb 21, 2025): Results & What It Means [SPOILERS]

Warning: The following copy has SPOILERS for WWE SmackDown (Feb 14, 2025)

WWESmackDown is a "cannot miss" event this week, after news broke that The Rock will return to SmackDown in New Orleans, LA. What will he have in store, and will it have grave consequences for WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes? Elsewhere, Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu will attempt to mend their bridges, as they team up to face Damian Priest and Braun Strowman.

WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton will face Candace LeRae, with Trish Stratus and Nia Jax joining them at Elimination Chamber. Jimmy Uso will attempt to take down the Scottish Warrior, Drew McIntyre, and WWE Tag Team Champions DIY defend their titles against Pretty Deadly.

WWE SmackDown Results - Feb 21st, 2025

• Nick Aldis opens SmackDown in the backstage area, by telling Cody Rhodes he is out of the 6-man tag match he was due to be in. Cody, understandably furious, wants to know why and he's told it's because The Final Boss is here and wants to see him in the ring later.
• Jimmy Uso defeated Drew McIntyre in an enormous shock to open SmackDown. Drew snapped after the bell, beating Jimmy before being pulled away. Drew then broke free to come back to the ring and hit a brutal Claymore.
• Solo Sikoa is shown arriving in his car alone. Solo is greeted by The Bloodline and says what he did to Tama last week was an accident.
• Jacob says he wouldn't be standing if it wasn't. Fatu then tells Solo it'll be him and Solo tagging tonight, not Tonga and Jacob as scheduled.
• R-Truth tells Miz and Carmelo Hayes he has a Louisiana legend as a tag-team partner to face them later on.
• A Zelina Vega vignette reminds everyone she shouldn't be underestimated and that she was the first Queen of The Ring.
• The Miz and Carmelo Hayes defeat R-Truth and LA Knight (he thought LA stood for Louisiana). Shinsuke Nakamura hit LA Knight with a flurry of hard kicks to cause the defeat for the Megastar's team.
• Tiffany Stratton comes out and says Charlotte Flair is underestimating her, and she wants to be considered the number one woman in WWE.
• Candace LeRae and Tiffany Stratton's match is underway and Charlotte Flair enters midway through to join Joe Tessetore and Wade Barrett.
• Tiffany Stratton defeats Candace LeRae, despite being distracted by Charlotte throughout. Nia Jax begins to attack Tiffy after the bell but Trish Stratus hits the ring.
• Nia Jax and Candace reign supreme as Jax stacks Stratus and Stratton on top of one another in the corner and hits a double Annihilator.
• Charlotte Flair steps into the ring over a fallen Stratton and mimicks Tiffany's constant pointing to the WrestleMania sign.
• Bianca Belair and Naomi say they have all the evidence they need that it was Liv and Raquel who injured Jade Cargill, and Naomi will make Liv pay later on this evening.
• Alexa Bliss vignette airs and she talks about turning the Elimination Chamber into her playground.
• Naomi is making her entrance for her match with Liv Morgan but is attacked by Liv and Raquel Rodriguez. Liv and Raquel get the better of the exchange ahead of their title match on Monday Night Raw as the match was canceled.
• The Rock is shown arriving in his truck.
• Chelsea Green says it is a TRAVESTY that she is not on the Elimination Chamber in Toronto. Nick Aldis tells her to pack her bags because she has a match on SmackDown next week, and ominously says it will be a good one.
• The Rock enters to new music that has Lil Wayne rapping over the top of it.
• The Rock confirms that WrestleMania 42 will officially take place from the Superdome in New Orleans, LA. He then sings When The Saints Go Marching In, but says it is not singalong with The Final Boss.
• He then says that they are STD-carrying trailer park trash and turns into The Final Boss. Kind of.
• The Rock says he's not here to just announce WrestleMania. He then says it is his honor and privilege to call Cody Rhodes out to the ring.
• Rock says they've become friends over the last year. He calls Rhodes a great WWE Champion, he says even their moms have become friends and shows a pic of them. It's odd.
• The Rock says he's on the board of TKO who owns WWE. He says he wants Cody to be more than just a great champion or TKO's champion, he wants Cody to be "his" champion.
• Cody says he respects that but he, of all people, knows he is "their champion" and points at the people.
• The Rock agrees but he's thinking much bigger. He says people love Cody but The Rock is the most followed American man in the world, and he wants that for Cody Rhodes.
• He says being his champion opens doors he didn't know existed, and he can make Cody and his family's dreams come true forever. He says what he wants more than anything is a brother, and that's what Cody can be.
• He says The Rock wanted to face Roman at last year's WrestleMania but Cody shut him down and slapped him, and that's why he wants Cody as his champion.
• The Rock says he doesn't want Cody's title, he wants his soul and says he'll see him on March 1st at Elimination Chamber.
• There are long pauses from both men multiple times as the segment comes to an abrupt and strange end.
• DIY are here and say there needs to be a moment of silence as they are about to kill Pretty Deadly's Tag Team championship dream.
• Pretty Deadly and DIY are both attacked by The Street Profits but the rejuvenated Montez and Dawkins destroy both teams.
• Motor City Machine Guns music hits and they storm the ring, but The Street Profits take them out too.
• Kevin Owens' latest video is shown, where he is shown outside Zayn's house. He shows Zayn and his family inside their home on his camera, unaware they're being watched. He threatens Sami's family and livelihood and reminds him that he asked for this.
• Damian Priest and Braun Strowman defeated Jacob Fatu and Solo Sikoa. Fatu accidentally caught Solo with a superkick at the end of the match, after Sikoa accidentally hit Tama Tonga last week, as SmackDown went off the air.

