WWE Elimination Chamber 2015
Corpus Christi, TX
PRE-SHOW:
ZACK RYDER vs. STARDUST- 6/10
This got a lot more time than most pre-show matches have gotten in recent memory.
LANA IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA LOUNGE- Now she claims she’s not just using Ziggler, even though that’ the exact opposite of what she said on Smackdown. Lana herself was very good here, but this whole turn has come so fast and with so many unanswered questions (like why she is no longer spewing Russian propaganda- she’s the real Russian, not Rusev) that it all just feels phony.
MIZ TV WITH THE SPECIAL GUEST DANIEL BRYAN-
Summer Rae is now introducing Miz for Miz TV. I had totally forgotten that they were now together. Miz is wearing a sleeveless version of the sort of dress I’m sure by great-grandmother used to wear back in the old country.
BRYAN SAYS HIS CAREER ISN’T OVER!
Anyway, Miz was being totally great here, and then they ruined it by bringing out Macho Mando and Curtis AxelMania. Miz first beat the sh*t out of Sandow while Axel just stood and watched. Then Axel distracted Miz so Sandow could recover and Miz got beaten up two-on-one. This was pointless and dumb.
EDEN STYLES INTERVIEWS DEAN AMBROSE- Eden felt like she was reading lines rather than naturally responding to anything. Dean was very good. Roman Reigns showed up. Apparently he is here to help Dean overcome any shenanigans the Authority may engage him… which I assume means that he will accidentally spear Dean and cost him the match.
MAIN SHOW:
ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH FOR THE WWE TAG TEAM TITLES: The New Day(c) vs. The Prime Time Players vs. The Ascension vs. Lucha Dragons vs. Los Matadores (w/El Torito) vs. Upper-Cats (w/Natalya)- DUD!
WHAT THE F*CK?! They’re just going to let Torito sit there lose in the chamber where he can interfere at will? That’s f*cking idiotic! Are they going to let Nattie and the third New Day member in there, too?
Well… Nattie’s not allowed into the cage, but they are going to put all three New Day guys into the cage. THIS IS SOOOOOO DUMB! Why do they get this huge advantage?!
Kalisto’s big spot with the roof-climbing looked so contrived. You could tell that everyone was trying to get underneath him to break his fall. It was, to quote JBL, â€"dumb.â€
Okay… so they throw Woods back into the pod: so what? The door has already been opened. Why can’t he just walk out again? Oh. He can. Well… that was pretty dumb then, wasn’t it?
Yeah… this was not good. At all. There was logic defying stupidity and some tepid action only broken up by a few very contrived spots. Easily the worst Elimination Chamber match in history, and I highly doubt anyone will ever put on a worse one without deliberately trying.
LANA WISHES DOLPH GOOD LUCK- decent.
WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Nikki Bella(c) vs. Naomi vs. Paige- 3.5/10
There were one or two spots that didn’t look good (one involved Paige almost falling on Naomi’s face and the other involved her almost landing right on her neck on Naomi’s back), but the worst part of this was the finish. Nikki has been a boring and bland champion for months now. Meanwhile, both Paige and Naomi have a lot of momentum behind. Why the hell would you have Nikki retain the title here?
JOHN CENA vs. KEVIN OWENS- 8.75/10
YES! Now THAT’S how you make a star in one night! They told a great story with Owens needing to dig deeper and deeper into his bag of tricks to beat John Cena and (here comes the important part) HE EVENTUALLY DID BEAT CENA 100% clean.
BO DALLAS vs. ADRIAN NEVILLE- 4.75/10
Not a bad match, but it felt odd that they barley worked the knee at all, considering that was what this feud has been built around.
HUNTER BANS ROMAN FROM RINGSIDE DURING THE MAIN EVENT- if he shows up, Dean will be DQed.
ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH FOR THE VACANT WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE: Wade Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth vs. Ryback vs. Sheamus vs. Mark Henry- 7.75/10
The idea that Mark Henry is officially in the match just because his pod wall broke is stupid. Sheamus getting himself stick in his pod did a good job of playing off of Barrett’s assault on Truth in the pod earlier.
Sheamus viciously throws Dolph THROUGH the fiberglass (or whatever) wall of the pod… and the announcers all respond by laughing or making jokes. F*cking morons.
This match actually felt more like a series of singles matches, but it worked pretty well.
WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH WITH ROMAN REIGNS BARRED FROM RINGSIDE: Seth Rollins(c) (w/the Authority) vs. Dean Ambrose- 8.25/10
About twenty seconds after Dean was holding the belt, I realized that they were doing a Dusty Finish. I normally hate them, but I’ll cut WWE some slack as I can’t remember the last time they did an actual Dusty Finish (instead of their normal DQ crap). That being said, this was not the best show to do it on as they were trying to use this show to tell people the WWE Network as people don’t like Dusty Finishes, but maybe the angle of Dean stealing the belt will be enough to make first-time subscribers want to stick around for another month and actually pay for it.
The first fifty minutes of this show sucked, but the last two were awesome.
