Hiya!

Right now, the biggest news in the professional wrestling world is the shocking turn of John Cena. From being the biggest babyface to ever been booed in the WWE, nobody really expected the one who espoused “Hustle, Loyalty and Respect” to betray his principles and join The Rock and “sell his soul” to the Final Boss.

However, I do feel like I’m getting ahead of myself because there was a whole entire pay-per-view to talk about before this all happened! Yes, John Cena’s ultimate betrayal of his principles happened at the very end of the WWE’s latest show, Elimination Chamber. There were a few things which happened during this show that will affect Wrestlemania, the biggest show of all of professional wrestling. So, since I just discussed my thoughts regarding if John Cena’s heel turn was a good idea or not, let’s go talk about the actual Elimination Chamber show now.

The first match of the night was the Women’s Elimination Chamber match. This featured Liv Morgan, NAOMI, Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, Bayley and Roxanne Perez. The winner will go on to Wrestlemania to challenge the RAW Women’s Champion. Just as the match started, Jade Cargill, who was injured by an “unknown assailant,” matched into the Elimination Chamber. To the shock of those who haven’t been watching professional wrestling for so long, Jade Cargill didn’t go after Liv Morgan. Instead, she went after NAOMI while a distraught (and an overacting) Bianca Belair looked on while she was encased in her pod. This brutal takedown led to NAOMI unable to continue.

Besides this rather impactful moment, there were some really good moments during the Women’s Elimination Chamber match this year, most of them involving Liv Morgan. While I do give her a lot of grief because I really don’t like how “soft” her offense comes across, Liv Morgan proved her worth by taking the brunt of the offense and selling really well.

Some of the more memorable spots during this match were the brawl inside the pod between Bayley and Roxanne Perez, Bayley hitting a cross body through the ropes to Belair and Alexa Bliss, Belair hitting a crossbody from the top of one of the pods to take out the other participants and that tower of doom spot with Alexa Bliss eating a superplex. Of course, the highlight was that super loud hit Liv Morgan took from Belair’s hair braid, with the crack echoing throughout the arena. I will give props to Morgan as she has the welts to show how much damage she took.

The finish came after Liv Morgan took advantage of Bianca Belair being felled by Alexa Bliss’ Sister Abigail DDT as she pinned the returning Bliss to eliminate her. It was down to Liv Morgan and Bianca Belair now. Morgan used Bianca’s braid as some kind of tether to toss The EST into the wall of the cage repeatedly. Morgan then hit a codebreaker but Belair rebounded with a spear. Belair then slammed the Judgement Day member into the cage and the glass of one of the pods before powerbombing Liv inside the ring. Belair tried a 450 splash only for her gut to run into Liv Morgan’s raised knees. Belair tried to hit her KOD finisher but Morgan reversed it into a codebreaker. Morgan then went for her Ob-Liv-Ion finisher but Belair reversed it into her KOD finisher to get the pinfall. This ensures Belair’s spot at Wrestlemania for the RAW Women’s Championship.

This was a really good match. While there were some slow spots, they weren’t really enough to make the match come off as boring. Besides, the really good moments stood out much more. Once again, I do have to applaud Liv Morgan’s hard work during this as she took a bunch of brutal hits, showing her mettle and proving she does deserve to be a future Women’s Championship contender.

The next match was a tag team match featuring Nia Jax and Candace LeRae taking on WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus and the current Smackdown Women’s Champion, Tiffany Straton. I’m perplexed as to why this was in the pay-per-view match instead of Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY for the RAW Women’s Championship, which happened during RAW. The only reason I can think of is because the show was held in Toronto, Trish Stratus’ home city. I can’t really say anything of note here because I honestly don’t remember anything special here! The only thing which stuck out for me was Nia Jax’s consistent mugging of the camera. When the taunting is the thing that stands out, you know there’s something wrong with your match!

The finish came when Jax set Trish up for her Annihilator finisher. Trish recovered and hit a bulldog from the top rope. Trish then tagged to Tiffany Straton who hit her Prettiest Moonsault Ever finisher to get the pinfall victory for her team. This was very much a nothing match. While not bad, nothing really made an impact for me. Next!

The next match of the night had Kevin Owens taking on Sami Zayn in an Unsanctioned Match. Honestly, it’s more like a No DQ match but calling it “unsanctioned” makes it come off as more dangerous. However, because of the sheer brutality of the match, it did earn the right to come off as more dangerous! Like with the previous match, I don’t actually remember much of what happened here… but for a totally different and awesome reason. The reason why I don’t really remember much on what happened here is because there was just so much happening! I had to rewatch the entire match because I really wanted to get an idea of what occurred… and I’m glad I did because it was awesome!

