It only seem’s like yesterday that I was left in shock at the direction WWE went with on the 1st pay per view of the year with Royal Rumble, But here we are and the 2nd PPV of the year has been and passed. WWE Elimination Chamber. Normally the winner of the main event from here would face the old World Heavy Weight champion at Wrestlemania, This year however Randy Orton would be in the chamber defending his title against 5 others, with the winner then set to face Batista at the main event of Mania.
Kickoff Match – Tag Match – Rhodes Brothers vs Rybaxl
For the 2nd PPV in a row the Rhodes brothers found themselves on the pre show match. This time round though there wasn’t the same air of excitement as there were no titles on the line, or no special appearance from former attitude era stars (other than Goldust himself). It was a nice intro match to kick things off but not outstanding by any means. I think it was always a given the Rhodes would win, But it does confuse things as all indications were a Rhodes feud for Mania, but here they are winning and back on best terms. Anyway.. Average match, face team Rhodes win. wooo!
WWE Intercontinental Title Match – Jack Swagger vs Big E
Not a bad way to start the evening off officially with a bit of gold on the line. Funny to see the decline of Swagger though who this time last year was in World Heavy Weight contention, Now he’s battling for the 2nd title. It was a solid way to start the PPV, Within the first few minutes of the match the crowd were into it chanting “This is Awesome!”, And in fairness seeing Big E run through the ropes to take Swagger off his feet was indeed pretty awesome. A few attempts at Swagger’s ankle lock to keep the crowd guessing, but again another match you could of predicted the outcome. Big E winning the match to keep hold of his IC title. Again can’t fault the match, it was entertaining and kept the crowd entertained.
WWE Tag Team Title Match – The Uso’s vs New Age Outlaws
So i’ll get my prediction out of the way first, I had the Uso’s for this one. I just thought that the Uso’s would be wanted to defend the titles at Mania against another team, perhaps the Wyatt’s or the Rhodes Bro’s again seeing as their split is off the cards. But the actual outcome of Outlaws winning suddenly hit me that these guys are legends and probably have a contract lasting till after Mania, So it made sense that they would retain here to then lose the titles to a team at Mania. More than likely to be the Uso’s. Again another ok match. Crowd were in to it, but nothing exciting to remember. Everyone is highly anticipating Shield Vs Wyatts so any match prior will do well to get fan reaction.
Single Match – Titas O’Neil vs Darren Young
I’m not sure why this match was higher on the card than the 2 title matches before it but never mind. Apparently Titus is annoyed with his former tag partner Darren that they’ve not been winning lately. So Titus believes it’s Darren’s fault so kicks the crap out of him. This is how this match was born. Well the crowd used this match as the toilet break as there was no reaction. In the end Titus won, which I think was expected as he is on a heel run now. Will they go anywhere single? Probably not, can’t see them going to mid card at all. But Vince know’s what he’s doing so let’s just see how it goes. Titus finisher was the most exciting thing of this match.
6 Man Tag Match – Shield vs Wyatt’s
THIS WAS AWESOME. Wow, what a fantastic match. All 6 men in the ring before a punch is thrown and the crowd are going ape shit. And so were we watching it at home. This feud was built up amazing and demonstrates that the WWE can make a rivalry and match worth a damn once in a while. Seth Rollins really put himself in the spot light here with some incredible high risk high flying moves. As expected the ref lost control and all 6 men ended up in a skirmish which also ended up with 4 of them banged up at the side of the ring as Rollins flung himself over the ropes followed by Harper through the ropes into Ambrose. Again to highlight Seth, him going through a table would put him out for the rest of the match. The eventual fight of Bray and Dean who I guess you can consider the leader of each faction fighting into the crowd. It was just incredible. Finally we’re left with the future WWE golden boy Roman Reigns against the 3 members of Wyatts. They did a good job of making Roman look like he could cope on his own, and his barrage of high flying punches and Samoan drops was awesome. Roman powering out of Bray’s finisher again another indication that WWE want to showcase him. Well eventually the numbers got the better of him and he fell to Bray’s finisher. But no one was mad, both these teams gave it everything and the crowd loved every minute of it. A match I’d love to see again on a bigger stage.
Divas Match – Cameron vs AJ Lee
I didn’t watch. Apparently Cameron won because of DQ thus meaning AJ keeps her title again. Crowd were dead. We were almost asleep. But it could get worse…
Singles Match – Alberto Del Rio vs Batista
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Oh here’s Batista. It’s actually not Batista’s fault he’s getting boo’d. It’s the direction that the WWE have thrown Bryan that has resulted into Batista returning at the wrong time. So in some regards I do find it a bit harsh the reaction Batista get’s. But at the same time I’m glad he gets this reaction and I can only hope it’s reaching the back rooms of the company and the business heads see it. Clearly it isn’t though.
So anyway to the match. Del Rio approaches the ring in crutches and neck brace saying he cannot compete tonight. Batista looked revealed as he already looked ‘gassed’ just from his walk to the ring. But in classic heel Del Rio character he then beat the snot out of Batista with the crutches. The crowd…. LOVED IT. Here we have the crowd booing the chosen one for the title at Mania and cheering Del Rio who normally gets such a negative response. This is glorious. During the match the crowd then begin chanting Bootista Bootista! This couldn’t get better. Well as expected Batista wins and the crowd reaction was another barrage of boo’s. It’s to late to change things now, but this reaction for him is surely not what Vince expected. Mania headline event is going to be a boofest… especially because of…
Elimination Chamber – WWE Title – Orton vs Christian vs Cesaro vs Sheamus vs Bryan vs Cena
Yep… They went there, Orton win’s. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The match itself was a really entertaining main event. Cesaro and Christian who you would have as massive underdogs were really impressive. Christian making a high flying dive from the top of a pod being a highlight. I should also mention one of the better crowd chants of the night. Randy Orton decided to return to the safety of his pod to let the other superstars continue to pound on each other. Well the crowd reacted to this with chants of “Pussy Pussy”. Crowd were really on form tonight. Anyway, Sheamus kicked the glass in and got Orton involved into the match.
Sheamus was the first eliminated person which I hadn’t expected. But the match continued on, John Cena looked like making an elimination but the Wyatt music hit, the lights went out and Cena was beaten to a pulp by the Wyatt’s. So there is your Cena vs Bray for Mania confirmed. Anyway Orton took the pin and Cena was gone. Kane came down to get rid of the Wyatt’s, And Bryan beat on Kane. And this is when the predictability kicked in. Although Kane was down for a while and left Bryan and Orton to fight it out as you would expect when Bryan is about to make the win Kane pulled the ref off Bryan. Bryan then went on to try and finish Orton again only for Kane to cause a distraction and Orton to hit him with an RKO. 1-2-3…. BOOOOOO! Orton wins….
And that ladies and gentlemen is how the WWE haven’t paid any attention to the backlash of fans from Rumble and continue to carry on with their fingers in their ears pretending people like what they are doing.
It’s starting to become rather frustrating. I just hope that the Bryan hype doesn’t die down before they finally give him the chance (if they give him one at all).
Mania is going to be an interesting and awkward event. The main event of Batista vs Orton looks set to go down as one of the worst received matches ever. And it looks like Bryan vs Kane will defiantly on the cards too. The only hope is perhaps they’ll throw Bryan into a triple threat match with Orton and Batista, but it doesn’t seem likely to happen.
Roll on WWE Network launch tonight and Mania in April
– Murr
