‘WWE Elimination Chamber 2015’ – Results & Review

WWE decided, in their infinite wisdom, to hold another WWE PPV/Special Event in the month of May, meaning that in just over a month’s space there will have been three WWE supershows. Still, this has potential to be something special, so even though it is a bit of overkill, it’s interesting. With matches featuring many young and hungry talent as well as long-term main eventers, this is an event that could very well be a stepping stone towards an era of the NXT-bred talent solidifying themselves as big stars on the main roster.

The Kick-off show featured some talk from the Renee Young hosted panel, plus a Miz-TV segment with Daniel Bryan, in which Bryan said he wasn’t through with in-ring competition. The opening match on the pre-show/Kick-off show was a random one-on-one between Stardust and Zack Ryder. This was the kind of match you’d see on Main Event, Superstars, Smackdown or RAW any week of the year. Nothing more. Stardust hit his new finisher, “The Queens Crossbow” for the victory.

Winner: Stardust

The main show began, and Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and JBL welcome us to Corpus Christi, Texas for Elimination Chamber 2015. The first match of the main event was the first of two Chamber matches, this one being for the WWE Tag Team Championships. The Prime Time Players, Los Matadores, Cesaro & Kidd and The New Day entered the pods in the chambers, and The Ascension and The Lucha Dragons kicked things off in the ring. The match was fun, high impact and featured some very exciting spots from various guys. Kalisto climbed to the top of the chamber at one point and dove onto his opponents below, making it the first time I’d seen that spot happen. Kidd and Cesaro shone as the best team in the match, but it wasn’t long before the teams dwindled as The Lucha Dragons, Los Matadores and The Ascension were eliminated. The final two teams were The New Day and The Prime Time Players, surprisingly, with The New Day eventually picking up the win and retaining their Tag Titles. A very fun and enjoyable match with a rather predictable outcome.

Winners: The New Day

Next up was the WWE Diva’s Title Match between Champion Nikki Bella, Paige and Naomi in a triple-threat match. The match wasn’t bad and was allotted a decent amount of time, but with how damn good the NXT women’s wrestling matches are, this paled in comparison and so just didn’t do much for me. This was just a “fine” WWE main-roster women’s match. Nikki hits her “Rack-attack” finish on Naomi for the victory.

Winner: Nikki Bella

The third match of the show was perhaps the most anticipated. WWE US Champion and 16-time World Champion John Cena took on NXT Champion and 15 year veteran, Kevin Owens. The build for this match has been very good, and has protected Owens from being squashed or undermined by Cena or the announce-team. The match itself was very good, thanks mostly to Owens, and the two hit their big moves on each other, and kicked out of them. Cena hit his springboard stunner, his AA finish, his inappropriate-in-a-PG-environmently-named Five Knuckle Shuffle, and Owens kicked out of them all. Owens hit his Pop-up Powerbomb, his swanton bomb, and a cradle powerbomb, only for Cena to to kick out. At the end of the match though, Owens hit another Pop-up Powerbomb and pinned Cena in the middle of the ring, cleanly, and strongly, defeating the face of WWE in his first main-roster match. Now WWE needs to avoid crushing Owens and feeding him to Cena, they have a chance to make a star who could rival Brock Lesnar with the right build, possibly even being able to go up against “The Beast” in the future.

Winner: Kevin Owens

NXT alumni and one of the best wrestlers in the world, Neville, took on Bo Dallas next in a grudge match and a rematch of sorts based on their enjoyable feud in NXT over a year ago. This was a decent match, though Neville has potential to deliver far better, and Dallas could be much better with a tweak to his character and some new ring attire. Still, this was good, and Neville hit his awesome Red Arrow corkscrew shooting-star-press for the victory, making a Bo-liever out of Dallas in the process. Har har har.

Winner: Neville

The second and final Chamber match was up next for the vacant (due to Daniel Bryan forfeiting the belt due to injury) Intercontinental Championship. Rusev was supposed to be in this match but suffered an ankle injury last week, and so he was replaced by the young, vibrant, exciting and hungry…. Oh wait, no, he was replaced by the over-the-hill, boring and sluggish Mark Henry. Also in the match were Ryback, Sheamus and R-Truth, with Dolph Ziggler and King Barrett kicking things off in the ring. Ziggler and Barrett started things off well and the match was enjoyable in the early-going, but as things went on, the match lost its focus and became disjointed and peculiar. There seemed to be some errors that weren’t planned, such as Sheamus’ pod being stuck for far too long, and Mark Henry’s pod door being smashed in, letting him out early. These things looked unplanned due to the shit-the-bed look on the performer’s faces as they had to adapt to the changes in the match. This led to a very disappointing brawl in which everyone was eliminated leaving Ryback and Sheamus in the final two. Ryback hit his Shell-shock finisher on Sheamus for the victory, winning his first single’s title in WWE in the process. After the match Daniel Bryan entered the ring and handed the I-C Title to Ryback and congratulated him as the fans chanted “Yes” and “Feed Me More”.

Winner: Ryback

Finally, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was on the line as Seth Rollins defended his title against “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose. The match was a fun mix of technical work and brawling between two guys who have chemistry as both partners and opponents. The fans popped loudly for Ambrose, and booed Seth, who has grown into a magnificent villain. The usual Authority suspects got involved in the match, and eventually Rollins pulled the referee in to harm’s way, knocking him out. Ambrose his his “Dirty Deeds” finish, and another referee appeared and counted the 1, 2, 3, declaring Dean Ambrose as the new WWE World Champion, but soon the other referee woke up and reversed the decision, saying that Rollins was disqualified, meaning that Ambrose won, but Seth retained his WWE World Title. The fans chanted “bullshit” as Ambrose left with the belt through the crowd, after he and Roman Reigns cleared the ring of The Authority. The facial expressions of Rollins’ face at the end of this match were incredible, and insane. Just google it, it’s hilarious.

Winner: Dean Ambrose via DQ. Seth Rollins still WWE World Champion

So, that’s the end of Elimination Chamber 2015. A solid PPV event and the first WWE PPV to be exclusive to the WWE Network. The Owens/Cena match was great and the outcome was the right one, and an exciting one. The tag chamber match was fun and exciting and a great opener. The main event was also enjoyable and had a finish that leaves the feud open to a rematch. The I-C match was very disappointing though, and I’m not sure the right guy won. Still, there was plenty to be happy about at the end of this show, and this was a great reason to pay 9.99 a month for the Network.

Show Grade: 7.5/10

Until next time.