So last night was Elimination Chamber, the final stop on
the road to Wrestlemania and man did it in impress in my opinion!
It all started with the WWE Championship Chamber. My
support was on Ziggler throughout.
Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be, but while in the
match he performed brilliantly as well as taking some great hits to the steel
grating being thrown over the ropes multiple times throughout.
Punk and Kofi started the match off in a great opener,
Dolph was first to join in showing off his skills, Truth next who didn’t really
leave a great impact on the match, and he was eliminated first by CM Punk.
Miz entered next and soon found himself in the Anaconda
Vice. It looked to be all over for the Awesome Superstar when Jericho entered
and Punk and Jericho came face to face.
The two men became the focus fighting hard and giving us
a preview of what may come at Mania.
Ziggler came back into the fray to receive a Code Breaker
from Jericho, Eliminating him from the match.
A beaten down Kofi who may have bleeding, (ref stuck some
medical gloves on, either someone was bleeding or he was about to give someone
a rectal exam.) came back into play flying off the top of a pod onto Miz and
Punk, but was soon wrapped up in a painful looking Walls of Jericho. With
Jericho’s knee in the back of his head Kofi had no choice but to tap.
The punishment didn’t end there though as Jericho
continued to punish the man until he finally chucked him out the Chamber.
Just as the door was closing Jericho received a kick to
the head from Punk, sending him out of the Chamber and knocking a camera man
down with the door.
At first this all looked like part of the act but then as
it dragged out it seemed more real. EMT’s came down to check on Jericho as the
replays where repeated from various angles. It was then that you can see that
Jericho did hit his head pretty hard on his way down. He was obviously meant to
fall out but maybe not land in the way he did.
A slightly lost Punk contemplated how to play this out
until things finally moved on.
Jericho was ruled out of the match leaving Miz and Punk
to fight it out and after a few close calls it was Punk that walked away
victorious.
Later we saw Josh Matthews back stage with Jericho in the
background being still attended to by the medics.
So the main thing on my mind is, was this a legit injury
or a very well performed piece in the match? If it is a real injury I don’t
think it was overly serious as Jericho wasn’t taken to any nearby medical
facilities or Hospital and was attended to at the arena.
Hopefully it will turn out to be a minor concussion, weather
real or scripted, and therefore won’t affect the storyline too badly and
leaving our hopes for Jericho vs. Punk at Mania intact.
Next up came a quite impressive and long Divas match
between two of the top Women in WWE today.
Beth Phoenix and Tamina put together a great filler
match, best Divas match of recent years. Unfortunately the crowd didn’t hold it
up being there usual quiet and boring selves and it made this impressive
contest seem lacklustre.
The match saw some solid wrestling, some out of ring
action as well as a Tamina flying off the turnbuckle and a Glam Slam from Beth.
Tamina’s flight from the top landed flush but Beth kicked
out, a Glam Slam later and Beth retains her Divas title hopefully lining up a
Kharma vs. Beth Mania match.
Before the second Chamber match we had a special
announcement from John Laurinaitis. It wasn’t an announcement though it was a
group of Heel Wrestlers appealing for John to be both Raw and Smackdown GM.
Superstars that appeared to support John were Alberto Del Rio, Mark Henry and
Christian.
With David Otunga already present the men spoke about how
they would want Teddy out and John in as SmackDown GM as well as Raw. Otunga
then used his phone snap a picture of the group that soon appeared on Twitter
and wwe.com.
Then we entered the oddest Chamber matches we have ever
seen yet an exciting one. Throughout the event back stage clips have been shown
promoting Santino Marella in a Rocky Balboa style to the music of former
Superstar Eugene. That being said it didn’t really promote him well as it was
quite silly but once we got to the match all that was forgotten.
The match started with Wade Barrett and Big Show, first
to join them was Cody Rhodes turning things into a Triple Threat giving us all
high hopes for any of these guys to win.
Next in was the underdog, the shocker entry from a
SmackDown Battle Royal, Santino Marella.
He didn’t get eliminated but he didn’t do much else as he
was quickly squashed and put on the side line for most of the match.
Khali was next in and was first out as Big Show took the
Punjabi Playboy out with a well-placed spear.
