I don’t know how many people got up early Saturday or stayed up late Friday night to take in Elimination Chamber live, but I was definitely not one of them. Instead, I give you my live thoughts as I watched the event on Sunday afternoon. Because you’ve got to account a little for the lazy.
Pre-show: WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles: Kabuki Warriors vs. The Way
This was a solid opener that probably deserved a little more shine than the match that was put on while the upper levels got to their seats. Even just a week or two of actual build could have helped too. But, it was still a good tag match, which you would expect given the participants. They did a great job early at establishing Hartwell as the powerhouse, who seemed genuinely happy to be performing in front of a crowd that large of her fellow Aussies. Once she got it, she had some great near falls with Asuka. Kabuki Warriors do some good heel things to keep the belts, finishing it off with the insane elbow slash inverted DDT combo which is just damn cool. I like that Indy and Candace got their moment with the crowd afterwards. Hopefully, they’ll get to run this one back a time or two more and get more than 8 minutes to do it in. I think if the challengers got a few more minutes to pour it on the champs, the road to the finish could have had even more impact. (2.5/5)
Women’s Elimination Chamber match: Bianca Belair vs. Raquel Rodriguez vs. Tiffany Stratton vs. Liv Morgan vs. Naomi vs. Becky Lynch
I’m not sure if there has been a Chamber match whose result has been more obvious than this one. The Man comes out last, she’s going out last and it would be truly shocking if that’s not the case. The opening period just seemed a little slow to me for some reason. Like Becky and Naomi got a lot done in the first five, some of it kinda got away from them, but the pace seemed kind of deliberately slow until they took it to the outside the first time. The splits leg drop off of the side of the Chamber was incredibly impressive. No way that didn’t hurt like hell. First out of the pods was Stratton. Including the 2K24 ratings in the pod reveal is def silly. Even more so for Cole to include them in his commentary. Like Tony Romo doesn’t add in his color that a particular running back is using his 77 Madden rating as motivation. Because that shit’s not real. There are lengths we go to in suspending our disbelief and we’ll go with you if you’re trying to include more sports-like presentation. But that’s just a bit silly of a stretch. Stratton looking really strong in her first period in the match. Liv Morgan out next and she goes right after the newcomer, bouncing Tiffany all over the Chamber. So far, she’s the whose made the most use of the environment and she’s been in for like a minute. Tough looking spot for Tiffy as she gets a Becsploder against the wall of the Chamber. Not the chain that looked like it sucked, but where her landed. Our first elimination comes after Naomi hits Liv with a sunset bomb from on top of a pod but is quickly rolled up by Stratton and a beautiful way to get more shine on the rook. Rodriguez is out next to do the good powerhouse stuff, wrecking shop on everyone in the match. All three eventually team up on her and she kicked out of a triple pin, which Perth did not think she did, before Belair enters and we’re five to the finish. She gets her dominant moments on everyone before we get the faceoff between her and Rodriguez. Liv is the next to fly off a pod with a sitout on Raquel. Becky and Tiffany follow quickly. Lynch is just tossed off the pod into the arms of Rodriguez before Stratton with a huge somersaul plancha onto the field. She’s dispatched a minute after that by a top rope flatliner from Morgan and Perth is really not happy about it. But Stratton was very impressive in her Chamber debut. I’m hoping this is the beginning of the rocket getting strapped to her. Rodriguez comes back into it with a tough-looking powerbomb on Belair. She drops her former tag partner before Lynch ties to off her with a Dis-arm-her. Big sequences next as we get a double tejana bomb, KOD and Rodriquez’ night is over. Morgan breaks up a corner spot via sunset flip and Belair takes her second tough power bomb of the night, this one looking to land her kinda high. Becky puts her knees up on a Belair 450 and we have a triple-down. It’s a slow, slow, fast, fast, fast, fast, finish. Morgan with a stun-dog millionaire type counter out of the KOD. Belair fails to KOD Lynch, gets rolled up by Morgan and pinned. Liv stands up directly into the manhandle slam and that was a little sudden. A few too many dead spots and a really hurried wrap up dings this one a little bit for me. Especially since there was never any real doubt as to where it was going. (3.5/5)