PRE-SHOW:
ZACK RYDER vs. STARDUST- 6/10
This got a lot more time than most pre-show matches have gotten in recent memory.
LANA IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA LOUNGE- Now she claims she’s not just using Ziggler, even though that’ the exact opposite of what she said on Smackdown. Lana herself was very good here, but this whole turn has come so fast and with so many unanswered questions (like why she is no longer spewing Russian propaganda- she’s the real Russian, not Rusev) that it all just feels phony.
MIZ TV WITH THE SPECIAL GUEST DANIEL BRYAN-
Summer Rae is now introducing Miz for Miz TV. I had totally forgotten that they were now together. Miz is wearing a sleeveless version of the sort of dress I’m sure by great-grandmother used to wear back in the old country.
BRYAN SAYS HIS CAREER ISN’T OVER!
Anyway, Miz was being totally great here, and then they ruined it by bringing out Macho Mando and Curtis AxelMania. Miz first beat the sh*t out of Sandow while Axel just stood and watched. Then Axel distracted Miz so Sandow could recover and Miz got beaten up two-on-one. This was pointless and dumb.
EDEN STYLES INTERVIEWS DEAN AMBROSE- Eden felt like she was reading lines rather than naturally responding to anything. Dean was very good. Roman Reigns showed up. Apparently he is here to help Dean overcome any shenanigans the Authority may engage him… which I assume means that he will accidentally spear Dean and cost him the match.
MAIN SHOW:
ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH FOR THE WWE TAG TEAM TITLES: The New Day(c) vs. The Prime Time Players vs. The Ascension vs. Lucha Dragons vs. Los Matadores (w/El Torito) vs. Upper-Cats (w/Natalya)- DUD!
WHAT THE F*CK?! They’re just going to let Torito sit there lose in the chamber where he can interfere at will? That’s f*cking idiotic! Are they going to let Nattie and the third New Day member in there, too?
Well… Nattie’s not allowed into the cage, but they are going to put all three New Day guys into the cage. THIS IS SOOOOOO DUMB! Why do they get this huge advantage?!
Kalisto’s big spot with the roof-climbing looked so contrived. You could tell that everyone was trying to get underneath him to break his fall. It was, to quote JBL, â€"dumb.â€
Okay… so they throw Woods back into the pod: so what? The door has already been opened. Why can’t he just walk out again? Oh. He can. Well… that was pretty dumb then, wasn’t it?
Yeah… this was not good. At all. There was logic defying stupidity and some tepid action only broken up by a few very contrived spots. Easily the worst Elimination Chamber match in history, and I highly doubt anyone will ever put on a worse one without deliberately trying.
LANA WISHES DOLPH GOOD LUCK- decent.
WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Nikki Bella(c) vs. Naomi vs. Paige- 3.5/10
There were one or two spots that didn’t look good (one involved Paige almost falling on Naomi’s face and the other involved her almost landing right on her neck on Naomi’s back), but the worst part of this was the finish. Nikki has been a boring and bland champion for months now. Meanwhile, both Paige and Naomi have a lot of momentum behind. Why the hell would you have Nikki retain the title here?
JOHN CENA vs. KEVIN OWENS- 8.75/10
YES! Now THAT’S how you make a star in one night! They told a great story with Owens needing to dig deeper and deeper into his bag of tricks to beat John Cena and (here comes the important part) HE EVENTUALLY DID BEAT CENA 100% clean.
BO DALLAS vs. ADRIAN NEVILLE- 4.75/10
Not a bad match, but it felt odd that they barley worked the knee at all, considering that was what this feud has been built around.
HUNTER BANS ROMAN FROM RINGSIDE DURING THE MAIN EVENT- if he shows up, Dean will be DQed.
ELIMINATION CHAMBER MATCH FOR THE VACANT WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE: Wade Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth vs. Ryback vs. Sheamus vs. Mark Henry- 7.75/10
The idea that Mark Henry is officially in the match just because his pod wall broke is stupid. Sheamus getting himself stick in his pod did a good job of playing off of Barrett’s assault on Truth in the pod earlier.
Sheamus viciously throws Dolph THROUGH the fiberglass (or whatever) wall of the pod… and the announcers all respond by laughing or making jokes. F*cking morons.
This match actually felt more like a series of singles matches, but it worked pretty well.
WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH WITH ROMAN REIGNS BARRED FROM RINGSIDE: Seth Rollins(c) (w/the Authority) vs. Dean Ambrose- 8.25/10
About twenty seconds after Dean was holding the belt, I realized that they were doing a Dusty Finish. I normally hate them, but I’ll cut WWE some slack as I can’t remember the last time they did an actual Dusty Finish (instead of their normal DQ crap). That being said, this was not the best show to do it on as they were trying to use this show to tell people the WWE Network as people don’t like Dusty Finishes, but maybe the angle of Dean stealing the belt will be enough to make first-time subscribers want to stick around for another month and actually pay for it.
The first fifty minutes of this show sucked, but the last two were awesome.