By now Show had enough of waiting and wanted Daniel Bryan
and wasn’t waiting till his pod opened.
Big Show climbed the turnbuckle in front of Bryans pod
then attempted to reach inside but of course was stopped by the chains. So what
was the simple solution? Well obviously to rip them chains and climb inside
anyway, which Big Show did. Big Show climbed into Bryans pod and pounded on the
Champ as the countdown played and the pod door opened giving the men some room
to fight.
It didn’t take long though for Bryan to end up back in
the pod he came from as Show throws the man through the now closed door
breaking the glass and landing back inside.
Bryan was then saved for now by Barrett who with the help
of Cody was able to remove the big man from the match. It was then that Marella
jumped in and with a sneak roll up took out Rhodes to leaving Bryan, Barrett
and Marella.
Barrett removed Santino back to the side lines and turned
his focus to Bryan who received an awkward Power Bomb into the chained wall and
then sat on a turnbuckle and his head bashed into the glass of the pod behind
him.
Marella suddenly returned to life taking Wade’s attention
away from the champ, once the two men were down Bryan flue from the top
turnbuckle with a Chris Benoit style head-butt to Wade and Marella crawled in
for the cover eliminating the Brit.
So it was down to the most unlikely of all people Santino
Marella and Daniel Bryan in what was an amazing ending to the match.
The crowd was on fire as all support was on Santino and I
was on the edge of my seat wanting the impossible to happen.
It was a close one as the two men put on a great show
filled with Santinos flair and style and the appearance of the Cobra.
The Cobra actually hit Bryan making it look like it was
all over, the crowd were going wild as the Ref counted but it wasn’t meant to
be as Bryan kicked out at the last minute.
Santino was in shock and before he knew it Bryan had
twisted him, Cobra and all, into the LeBell lock. Santino put up a hell of a
fight and the crowd was going wild as he struggled to escape and almost did but
on this night it just wasn’t meant to be, Santino was forced to tap.
Even though he didn’t win Santino showed that his in ring
skills were up to par with those top superstars, if it wasn’t for his silly
gimmicks he would be there more often. I hope he continues heading up the
ladder to success.
It wasn’t over for Bryan though as Sheamus came to the
ring laid out Bryan with a Celtic Cross, signalling his opponent for April 1st.
After an impromptu and pointless, crowd killing US Title
match between Justin Gabriel and Jack Swagger we headed into the main event.
The Ambulance match between Kane and John Cena, a match
with an absolutely obvious ending that if you didn’t see coming you are blinded
by what you want to happen, instead of thinking of what will happen.
Even though we all knew Cena would win the road to that
moment was an entertaining one. The two men fought from the ring to the
ambulance, through the crowd, around the announcers table and back again.
Key moments were a monitor to Kane’s head followed by the
steel steps, John Cena receiving a Choke Slam through the Spanish Announcers
table, (is it ever there for anything else?) and Kane being thrown from the top
of the Ambulance via an Attitude Adjustment. Obviously from the way he flew and
sound on his landing said that Kane landed on either a crash mat or a load of Card
board boxes which the fans on the nearby stands should of got a good look of so
I am keeping my eyes out for pictures on the web.
It was the Attitude Adjustment that took the monster
down, dragging his body back Cena threw the Big Red Machine in the back of the
Ambulance closed the doors and sent it away.
The final image of the night being Cena pointing at the
Wrestlemania sign as we should now start the build-up for Rock vs. Cena.
I rate this PPV 4 out of 5 stars, it was a great show and
entertained throughout but whenever a Chamber, Cell, or Cage is involved I feel
that there should some R rated content which of course we don’t get, that will
always cost them at least half a star in my books.
Undertaker on
Raw
Word is that Undertaker will be on tonight’s Raw and most
probably sporting his new look, from what I’m told the man is completely bald.
How will this affect the fans though? Can we relate to it? I am hoping we will
be greeting the more Human side of the Undertaker character as he hopefully
turns back into Bad Ass Undertaker or at least something close to it.
Questions for
you.
What did you think of the event?
Do you think Jericho is or was Injured?
Predictions for Mania?
What will be the result of Undertakers new look?
That’s all for now Matty.D signing off.
