Last weekend Montreal, a famous wrestling city for a variety of reasons, hosted the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, the final “premium live event” before Wrestlemania. Since WM 39 has two nights, as unnecessary as that is, there are many different pieces of the puzzle that can be shuffled around before they are put into place.
Did this event add to the anticipation of Wrestlemania?
The pay-per-view kicked off with the women’s chamber match and while these types of matches can be repetitive based on the format, with some of the same spots from prior years such as the move through the door of the chamber, this bout did enough to try to stay fresh. One of the biggest takeaways from this is that the contest was kept tight with about 20 minutes given for the segment, which helped it not drag at some point. Usually, these chamber matches are slotted for 40 minutes just because it’s a gimmick match and it creates a rather tedious viewing experience. Again, some of spots are going to be recycled because of the nature of the match, with the sequence where everyone hits a move on the next competitor, which looks more like an assembly line than an actual match. Liv Morgan hit an impressive sunset flip power bomb from the top of the chamber, and Carmella has done very well since her return to television. The winner of the contest was also the MVP of this segment, as Asuka shined in the chamber. She’s one of the absolute best performers on the entire roster and her skills continue to prove why she’s such an asset to the division. The new look since her return from injury allowed her a fresh presentation, but make no mistake about it, Asuka wasn’t stale as a character. Asuka vs. Bianca Belair should be a very solid match at Wrestlemania, proving that the argument can still be made that the women’s division might be the best portion of WWE programming.
As silly as this might sound, I’m honestly not sure why Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley was added the card, considering that as far as tickets go, it was a sellout based on Sami Zayn getting the title shot, and from a storyline perspective, the Lesnar/Lashley feud already has enough established, even just from the confrontations on television, to justify a Wrestlemania match. What exactly was gained from this four-minute DQ finish? If anything, this recycled the same formula of their previous bouts and that will hinder its effectiveness on the bigger stage of WM. It was the same playbook of the fireworks match with multiple finishers used, except there wasn’t a definitive conclusion. I understand the WWE has record-setting revenue and are looking to sell the company for literally billions of dollars, but was it really worth Brock’s hefty price tag to get him to leave the farm for this? The direction of Raw seems to put Lesnar against Omos, but I’d guess that it’s just a way to put some space between Brock and Lashley until it gets closer to WM. I can’t imagine that the Brock/Lashley feud would conclude with a rather flat DQ finish. Still, this match at the pay-per-view didn’t really add anything to the storyline or even the card.
Edge and Beth Phoenix vs. Finn Balor and Rhea Ripley was a solid match, but again, this was a recycled concept that will hopefully be put aside going forward, especially because Rhea has much more important work to do with the match against Charlotte at WM. The Judgment Day as a stable have done better than almost anyone would’ve thought after Finn became the leader, but the feud with Edge has a “been there, done that” atmosphere to it. Another Edge return after being attacked by the Judgment Day was already done a few times, and based on the attack from Finn on Raw, it looks like this angle is probably going to build toward a match at WM, but I don’t think it has that type of hype to justify a WM spot. It just seems like the writing team doesn’t have anything better for either of them to do so they are being booked in a feud so they have a match for Wrestlemania. Don’t get me wrong, the in-ring work is fine, but keep in mind, the entire premise of the angle, when Edge was randomly kicked out of the stable, wasn’t exactly a major storyline on the show. Reportedly, Edge asked to be taken out of the group because of the direction of the faction at the time so it’s not as though this was designed to be a long-term storyline, which is probably why it seems like it’s all being thrown together on a week-to-week basis.
It's on sight between @FinnBalor and @EdgeRatedR!#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/O2oi9frkTa
— WWE (@WWE) February 21, 2023
There’s not a lot to discuss with the Elimination Chamber match for the US title, mostly because of how devalued the championship was for almost two decades in WWE, it was difficult to be invested in the result one way or the other. As I’ve said before, I don’t see the hype or the potential of Austin Theory. The whole push seemed forced, and if it wasn’t for that, he’d probably be lost in 205 Live purgatory if that show still existed.
The main event was a quality bout that had the potential to be a special moment, but as I wrote previously, the office booked themselves into a corner, and it led to a rather underwhelming conclusion. I won’t be repetitive with the same discussion that I wrote in an article about Sami Zayn a few weeks ago, but the bottom line is, you can’t book the hometown hero to lose without a major disappointment. Granted, I mentioned that Cody has the story of winning the title for Dusty, and the cache of Roman’s extended title run can only be used once so it makes sense to have Rhodes be the one to dethrone Reigns, but with that in mind, there was absolutely no reason to book Sami into a scenario where he loses in his hometown. Unless management wasn’t concerned with that disappointment then they could’ve and should’ve booked Sami in any other match at this pay-per-view. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Sami should’ve beat Roman because that doesn’t leave much on the table for WM, but I’m saying Zayn shouldn’t have been booked in a championship match at this point unless he was going to win it.
As mentioned, a lot of the pieces of the puzzle still have to be put in place within the next month or so to truly gauge how much hype can be generated for WM, but as far as Elimination Chamber, I’m not sure it did anything to build toward the biggest event on the calendar. The promo on Raw seemed like Sami and Kevin Owens will probably be booked for a tag title match at WM, but after Zayn’s defeat that appears to be a consolidation prize more than anything else.
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
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram & Facebook @jimlamotta89
