Elimination Chamber Review

Hello! It's another Review- and it's the 1st of June *pinch, punch first of the month- no returns*. Anyway we're here for another PPV Review, these are coming pretty much every fortnight now with Money in the Bank in a few weeks. I was genuinely excited for this "PPV" there were enough combustible elements in both Chamber Matches to fill me with hope that they'd deliver, and then we had the obvious stand outs with Owens v Cena and Ambrose v Rollins which would hopefully put the cherry on top of the cake. So without further adieu, let's get right into it.

Actually, before I start- I'm sorry for Yesterday- you might have seen me plugging away on Twitter as always and wanted to read my Predictions only to end up on my First ever Post. All I can say is I'll try my best so it doesn't happen again, and thanks to all of you who did read my Predictions anyway.

Pre-Show: Stardust v Zack Ryder
Stardust is becoming the king of the unannounced Pre-Show match. It's not that this match was bad- all the bits were good and in the right order; but the fact there was literally zero build for this match, combined with the fact half the crowd were still buying Booze and Hot Dogs when it was happening stopped me from really getting into the match.

Pre-Show: MizTV w/ Daniel Bryan
Miz was dressed as a Black Widow presumably to mourn the slow and painful death of this segment. I like Bryan, I like Miz- I usually like Bryan and Miz together, but for whatever reason this just didn't really click for me. It might be because it was possibly the most generic "Boo Me" Promo from Miz who is capable of a lot more- or the fact it was possibly the most generic "Cheer Me" Promo from Bryan where it goes without saying he is capable of a lot more. In short this Segment was so Generic, Generico was popping left, right and centre in the Mexican Orphanage. Then we had the Mega Powers show up to clear house and that was the "Pull the Plug" moment for the segment. The less said about it the better.

Tag Title Chamber Match
Yes, I'm too lazy to write out all of the teams names again. A Common theme throughout this PPV and it's something I've said repeatedly across many, many months of doing these- I always want a segment/PPV to succeed. If you don't then you might as well give up. I really had high hopes for this Chamber Match, because the Tag Division- Specifically New Day and KiddSaro have been consistently delivering every week. That said this match turned into such a cluster it wasn't even funny. A Tag Chamber sounds good in theory- but let's just say I hope there isn't a repeat. Having so many people in such a small space just didn't work- and the supposed "Oh My God" spots specifically from the likes of Kalisto took ages to set up to the point you didn't really care about it. The only real highlight for me was when New Day pulled Kalisto's foot into their pod and started doing the Lucha Arm thing, and for a Chamber Match that's unacceptable in my book.

Nikki Bella v Naomi v Paige- Divas Title
No.

Kevin Owens v John Cena
This is where I may get some abuse, and hey- everyone is entitled to their opinion. I liked this match, I really liked it. BUT it was no way Match of the Year as seemingly everyone is saying. For me a truly great match can only be called great when the crowd are sucked along for the ride and add to it. I'll always cite Rock v Hogan as the prime example, if you watch it on Mute it's awful- if you watch it with the crowd you get goosebumps and it's a classic match. I don't rate matches, because I fundamentally disagree with giving out stars because people tend to look at the star rating and move on and they don't see how you arrived to said star rating which after all is the point of doing a Review. That said for me this was a 4* Match. All the bits were there- they just weren't elevated to that next level and made truly special by the crowd. I do think some people saying "Match of the Year" are slightly clouded by the fact the Owens pinned Cena clean- you only have to see my Reaction when it happened to see how mental I was going, but I've calmed down from that now and without wanting to insult anyone I'm perhaps more level-headed than they were.

A Couple of other tiny issues I had with this match- but these are really nitpicking. False Finishes when used right add to the drama of a match- but for me they were slightly overused during this match. Then we get onto more of a character issue. Owens is pretty much the best Heel going at the minute- in fact he's such a heel people were actually cheering Cena, that in itself is a massive accomplishment. His whole character is based on doing stuff for his family and nobody else, so I don't get why he's doing Senton's and Moonsaults. Yes, it pops the crowd- but surely that's exactly why Owens shouldn't be doing it? Owens will hopefully have plenty of time in WWE to bring out the variety in his offence- and for me this wasn't the time. But as I said this is nitpicking.

In short, I really liked the match- but I do think some people are going overboard with their praise of it.

Neville v Bo Dallas
This was all a bit "meh". Unless I missed something which is possible given I was spending nearly all my time looking at my Tweetdeck and going mental about Owens- Bo didn't work the leg at any stage of the match, it was nothing really- it just had the entire build focused on it. I wanted Neville to win for my Predictions/Accumulator but I really wanted Bo to win because it would have made him a lot more interesting. Anyway I suppose that was too much to ask.

IC Title Chamber Match
I didn't really like the Tag Chamber Match because it became a bit of a cluster. I point blank hated this one because it was stupid. It was annoying me to a lesser extent in the Tag Chamber, but why the hell would the guys involved be breaking up pins? Did I miss something or has the definition of "Elimination" changed? Then when you factor in the match was completely devoid of something resembling excitement. I like the majority of the guys that were in the Chamber because they work "stiff"- so why they didn't just go out and beat the hell out of each other I don't really know. I wanted Spears through Pods I wanted this match to single handedly cut the Ring Crews dismantling time of the Chamber in Half. I like Ryback, but he isn't the guy to get the Belt for me. People were questioning how he even got into the Chamber seeing as how he lost to Bray 2 Weeks ago- and now he's Champion? I'm interested to see where Ryback goes- and I hope it works, but as I'm writing this I can't see how Ryback who's lost to almost everyone of note in WWE is going to elevate the Belt.

Seth Rollins v Dean Ambrose- WWEWHC Match
Right. I'm going to try not to rant- because I think two rants in less than a week will somewhat diminish their meaning. So, Sorry you're not going to get a Rant. I suppose the simple thing you have to ask is... Why? They massively booked themselves into a Corner firstly by having no stipulation to the match. This was supposedly a blood feud, which is I suppose why it was confined to the rules of a normal wrestling match. I just zoned out for this match. I knew exactly what was happening I just had absolutely no reaction to any of it. Then it happened. Why? I don't see any logical reason as to why they did it. I don't get why they couldn't have just had Rollins win with Shenanigans which would do exactly the same and leave it open for a Rematch at Money in the Bank without annoying pretty much everybody watching. People's gut reaction to what happened wouldn't have been "You Know I want to Change my Free Subscription into a Paid one" it would have been then just turning their TV off and going off on one. For the End of the Chamber PPV which if reports are to be believed was done so people would extend their Subscription over to June- it had pretty much the exact opposite effect. I don't know if this is classed as a rant, you be the judge- at least I avoided mention of Werner Herzog this time.

Thanks for reading as always, I think in terms of expectation and reality this is the most disappointed I've been with a "PPV" in a while. But like the good little soldier I am I'll be sacrificing yet more sleep to watch RAW tonight so I hope you tag along on Twitter- and then stay tuned for the RAW Review tomorrow. Impact Reviews will be here on Thursday to correspond with the move. I'm tempted to do a Bumper Wednesday Review so covering Impact, Lucha Underground, NXT and ROH all in one Review on Thursday. But I'll wait for your opinions on that before I commit to it. Thanks again for reading, and let's go into RAW with a positive attitude despite how tricky that may be.