WWE: Tiffany Stratton vs. Candice LeRae Set for 2/21 WWE SmackDown Show, Spoiler Update on The Rock’s Appearance Plans for 2/21 SD Show, Matt Hardy on The Hardys’ NXT Appearance Being Last Minute Thing

Feb 21, 2025

Tiffany Stratton vs. Candice LeRae Announced for Feb. 21st WWE SmackDown Show

WWE announced one new match for the card of tonight’s WWE SmackDown show at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

This new match announced was a singles match of Tiffany Stratton vs. Candice LeRae.

Ms. Stratton, it's obvious to me that @CandiceLeRae isn't going to stay out of your business, so let's do some business with this instead.

Tonight on #SmackDown    it's Tiffany Stratton vs Candice LeRae one on one! https://t.co/DdEZb86kfw
— Nick Aldis (@RealNickAldis) February 21, 2025

Current card for February 21st WWE SmackDown show:

WWE World Tag Team Championship – Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson) vs. #DIY (Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano) (c)
Six-Man Tag Team match of Braun Strowman, Damian Priest, & Cody Rhodes vs. The Bloodline (Tama Tonga, Jacob Fatu, & Solo Sikoa)
Jimmy Uso vs. Drew McIntyre
Tiffany Stratton vs. Candice LeRae
The Rock to appear

Spoiler Update on The Rock’s Appearance Plans for 2/21 SmackDown Show

As noted before, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is currently scheduled to be making an appearance at tonight’s WWE SmackDown show in New Orleans, Louisiana. Johnson’s appearance is currently believed to have lead to WWE reworking their plans and making major changes for the show.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources confirmed that Johnson will be officially announcing that next year’s WrestleMania 42 event will be taking place at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Johnson reported that there may be more planned for his appearance but this WrestleMania 42 announcement is 100% expected to happen.

Johnson also reported that his sources confirmed that WWE will be holding a press conference following tonight’s show.

In regards to The Rock’s appearance, Johnson reported that those spoken to stated that this was a late decision by WWE made last night and WWE officials having to shift their plans for the show to pivot towards The Rock’s appearance.

Matt Hardy Comments on The Hardys’ NXT Appearance on 2/19 Show Being Last Minute Thing

This past Tuesday’s WWE NXT show at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida featured current TNA World Champions The Hardys (Matt & Jeff Hardy) making a surprise video appearance.

A recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast featured co-host Matt Hardy giving his thoughts about The Hardy’s surprise appearance at this past Tuesday’s NXT show being something that was put together at the last minute.

“This was a very last-minute thing I think (The Hardys vs. N.Q.C.C. match). It’s cool because everyone knows that TNA and NXT have this partnership right now — TNA and WWE. I think it’s gonna continue to expand a little bit but, it has been so beneficial to TNA. It has also been very beneficial to NXT and I feel like just over the last little bit, probably after Fraxiom showed up and they watched us defend the titles against The Rascalz, I would imagine, probably, the wheels started turning, from the powers that be and again, I don’t know all the details on all these things. I’m still talent, brother. Washing my hands of that. I’m not booking, I’m talent. But I think there was some interest there… So the fact that we are able to step out and get in the ring with other teams and kind of give them a little bit of our rub that we have and they kind of help us because they’re a younger team and they kind of keep us relevant in 2025, it’s a win-win so, really excited about this, and I’ll tell ya, I am training for a fight this week too because in facing the two guys that we’re facing, they’re both legit bad-asses so we’re gonna have to be ready to rock and roll whenever we step into the ring in Cincinnati.
Even when that happened on Tuesday night, that little video of Jeff and I that was on NXT, that had only existed about an hour, 45 minutes before that. It hadn’t been long. This is not something that had been long-term planned out. I mean, it was very spur of the moment and that kind of makes you feel alive. It reminds you that you’re alive. It kind of gets the adrenaline flowing and pumping a little bit and it’s been fun thus far and I’m excited to see where we end up going with all of this.”

Hardy also gave his thoughts about his brother Jeff being very happy to be going back to WWE for NXT shows.

“He’s (Jeff Hardy) very happy to be going back (to WWE) and I feel like he wants to right the wrongs, he wants to leave on a good note. No more erratic behavior (Matt smiled). He wants to go back and show them who he is and I think one of the reasons, even with this whole exchange going on, I think one of the reasons they probably waited a little while to pull the trigger and do something with Jeff and I was just to kind of see where Jeff was. Just make sure Jeff is good and anybody who’s been here with TNA is just… they can’t go without talking about how incredible and professional a performer Jeff has been.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com