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Kiana James Makes Bold Statement After Shocking WWE SmackDown Win

By John Canton • Published Feb 21, 2026 07:32 EST
Kiana James WWE

Kiana James has a lot of confidence going into the WWE Elimination Chamber for the first time.

In a match between former 14-time WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair and 2-time Women’s Champion Nia Jax, most people wouldn’t expect Kiana James to get the win, but that’s what happened on WWE SmackDown in Fort Lauderdale.

The winner of the Flair-James-Jax match got to become the fifth woman in the Women’s Elimination Chamber Match at the Elimination Chamber PLE on Saturday, February 28th, in Chicago.

It looked like Flair would get the win with the Figure Eight on Jax, but the intelligent James slid under Flair while she was doing the move and did a crucifix pin on Flair for the shocking three count.

While James has been officially on the WWE main roster since April 2024 after having a successful NXT run, she missed a year of action due to a torn ACL in June 2024. In many ways, it’s almost like she’s a rookie on the main roster since she’s been on SmackDown since July 2025 as an intelligent ally of Women’s US Champion Giulia.

Kiana James Is Tired Of Being Underestimated

In a video posted by WWE on social media, the confident Kiana James spoke about how she’s constantly underestimated, even though she’s been planning to have success for a long time.

“All I’ve heard is where’s Kiana? Why is she on the ringside? All of you guys, all you do is underestimate me.

“Wanna know what I was doing ringside all these months? I was studying. I was calculating my next move and now I’m in the Elimination Chamber and I’m coming for it all.”

The Women’s Elimination Chamber Match now looks like this: Rhea Ripley vs. Tiffany Stratton vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka vs. Kiana James vs. one more woman.

That 6th woman in the Elimination Chamber Match will be determined on the February 23rd Raw in Atlanta when Raquel Rodriguez, Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane have a triple threat match.

The next WWE PLE is Elimination Chamber on February 28th in Chicago. Here’s the lineup so far:

  • Men’s Elimination Chamber Match: Randy Orton vs. LA Knight vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Trick Williams vs. Bronson Reed/Jey Uso/Original El Grande Americano winner.
  • World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk vs. Finn Balor
  • Women’s Elimination Chamber Match: Rhea Ripley vs. Tiffany Stratton vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka vs. Kiana James vs. Iyo Sky/Raquel Rodriguez/Kairi Sane winner.
  • Women’s Intercontinental Championship: Becky Lynch vs. AJ Lee

You can watch WWE Elimination Chamber, streaming live on Saturday, February 28, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ESPN in the United States and Netflix everywhere else.