Iron Will - WWE DVD Review

WWE DVD Review: Iron Will - The history of the Elimination Chamber

By Phil Allely

In 2002 the WWE unveiled the next step in the history of the cage match The Elimination Chamber, a concept that took the old idea of putting men in a cage to end a feud to a whole new level. The cage match gimmick had already proved to be a great move for the WWE as the already proven Hell in a Cell match was a great ratings winner for the company. This addition to the genre was initially a good move for the WWE.

This three disc set looks at the 11 Elimination Chamber matches to date and gives a nice overview of the ominous structure and the damage it can do to a man’s career. The idea of the match was a simple one, six men, one he cage and four plexi-glass pods, two men start off and every few minutes another is released form his pod to join the fray. The idea being that pin falls and submissions would end someone quest until only one remained and he was the winner.

The disc are in chronological order and one trend you can see is that through the years the match itself has become a shadow of its former self, the brutality and bloodshed of earlier ones are now replaced by stunts, high risks and endurance. The blood and violence are of course what we all come to expect from a cage match and one like this where six men are thrust into one with a chance of a title shot or headline match, the reality is that there will be some claret flowing at some point.

So what can you expect from this box set? Well fans of the gimmick match will lap it up for a start, the chamber itself is an unyielding weapon and its used very well and wisely by most who enter it here. The blood flows and you really do sense that many careers are shortened greatly for our viewing pleasure.

The Elimination Chamber matches debut coincided with the return to the ring by wrestling legend Shawn Michaels, after four years in retirement, following serious back surgery the ‘Heartbreak Kid’ returned to the ring after only one previous match to enter the first chamber bout and boy was it a cracker. Michaels showed no signs of ring rust and put forth a show-stopping performance that saw him return to the ring full time until his 2010 permanent retirement.

The other ten matches on offer in this set struggle to match the energy, enthusiasm and violence that the initial one did, but they do try and many of them succeed too. Yes top level guys like Michaels and Triple H are prominent in the bouts here, but that’s not to say they dominate proceedings, there are some nice in-ring moment with Rob Van Dam, Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Batista and Randy Orton in there as well.

Of course amongst the good and the great there are some appearances by such guys as Big daddy V, Great Khali and others who really don’t deserve to be in a match of this magnitude, but you know what it doesn’t matter as they don’t last too long or don’t stand out and mess things up too much anyway.

Along the way we also seem some surprise title changes, a few unexpected moments, Money in the Bank cash-ins and since my fellow countryman Finlay is in there we also get an impromptu Hornswoggle run-in.

One shock is that the previously deleted o events and forgotten Chris Benoit is included in this set, he of course was very prominent in the 2005 Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight title and I’m guessing no matter how we all feel about what Chris did, it really did need to be here in this DVD compilation.

Also featured are the much better than expected Extreme Elimination Chamber match from the December to Dismember PPV (that saw ECW draw one of its final breaths before Paul Heyman left for pastures new), the addition of weapons did spice things up a bit and although Sabu was missing form it the other participants did work hard, Bobby Lashley’s push did shock many, but it kind of worked at the time.

Iron Will is a very worthwhile addition to any DVD collection, many of us will own a few of the events on offer here, only a real diehard may possess them all so collecting the eleven chamber bouts to date like this does make sense and will appeal to many. The presentaion is well done, Todd Grisham makes for a decent host and each match has a nice introduction that helps build the story and make you understand what’s going on, there are also some great little segments with participants such as John Cena and Batista, who talk about the match we’ve just seen or are about to see.

Iron Will is released by Silver Vision on October 18th and is available from www.silvervision.co.uk