Going into this special event it has to be said that I wasn't really expecting much in comparison to others that I had seen online. I just felt that since the first few Elimination Chamber matches, none of them seem to live up to the hype whether it be because of the PG nature of the programming or just simply because the psychology is off, which we'll get into later. This will be a match by match review of the night and then I'll leave with some overall thoughts at the end. Also, I won't be covering the Pre-Show because nothing really happened to note.
(Disclaimer: This may or may not be as positive as my usual reviews)
Tag Team Elimination Chamber Match for the Championships - The New Day (W) (**)
From the start this match felt like just such a bad opener. My main criticisms of this match, other than the psychology, are the actual teams that took part in it. Firstly, The Ascension have been treated as nothing but a joke since debuting earlier this year so putting them in this 'serious' match made it feel underwhelming before the bell even rang. Moreover, Los Matadores, who've literally made no impact since they debuted (god knows how long ago) were in the match which added more to this sense of total meaningless. This match was obviously just hot shotted and thrown together randomly in the space of two weeks which is fine but why not include Mandow and Axel OR Harper and Rowan. Both of them teams are more over than The Ascension and Matadores.
I enjoyed the fact that all three of The New Day entered the match but what really made me annoyed (and always does) is that they appear to treat El Torito as anything other than an actual human being when they continue to note on commentary it's just a guy in a suit. First of all, in every match the Matadores are in, Torito can interfere as and when he pleases while in this match specifically he was allowed to be in the Chamber and take part in the match. When he does this on RAW it's never seen as a DQ which is ridiculous to me. How, in 2015 they continue to do this without anybody calling for the fact they are discriminating against smaller people. It's absurd.
Anyway, to add to how much the combination of teams underwhelmed me was the way they were all utilised. The Ascension, who as I've just noted, have been treated as jokes for months run through Los Matadores (which is okay because they've never done anything) and Lucha Dragons which legit have potential to draw money because of their masks and wrestling style. This, mixed with the fact that the wrestlers don't seem to understand the rules to the Elimination Chamber match made this harder to enjoy for me. Moreover, there was numerous times that pins were broken up by an opposing team which if left for the referee to count the 3, would have indeed benefitted the person breaking up the count. Unfortunately, this seemed to be a prominent theme of the night.
However, what I did like about this match was the spots that happened. Kalisto falling from the roof of the Chamber onto the majority of the guys in the match was a great spectacle. Also, I really enjoyed Torito jumping from the top of a pod onto Cesaro and hurricanrana-ing him which looked great. Another great spot was Sin Cara's Senton Bomb from the top of a pod which was definitely worth seeing.
Another thing, which I haven't seen anyone point out is that Cesaro was rolled up by Darren Young out of nowhere which gives the impression that Cesaro and Kidd will continue to chase the New Day for the titles and by doing that, will still be screwed out of their fair chance at regaining the championships. This is probably the only good storytelling part of this story that I could see because the rest seemed to be just a spot fest.
Nikki Bella (c)(W) v Paige v Naomi (*)
I don't even know where to start with this match. A lot of my criticisms of this match are criticisms of the 'divas' division in total which I'll hopefully get round to writing another blog about so I'll just focus on this match. First of all there was too many botches to count which made this unbearable. In particular, Naomi botched a inverted frankensteiner which just took me out of the match completely. My criticisms of Naomi is mostly why I like Nikki which @MaxwellRBR (of the RBR podcast which I'd really recommend) summed up totally on Twitter; "Why do I like Nikki Bella? Because she keeps shit simple, tells a story and doesn't try to do stupid shit that she can't do". My main criticism of this match is that it told no story at all and I'm just glad that Nikki retained because any other outcome at this point would have been ludicrous.
Kevin Owens(W) v John Cena (****)
As if I even have to say this but MATCH OF THE NIGHT. Cena is great. We all know that unless you're one of them people blinded by whatever you're blinded by, but what made this match so great was that it wasn't your typical Cena babyface match where Cena is beat down for 20 minutes only to hit his comeback and win. This match was the opposite and it needed to be. For the 20 minutes that the match lasted it was back and forth between the two as they traded blows and moves. Owens at one point even hit an AA on Cena to get maximum heat. A part of the match which I loved was the tease of the package piledriver on Cena which was then transitioned into a throw of some kind, it's hard to describe with words. I have only one criticism of this match and that is that Cena kicked out of the first Pop-Up Powerbomb. I feel like because this is the first time we've seen it on official WWE TV, the move should have been kept strong and beat Cena with just one. Other than that the negatives in this match really lack and of course the peak came in the finish. Owens winning is good for WWE, good for the fans and good for him of course. If I'm not mistaken, he's the first person to beat Cena on his debut ever so here's hoping that this is going to have even more impact than Cena's debut against Kurt Angle. This was by far the peak of the night and the best match although it didn't necessarily have the stiffest of competition. Great stuff.
Neville(W) v Bo Dallas (**)
This match was nothing particularly special as it acted as the filler match between what seemed like the hottest part of the night and leading into the 'main matches'. It was just an average match really and the predictability that Neville would win meant that this was nothing more than just filler. Cool Red Arrow to end it but Neville should have been in the IC match.
The Intercontinental Championship Elimination Chamber - Ryback (W) (*)
This was the worst match of the night. Rusev being injured meant that Mark Henry took his place which as I had earlier predicted, was disappointing and worse than having Rusev in. From the outset this was just boring and criticisms of psychology were even more prominent in this match than the prior one as Mark Henry broke up pins. In a singles Elimination Chamber match, nobody, unless storylined, should be breaking up other pins or submissions, it makes no sense. I can't even write about anything I liked other than who actually won. Botchamania will have an absolute field day when looking at this match, you could probably get a full episode out of it. Ziggler's multiple botches and his continuous need to go for a jumping DDT despite failing the majority. This was just a total snoozefest and by far one of the worst Elimination Chamber matches in it's history.
Ryback winning however is the silver lining. The Big Guy has deserved a championship run of some kind and recently, at least in my opinion, his promos have been on point. He seems to have become a lot more comfortable and seems to be more confident when saying things. I also think he's hilarious so the more of The Big Guy, the better.
Dean Ambrose (W) v Seth Rollins (c) (***)
This was decent but it wasn't the best match the two have had in recent memory. Perhaps ironically, what took it away from this match for me was that I couldn't see Ambrose in any capacity winning so I watched mostly ambivalent to what was happening. One thing that this match did though was expose Ambrose' lack of move-set. Literally, the match was all Rollins Move followed up by an Ambrose lariat followed up by a different Rollins move followed up by a rebound lariat etcetera etcetera. The lack of Ambrose winning believability really hindered my enjoyment of the match and I was slightly shocked when the finish came until I remembered the ref bump. Another thing was the disappointment of the previous match made me ready to tap out on this show before this match even started so when giving it 3 stars I'm trying to be objective.
The finish was that Ambrose got the pin but the ref bump prior to it meant he won by DQ. I wasn't disappointed with this as I probably should have been but it made me a bit mad because it was such a poor way to end a poor PPV. Moreover, I think I'm still burnt out on all these finishes since the Bryan storyline which was over a year ago now so if this is going to continue I'm pretty sure I'll lose interest in both of these guys.
Overall, the PPV was pretty poor. With one really solid good match that I felt progressed the company, there has to be some room for positivity. However, with a terrible crowd and an even worse card of matches in places, this whole event was underwhelming and lack lustre. I'm going to give this event a 4/10 which I even think is pretty generous because I have very little interest in watching RAW tonight (although I probably still will).
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