The Rock Poses A Big Question To Cody Rhodes

The Final Boss Gets Real Weird In A Bizarre Segment

Well, it is a good job that we have learned to trust the long-term storytelling in WWE, as The Rock provided an incredibly weird segment with WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes. Setting social media ablaze on Thursday evening, it was announced on that the Rock would be on this week's SmackDown, with the smart money (correctly) being on him announcing WrestleMania 42 will be in New Orleans. Then, from the odd snippet of Lil Wayne rapping over his entrance music, it got weird. Real weird.

The Rock has been flip-flopping on his character quite a bit since finishing one of the best runs of his career as The Final Boss in 2024. Dangerous, contemporary, and cool, it was a brilliant evolution of his character that blurred the lines of fiction and fact, as the tyrannical Rock who tried to take Cody’s Mania spot behind the scenes, took the audience’s rejection of that idea and turned it into art. His appearance on night one of Raw on Netflix was strange, but this kicked things up several notches.

In this strange segment, where Cody Rhodes was essentially just a prop for Rocky to talk at, The Rock said he wants to own Cody Rhodes's soul and for him to be The Rock’s champion. He was evoking Illuminati principles, talking of unknown closed doors he can open for him, and that The Rock can look after Cody and his family forever. The Rock then told Rhodes he’d meet him in Toronto at Elimination Chamber. If the booking hadn’t been so good, this scenario would be worrying. It was a strange segment that left a lot of questions, but it had a really off-kilter ending. The Rock's intentions will become a lot clearer on March 1st.

The Tag Division Keeps On Cooking

SmackDown's Tag Teams Provided The Show's Best Moment

Having the unenviable position of following The Rock, DIY and SmackDown's tag team division restored momentum to the show. It’s been WWE’s best-kept secret in recent months, but SmackDown’s tag team division had the best segment of the night. Pretty Deadly challenged DIY for the Tag Team Championship after weeks of games and promises, only for things to be all about another of the division’s leading contenders.

After two weeks of killer vignettes, The Street Profits wrecked every contender and the champs in a dominant display. The Street Profits were lost in the shuffle as a vanilla, “waving and kissing babies", face team. Things had to change, and they have for the better. Dismantling both contenders in the title match, they then sent Motor City Machine Guns packing. In WrestleMania season, The Profits are the team to watch in WWE.

Liv Morgan And Raquel Are Coming For The Gold

Raw's Number One Contenders Create Hell On SmackDown

Predictions are just an educated opinion, but nothing about the framing of Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez feels right. They are yet to claim ownership of the attack, even though Bianca and Naomi seem entirely convinced of their guilty standing. This column is not convinced.

Since the event happened, Naomi has been our chief suspect and nothing has changed on that front. Tonight was a short and sweet segment, purely taking up time to set up their massive tag Team title match on Monday Night Raw. The four ladies throwing hands is reason enough to be excited, but the possibility of us getting one step closer to the answer to WWE’s biggest whodunnit mystery in recent memory.

People will certainly be talking about The Rock and his leftfield performance on this week's SmackDown. His declaration of wanting Rhodes's soul is something we haven't seen before, and we'll get a clearer idea of what he meant at Elimination Chamber. Elsewhere, the tag division continues to be the backbone of Friday Night Smackdown, and there may be a new name in that division with Melo Can't Miz. Seriously. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez will like their chances of leaving Monday night Raw as tag team champions and Tiffany Stratton's habit of being at Charlotte Flair's feet is something she'll want to stop happening ahead of their WrestleMania match.