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships: The Judgment Day (c) vs. New Catch Republic
In case you thought that Dominik Mysterio might have been losing a bit of his shine, don’t. He grabs the mic and decides he’s announcing the champs and is booed mercilessly. In the mix, he could barely be heard but again, always questionable in a stadium. The ‘Dom is a wanker’ chant was legit tho. Jesus, we get more ratings talk and it’s worse here as Graves and Cole vamp more on them to cover a rest spot like 3 minutes in. Tyler Bate gets most of the punishment early before getting Bate back in, who wipes out both members of the JD with a moonsault to the outside. But Bate gets back in and the champs take back over. He does manage to fight back up and take Priest for a long airplane spin. Dunne gets the tag, hits a Bitter End and Dom saves Balor by pulling his foot under the bottom rope. But Bate snitches on him and Mysterio is ejected. Double Tyler driver, but Priest pulls Bate off the pin cover to save the belts. Bit of a miscue after Finn calls for the Razor’s Edge and Bate rolls out. Priest has to do a little too much to knock Balor off the top. Priest manages to kick out of a double WWE burning hammer. The NCR gets some solid double team offense in on Priest. But he catches them both on the middle rope, double chokeslam, Finn with the blind tag and a coup de grace later and the champs retain. A nice, physical match with enough flair to get the crowd past some small shortcomings. (3/5)
The Greyson Waller Effect featuring Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes
The advantage of watching the replay is that I kept those 20 minutes. This is a pay-per-view not your average week of TV so no promo shows. I have the internet, so I know Cody challenged the Rock, continuing the needlessly complicated Mania main event picture.
Men’s Elimination Chamber match: Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens vs. Logan Paul vs. LA Knight vs. Bobby Lashley
I have to legit ask this question as I watch the entrances: can Michael Cole actually get through an entire event without blowing his voice out? It’s starting to go before this match and has happened literally every PPV I’ve watching in recent memory. Can someone teach this broadcaster whose been with the company for… fuck like 25 years, some basic vocal control? I learned that in my second broadcasting class, uh… 19 years ago. And oddly enough, I can still get through an entire basketball game without going gravelly… </rant>
Drew and Knight start us out. Knight eventually bounces Drew’s face off everyone’s pod. KO takes some swings at Drew through the glass, a unique moment there but hilarious. Owens in the first one released. He’s already busted his knuckles open from being crazy in the pod. Knight the recipient of his initial fire before getting cut off by McIntyre. KO gets a near fall after a frog splash to Drew. KO with a cool codebreaker/senton combo which Cole calls a codebreaker. He might get some heat in the headset for that. We have a triple-down right before Bobby Lashley enters the match. Drew with a double cross body on that one. Lashley takes the fight t McIntyre than takes that fight to the outside and bounces Drew off the chain several times. Lashley gets a near fall on Drew after a big lift and slam. Not sure what else to call that. It was a chokeslam without a hand around the goozle pipe. Randy Orton enters the fray next, setting a new record for most Chamber matches. Cole even said that he broke Chris Jericho’s record. Randy with the cool hanging DDT to KO on the Chamber floor. It’s Lashley’s turn to dominate until McIntyre moves and Lashley posts himself. Knight ends that with a DDT on the Chamber floor. Logan Paul enters last, but KO is at his pod before the countdown and rips his way in. Paul is the first one to go through a pane of pod plastic. Kevin feel free to throw some live rounds in there. Waiting to see how Paul escapes and eliminates Owens with some backhanded tactic. Bobby breaks that up by tossing Kevin through a pod and spearing Logan into another one. Do it again. Do it three more times. Perth with a thank you Bobby chant and well earned. Unfortunately, Lashley is the first one out after a claymore. AJ Styles out of nowhere. He gets in while they were trying to help Lashey out and batters Knight with a chair and hits a Styles Clash on the chair. Drew gets the pin and we’ll see those two go one on one at Mania. Which is a great way to set up that match. We