No Way Out of the Elimination Chamber: Returning relevance to the Road to WrestleMania
by mountaineers101 on Feb 20, 2012 3:00 PM EST
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After watching last night's (Sun., Feb. 19, 2012) Elimination Chamber, I've concluded the pay-per-view is dead in the water. What was once a unique Eric Bischoff "original" has become an overused match that contains a few stars that are barely more than cannon fodder.
That is not to say that the match can't be done right, of course. Last night's RAW Chamber was a hell of a match, but you must look at the rarity of the workers within it. You had the perfect combination with guys like Jericho, Ziggler, and Punk. (Side note: Ziggler could sell death better than if he was actually dying.) You had guys who can put on a solid, if not tolerable, in-ring performance with some decent acrobatics in R-Truth and Kingston. Even Miz didn't do as dreadful as expected.
However, the Smackdown Chamber was nothing short of ho-hum until Santino and Daniel Bryan's square-off at the end. Save for Big Show ripping off the roof of Daniel Bryan's pod to get at him, there really wasn't anything noteworthy. No one was over except for Marella and Bryan and that showed, as the crowd wasn't into the match until that final stanza. Even as someone who might be the biggest detractor of Santino's cheesy comedic shtick, the match-up between he and Bryan at the end was nothing short of entertaining.
Save for a great Divas match between the stellar Beth Phoenix and an ever-improving Tamina, this pay-per-view didn't deliver a lot of bang for our buck. Is there a solution to the saturation point of the Elimination Chamber?
WWE needs to get away from match-centric pay-per-views with events like Hell in a Cell, Elimination Chamber, and Tables, Ladders, and Chairs. What once were special matches that fans could mark out over when the concept would be announced has become a predictable annual experience that has delivered matches where the confines of the Cell or the Elimination Chamber aren't entirely necessary.
In my usual curmudgeonly fashion, I recall a time where February meant something. No Way Out always delivered a pay-per-view worthy of the hefty price tag for viewing. It captured the setups and beginnings of feuds that would go into WrestleMania.
It also helped build hype for the WWE's biggest show, so performers had to go all-out in their performances. Some classics went down at this event. With matches like Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar, The Rock vs. Kurt Angle, Jericho vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Rock vs. Hulk Hogan, there was always some excitement that helped make the "Road to Wrestlemania" a little more fun for the fans.
In addition to the classics this event delivered, the event also gave the WWE an avenue to put on some unique matches, for better or worse. You had your barnburners like the Three Stages of Hell bout between Triple H and Stone Cold or the Cell match between Cactus Jack and "The Game." Then you had your barbed-wire steel cage matches between John Bradshaw Layfield and Big Show.
Regardless of crazy stipulations, the unpredictable nature of No Way Out always kicked off your path to Wrestlemania in an interesting way. With an event and match like Elimination Chamber slowly becoming stale and overused, why not go back?
Or is there No Way Out of these gimmick events?
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.
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Look at the names you listed above. Rock, Angle, Austin, Jericho, HHH, Cactus Jack, Hogan, Lesnar, Eddie. Those are all-time greats. Go back ten years or so and picture and Elimination Chamber match of Lesnar vs HHH vs Austin vs Jericho vs Angle vs Eddie. Or really any combo of those 6 guys would suffice. Or even an EC with just 3 or 4 of those huge stars and 2 lesser names would still be amazing. Would you really have little interest in seeing those matches?
The main problem right now is that most of the talent are not big stars like those older guys were. If WWE actually made guys like Dolph, Kofi, Barrett, Rhodes, etc look like big stars over the last couple of years then the EC’s yesterday would have seemed way more epic. If the WWE did a better job of making main event stars, then throwing a bunch of them in the EC would produce some epic results, as it has in the past. Think about how fun an EC of Cena vs Rey vs Punk vs Orton vs Bryan vs Jericho would be. If WWE could get a few more stars closer to the level of most of those guys, I don’t think there would be so many complaints about the EC PPV concept.
I think that’s the real problem here. If not EC yesterday, what PPV lineup would you have preferred given the current roster that would have been so much better? Punk vs who? Bryan vs who? Jericho vs who? How would your ideal PPV scenario have been so much better than what was delivered yesterday? Sorry if I am coming off like a dick here. I’m just not so sure what amazing show they could have pulled off yesterday given the current roster and the lack of Orton, ADR, Rey, and Christian from performing right now, as well as the super shitty Cena/Kane storyline.
You could have split the respective lineups in the Chamber into some workable matches, I’m sure. Or at least kept Great Khali off my screen for as long as possible.
We are Ruining Your Special Night, motherfuckers!
Read my stuff over at Gals Guide to MMA!
by mountaineers101 on Feb 20, 2012 2:43 PM EST up reply actions
In other words, you listed some compelling matches above such as Rock/Angle, Eddie/Lesnar, Rock/Hogan, etc.
So what I’m wondering is what match would have fit in right there alongside those matches that we missed out on yesterday because a bunch of dudes were instead thrown into chamber matches? What was the amazing epic match one-on-one match that we missed out on due to the presence of the EC gimmick?
