The rocky road to Wrestlemania continued with Elimination Chamber, the pay-per-view designed to determine the other half of the marquee title matches at the event in less than two months in Las Vegas. As we saw with Survivor Series and The Royal Rumble, this was another PPV card with just four matches on the line-up. I have to be honest, I really don’t understand the logic behind why management seems to be slowly but surely adjusting the presentation of these PPVs to ultimately give fans, both in attendance and those that pay $30 for a subscription fee, essentially less for their money. More than anything, and I think even the smaller sample size of shows with such an abbreviated card are proof of this, it’s more or less impossible to truly structure or pace a card properly when there are only four bouts on the broadcast. Within the modern era, we’ve seen the absurd amount of commercials and delays between matches become a normal expectation of the WWE PPV presentation, but it also becomes an exponentially more tedious viewing experience when there are only a few matches on the show. Less wrestling translates to more ads, and maybe that’s ultimately the reason why the office doesn’t book full cards for most of the PPVs now, but there’s no doubt that it affects the overall quality of the show, specifically when someone watches live without the ability to fast forward through the WWE commercials and still has to sit through the ESPN ads for the app. Thankfully, this show finished up at the three-hour mark as opposed to an event that would’ve went another hour since that has happened in the past.
As expected, just like the Royal Rumble, the show was going to open and close with the Elimination Chamber matches, which makes sense, especially with only four contests booked since it would be a hindrance to the presentation if there were two gimmick matches in a row. The women’s chamber match was solid, the action was a little too choreographed at certain points, but that’s almost unavoidable with matches like this. In fact, the women’s chamber match last year was horrendous since it went off the rails and couldn’t get back on track so this was a much better approach. Tiffany Stratton and Kiana James started the match with some good sequences, and Tiffany took some brutal bumps into the pods of the chamber during the segment. This was structured well, and Raquel Rodriguez was made to look strong as a featured performer in the contest. More specifically, Rodriguez seems to be improving in her ability to “work big,” which was a critique of her performances from Kevin Nash on her podcast a few months ago, and it appears to be solid advice as her in-ring work reflects her height and power more than it did previously. The dive from the top of a pod by Alexa Bliss was impressive, and the Rhea Ripley spot from the top of the pod was a memorable moment as well. Asuka continues to be an MVP and can shine in any role that she’s given. There’s no doubt that Asuka has already had a Hall of Fame career between her work in Japan and her WWE run. Ripley getting the victory to set up a WM match with Jade Cargill was probably the right decision since she still maintains a lot of popularity. However, everyone in this segment worked well and it’s yet another example of the consistent quality of the division.
The Women’s Intercontinental title was fine for what it was, but the match was rather bland without any peaks or valleys that truly built any drama. That’s despite the ref bump, a visual submission to imply that Becky Lynch would retain the belt, and a chair being brought into the ring. The whole presentation was clunky, which probably took the crowd out of it. That being said, the was a massive reaction for AJ Lee’s victory so that’s what will be remembered from this segment. There’s nothing wrong with that, if you can pop the crowd for the finish then in some ways, it’s mission accomplished, but if this was a test run for a rematch at Wrestlemania then it might be a rough day at the office in Las Vegas. AJ Lee hadn’t worked a singles match in more than a decade, twice as long as the original WWE tenure, so it’s understandable that there would be a level of ring rust. Becky is a bonafide star, but her in-ring performances have lacked since her most recent comeback. This segment went 15 minutes and became rather tedious so hopefully, WM 42 will be a smoother presentation if a rematch is actually booked.
CM Punk vs. Finn Balor was what you’d expect from this segment, these are two polished pros that were going to have a very solid match up based on their skill set, as well as their valuable years of experience. That being said, it seemed like this was booked specifically because of the stellar match that they had on Raw a few weeks ago, and while it makes sense in theory to book the rematch on a bigger platform of pay-per-view, the fact that it happened not long after the original bout, as well as the CM Punk/Roman Reigns promo to cement their match for WM 42, it was completely obvious that Finn wasn’t going to win the title. That’s not to say that he should’ve won, even if he definitely should’ve had better opportunities over the past decade in the company, but rather to point out that the money match based on their history is Roman/Punk so there wasn’t necessarily a level of drama that could realistically be built here since it was clear that a title switch wasn’t going to happen. Still, they did their best to try to sell the possibility, using the outside of the ring to add some sizzle to the segment. Punk retained with the GTS, and while this might not have been quite as good as their bout on Raw, it was still a very entertaining match. More than just giving Punk an opponent, this type of quality performance is what Punk needed ahead of Wrestlemania 42 to allow for anticipation to build for his main event match against Reigns.
I plan to write a column specifically about Danhausen’s disastrous WWE debut, but a few of the broad points to be made here, the office put him in more or less the most difficult position possible to be success on his first night in the company. Yes, I understand that Chicago is known for being a more savvy crowd, there’s a reason that it was an AEW stronghold during the company’s early existence, but it’s important to keep this in the proper context, the guy hasn’t worked a match on national television in almost two and a half years. He was completely forgotten about among the All Elite landscape, and has somehow kept himself relevant enough to pick up work on the indys, but there was absolutely no reason to expect a WWE audience, even in Chicago to be familiar with him, and the reaction or lack thereof reflected that. Furthermore, Danhausen is a good athlete in the ring, but I’d guess that even he would acknowledge that he got over with his character, not his in-ring work. Putting him on-screen for two minutes without a mic, a purpose, or a point didn’t do him any favors. That said, I think Danhausen will still be very successful in the WWE, specifically with merchandise after he gets a proper change to introduce himself to the fan base.
The men’s Elimination Chamber match was fun, particularly because it took a different path than many were expecting and built drama to get there. Cody Rhodes and Je’Von Evans had a good sequence of maneuvers to start the bout, which wasn’t a coincidence that the youngster was made to look competitive against the established main eventer. We’ve heard that Bronson Reed was originally scheduled to win the qualifying match on Raw to be in the Elimination Chamber, and when Logan Paul eventually settled into that spot, it seems like the office simply put Logan in the Bronson role, with the amount of eliminations he had, which I’m guessing was to settle up for Seth Rollins to return to derail The Vision stable. As I wrote earlier this week, given what pieces of the puzzle are left, it makes sense for their to be a Rollins/Paul bout at Wrestlemania. The chaos of the masked man trying to get involved, the Rollins reveal, and the Drew McIntyre interference to cause Cody to get pinned was entertaining stuff. On one hand, I’m somewhat surprised that management is going to play the Orton card again at WM, as it was booked several times before with mixed results, but on the other hand, I can understand why they didn’t want to go with the obvious result of Cody winning. That being said, I think the scenario is moot since I’d guess that Rhodes will eventually be added to the WM main event anyway.
Overall, the Elimination Chamber was a good way to progress the overall narrative of the company toward WM, a notion that was needed, especially with the sluggish ticket sales with only half a house sold for Allegiant Stadium so far. It will be interesting to see not only the path that the current storylines take, but also what will be modified or changed based on if tickets move for Las Vegas before April.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