pretty much already knew that KO and Paul were going to meet there and that Drew would win and get the title match but it’s good to use this match at this point in the calendar to start framing up the Mania card. Owens pummels Paul some more than gets a near fall on Orton after a swanton He tries again on Drew but is met by McIntyre’s knees. After a nice series of dodging each other’s finishers, Orton eliminates Owens with an RKO. We are down to three and the story from here on out is very obvious. Orton will be the next to go. Paul will come oh so close to troll the world but McIntyre will prevail. Orton still selling his back ahead of a faceoff mid-ring with Drew. Orton momentarily cuts off Drew with a powerslam before Randy goes after Logan and leaves him on the top rope. Paul with the cross body but no follow up and another triple down. Paul pulls out the brass knucks and his need to play to the crowd gets him RKO’d and eliminated. I now like your story a lot better than mine. Some more finisher dodging before Randy hits the hanging DDT but his back keeps him from immediately capitalizing. RKO, no, spine on the pine and both men down again. Here’s the set-up for the claymore but Orton just collapses. Which is a ruse, there’s the RKO but Logan Paul cuts him off with the knux and McIntyre wins. Which actually, not mad about. The bad guys can do what he had to do to win and doesn’t have to take a clean one to keep his momentum into Mania. It was a match with a well-told story that got us exactly where we knew we were going but without making it as blatantly obvious as they did in the women’s match. The number 1 entrant going coast to coast is a little repetitive and things slowed way down in the last ten minutes but it was still a damn good match (4/5)
Women’s World Championship: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Nia Jax
Let’s cap it off with a main event as predictable as a Hulk Hogan main event mid-1987. The crowd favorite takes a ton of punishment from the monster heel but eventually fires back up, shows off the power and overcomes the challenge. Yes, Rhea is technically a heel but not down under. It seems like something that shouldn’t have to be said, but good job here making this the main event, giving the Perth crowd what they wanted to see, their countrywoman in the main event. It’s not something they would have done just a year ago.
A little slip up early as Rhea went for a rana take over. Nia didn’t go over and I’m pretty sure she accidentally pulled out one of Rhea’s gauges in a subsequent sequence on the mat. While that wasn’t great for the challenger, she did win me back with an good looking curbstomp and a stretch muffler, which does not often get pulled out. Sticking to the script so far. Nia with a torture rack, Rhea counters into a guillotine, Nia flips her out of it then misses a big sit. The comeback starts and is quickly cut off with a Samoan drop but the champ dodges a follow up leg drop, delivering a drop kick of her own. Rhea goes to the top but is cut off and suffers a Samoan drop off the top and somehow escapes. Nia looking for the Annihilator but Rhea walks her off on her shoulders, drops her face first on the top buckle and hits a frog splash but Nia escapes. Everything spills to the outside and Perth is about to get wood. Ripley tries to powerbomb Jax through the table but its reversed into a Samoan drop and the table does not break, you know that hurted. Nia drives her though with an elbow, rolls the champ in and hits an Annihilator but the champ kicks out. Will she hulk up from here? Nia goes back up top, but is shoved off the turnbuckle. Jax gets back in control and goes to the top but is met by the champ for a superplex. Kick to the face, Riptide and the champion retains. Solid, if not formulaic title match. Not the one I necessarily would have chosen to do here but Rhea did look more vulnerable than she has in a good long while to head into the big money match with the man. Nia looked really good as well, outside of the one miscue. Importantly, they gave the Perth crowd what they wanted. An Aussie win in the main event. (3/5)
Overall, it was not a bad night at all down under. There will obviously be grief for the heavy predictability of literally everything. It was something they suffered heavily from when they were in the practice of running like 20 PPVs a year. And they, for the most part, got away from the pitfall of this event from the last year or two: both Elimination Chamber matches of the event being too similar. If you’ve got the time this week or next, you will be entertained for several hours with this one. (3.5/5)
The Finisher 