WWE SmackDown Notes: Vic Joseph Fills In for Joe Tessitore, Naomi Qualifies for Women’s Elimination Chamber, Sami Zayn “Injury” Update, Two New Potential Matches for Elimination Chamber, Damian Priest Qualifies for Men’s Elimination Chamber

WWE
Feb 14, 2025

Vic Joseph Fills In for Joe Tessitore on Friday’s WWE SmackDown Show

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show at the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. featured NXT commentator Vic Joseph filling in for Joe Tessitore as the lead commentator for tonight’s show.

At the start of the show, SmackDown color commentator Wade Barrett introduced everyone to the show and ran down what was in store for its card before. Barrett then stated that Tessitore was not here due to him being away on assignment and introduced Joseph as his commentary partner for tonight’s show.

Tessitore was absent from tonight’s show due to his commitments with ESPN for the commentary team for tonight’s Top Rank Boxing event.

Naomi Qualifies for Women’s Elimination Chamber Match at WWE Elimination Chamber 2025

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured one qualifying match for this year’s Women’s Elimination Chamber match.

This match was Naomi defeating Chelsea Green.

As a result of her victory, Naomi joins Bayley, Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Liv Morgan as those who have officially qualified for this year’s Women’s Elimination Chamber match.

Sami Zayn Provides “Injury” Update Following Kevin Owens Package Piledriver Attack

As noted before, Sami Zayn has been out of action for WWE since suffering an “injury” at the hands of Kevin Owens on the February 3rd WWE RAW show in Cleveland, Ohio. Zayn was later stated to have suffered “spinal compression and extreme nerve damage.”

During tonight’s SmackDown show, a video aired featuring Zayn providing an update on his medical status. Zayn talked about how the past few weeks have been tough because he has to come to terms on what has happened with Kevin Owens and Owens being a changed person this time. Zayn then talked about Owens’ issues with him over him showing up during Owens and Cody Rhodes’ Ladder match at Royal Rumble 2025. Zayn then stated that he doesn’t know when he will be cleared to return but when he is, they will go again and it won’t be fun.

Two New Potential Matches for WWE Elimination Chamber 2025

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured two new potential matches for the card of Elimination Chamber 2025.

The first new potential match is a singles match of Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn.

This new match was initially setup following recent shows over Owens’ bad blood issues with his claims that Zayn didn’t care about his well-being during his latter match against Cody Rhodes at Royal Rumble. During tonight’s show, Zayn responded to Owens’ recent Package Piledriver attack to him and promised revenge when he comes back. In a follow-up, Owens responded to Zayn’s comments and claimed Zayn had stabbed him in the back as a friend and challenged him to a match at Elimination Chamber.

The second new potential match is a tag team match of Trish Stratus & Tiffany Stratton vs. Nia Jax & Candice LeRae.

This new potential match was setup following Stratus revealing during the show that she will be attending next month’s Elimination Chamber event in her hometown. Following Stratton’s disqualification victory over Nia Jax to retain her WWE Women’s title later in the show, Jax and LeRae attacked Stratton leading to Stratus, who was watching the show at ringside, to run into the ring and tried to save Stratton to no avail. In another follow-up segment, Stratton was interviewed backstage by Byron Saxton about Charlotte Flair picking her for her WrestleMania 41 match leading to Stratton stating that she has unfinished business first with Jax and LeRae. This led to Stratus showing up asking Stratton if she wanted to team up to face Jax & LeRae at Elimination Chamber, which Stratton agreed.

Damian Priest Qualifies for Men’s Elimination Chamber Match at WWE Elimination Chamber 2025

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured one qualifying match for this year’s Men’s Elimination Chamber match.

This match was Damian Priest defeating Braun Strowman and Jacob Fatu in a Triple Threat match.

As a result of his victory, Priest joins Logan Paul, Drew McIntyre, John Cena, and CM Punk as those who have officially qualified for this year’s Men’s Elimination Chamber match at WWE Elimination Chamber 2025, which takes place on March 1st at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Current card for WWE Elimination Chamber 2025:

  • Men’s Elimination Chamber match – John Cena vs. CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Logan Paul vs. Damian Priest vs. TBD
  • Women’s Elimination Chamber match – Liv Morgan vs. Bianca Belair vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley vs. Naomi vs. TBD
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