Raw did well with the Elimination Chamber...
But SD would have been better served with a blow-off to the Bryan-Big Show feud. Cody Rhodes could have had a great match for his IC belt, perhaps with Santino. Khali…should have just stayed home.
Time to spread a little chaos...
Really, there was never a need for a gimmick PPV except for One Night Stand/Extreme Rules
And that’s not really a gimmick so much as a different type of wrestling. Of course, even that went to hell as each match wasn’t always an extreme rules match.
But PPVs like No Way Out, Bad Blood, Vengeance, Unforgiven, and the other PPVs that are no longer out there were fine in general. You had a generic name that was good enough for a WWE PPV and then you could throw in an Elimination Chamber or a Hell in a Cell into those PPVs to help sell it while not backing yourself into a corner of having to use that match. Hell in a Cell for example would only need to be used when you have a long running feud that is ready for a strong finish. Elimination Chamber matches are always fun, but it would be a lot better if you actually had at least 3 or 4 guys who have a legitimate reason to be given a title shot.
I agree on Extreme Rules.
There’s much more you can do with the concept of various different “hardcore” matches (well, if you go by strict definitions of matches like “Falls Count Anywhere” and “No Holds Barred”, anyway). ECs and HIACs have little in the way of variation.
Time to spread a little chaos...
who atm in wwe is a top main event star?
obviously cm punk, cena, orton. after that? sheamus, bryan are too.
now tbf to wwe they would have had henry and orton in the match. but they got injured beforehand.
but if you lose a star you replace with a star of equal quality. which wwe dont really have atm.
should get rid of the elimination chamber ppv anyway….have the match concept as part of surivivor series. 1 match. possibly with the champion involved. could not and has it as a winner becomes no.1 contender type match.
having a ppv between royal rumble and wrestlemania is a silly idea.
I think ideally the gimmick matches should arrive as natural progressions of feuds. In other words, there would be no set month where you are guaranteed to always get a TLC match or a HIAC match or an EC match. I think the HIAC is the main gimmick match that has been hurt by this set schedule, as HIAC works much better if there is a really strong and bitter rivalry going on between two stars. For example, Christian/Orton this summer warranted a HIAC payoff but it wasn’t October so it never happened. Instead we got Henry/Orton at HIAC, which was a feud that didn’t warrant the gimmick.
I don’t think it is silly at all to have a PPV between Rumble and Mania. This is the time of year where wrestling fans are most hyped up about what’s going on. Skipping out on a pay show in the middle of that frenzied time, from WWE’s perspective, would be bad business. I don’t think Mania’s buyrate is going to suffer too much due to the last few weeks that were spent gearing towards EC instead of Mania.
I actually like the EC as its own PPV. It’s stupid that it comes in February between RR and WM, but as a concept, it should be one of those things like RR in that “it’s that time of year.” I agree about most gimmick matches being the “natural progression of feuds,” but what feud naturally progresses to the point where you have to stick six guys in a big cage with four pods in it?
by The so-called Beautiful on Feb 20, 2012 6:25 PM EST up reply actions
i agree with you about the no set time to have any of the gimmick matches
think it would just do better as part of survivor series. where either 1 champion or the other is involved. 1 of the problems for wwe and their multiple man gimmick matches so MITB, elimination chamber. is why is for example cody or wade involved in the sd chamber? there was no qualifying for any participants, was for santino due to the injured randy. has been like this for 2 years i think tho. same for royal rumble, same for MITB ppv….that supposedly going to be a part of mania again.
so with elimination chamber. they need to decide which champion is going to defend their title in the match. could have a match/series of matches between champions to determine who will be in the chamber. then need to determine whos going to be in the match….that needs qualifying. then need to decide when the wrestler is going to be introduced eg will he be in a pod or start the match off……simple idea for that beat the clock challenge.
they did at once have qualifying matches for these matches. but then wwe got lazy. would get more ppl interested if the wrestler’s were actually competing to be in the match. wwe concentrate on having 1 major thing to talk about only at a time. should make ppl think about several storylines at once imo. and it looks like they may just do it for mania, cena rock, jericho punk, sheamus bryan, hhh taker(despite how over done it is).
however none of this involves the tag champs, the IC champ, US champ or even the divas. divas should be a talking point with beth and kharma….but wwe dont seem to know how to book women.
as for the reason to have it at survivor series…well the idea is to survive the chamber. in fact wwe could do with cutting down on a few ppv. only really need mania, rumble, summerslam, survivor series, extreme rules and night of champions imo.
by wrestlingfan12 on Feb 20, 2012 6:56 PM EST up reply actions
It does seem kind of odd that nobody had to do anything to qualify for the EC matches, other than Santino. Maybe that was due to the lack of time between Rumble and EC. What was it, 3 weeks?
have had that sort of thing in the past tho
wwe seem to have given up on being competitive. we’ll see with mania and if it has MITB back with rhodes, barrett, kofi, miz, ziggler, and either 3 or 5 others.
by wrestlingfan12 on Feb 20, 2012 8:38 PM EST up reply actions
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