It started out as a relatively simple match but things escalated pretty quickly once the action spilled to the outside. That’s because, at this point, all sort of weapons came out! Some of the more creative moments had Sami Zayn bringing out a hockey stick, Zayn tossing Owens through a table while fighting through the crowd, Owens shoving Sami through 2 stacked tables, Owens hitting a sick looking fisherman buster to Sami to a steel chair, Zayn hitting a drop toe hold which led to Owens hitting his face onto a chair wrapped in barbed wire… oh geez! There’s just so much and I’m exhausted just writing them all down!

The finish came after the Prizefighter hit a couple of powerbombs on Sami Zayn to the ring apron (the hardest part of the ring!). Owens rolled Zayn’s unconscious body back into the ring to get the pinfall victory. However, Owens wasn’t done yet! He then peeled off the protective padding from the outside and hauled Zayn’s lifeless body, hinting at hitting a package piledriver. Thankfully, Randy Orton‘s music hit and saved Zayn. Owens tried to fight back but was taken out by an RKO. It looked like the Apex Predator was going to beat down Owens with a steel chair but he relented… as Randy Orton wanted to take him out with his punt kick! Security stopped Orton and Owens rolled to the outside to escape.

This was just brutal and lovely. Both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn put on one of the most deadly matches I’ve seen in a while. Some of the moves looked really nasty. While some may think the finish was somewhat anticlimactic as it ended with just a couple of powerbombs to the ring apron (the hardest part of the ring!), it was done well enough so I didn’t mind. Match of the night for me.

The final match of the night was the Men’s Elimination Chamber match, with the winner punching his ticket to face Cody Rhodes for the top prize of Smackdown, the Unified WWE Universal Championship. The participants were John Cena, CM Punk, Damien Priest, Drew McIntyre, Logan Paul and Seth Rollins. Well, I already revealed who won this but how did the match go, though? Pretty good, actually.

Some of the bigger moments of this match had Damien Priest getting the surprise rollup pin on Drew McIntyre to eliminate him, Logan Paul hitting a splash from the top of CM Punk’s pod to Priest after an already eliminated McIntyre hit Priest with a Claymore, CM Punk and John Cena temporarily teaming up to take on Seth Rollins so they can have a mini-match and Seth Rollins tossing John Cena through one of the pod’s protective plastic.

The finish was both beautiful and dumb at the same time. John Cena tried to hit an Attitude Adjustment to Rollins but The Visionary wormed his way out… only to eat a GTS from Punk and then an Attitude Adjustment from Cena. Rollins is supposed to be eliminated now and leave the Elimination Chamber. CM Punk hits a GTS to Cena but Cena kicks out. Cena retaliates with an Attitude Adjustment to Punk but the Best in the World kicks out as well. Cena then sets Punk up for his STF submission but Punk crawls through the bottom rope to escape. However, Seth Rollins, who should already have been taken out of the Elimination Chamber after getting eliminated, hits his Curb Stomp to Punk! Cena locks in the STF and Punk fades out, leading to Cena winning the match and getting his possibly final match for the Unified WWE Universal Championship at Wrestlemania!

This was, overall, a really good match but the ending did feel goofy to me. There was already one instance when the officials didn’t do their job. The first one was allowing Jade Cargill to enter the Elimination Chamber to beat on NAOMI during the Women’s Elimination Chamber match. This time, it was not hauling Seth Rollins out after he got eliminated! There was a good 2 whole minutes wherein the allowed Seth Rollins to stay in the Elimination Chamber! Even with this gaffe, this was very exciting and the closing minutes did enthrall me.

I guess I do have to talk about the final moment of the pay-per-view and the reveal that John Cena has sided with The Rock. Besides the shock of the heel turn, I thought it was just okay. For one, I don’t understand why Travis Scott was with The Rock in the first place. What was the point? Also, as they had to play the entrances for Cody Rhodes and The Rock (and Travis Scott I guess), this was just too long, especially for the closing moments of a pay-per-view! The thing is they couldn’t plug this in the middle as it would derail the shock value of John Cena turning on the fans after his big win. It is what it is.

Overall, I do think this Elimination Chamber is one to be remembered mostly for the John Cena heel turn. I also do have to give special mention on the brutality of the Unsanctioned Match as that was something I’m amazed the WWE allowed. That match wasn’t PG in the slightest! The biggest weakness of the entire show was the Women’s Tag Team match as it really didn’t do anything for fans if you’re not from Toronto. Even so, the good heavily outweighs that one silly misstep.

Byee!

What did you think of this year’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view? Let me know in the comments section below!