WWE Pay-Per View Review: Elimination Chamber 2012

WWE Pay-Per View Review: Elimination Chamber 2012


Elimination Chamber is one of the last events in the WWE calendar before the company’s biggest show of the year WrestleMania. It is also usually the show where some of Mania’s final pieces fall into place, feuds can end, ones can ignite and in some cases even new champions can be crowned.

2012’s Chamber PPV kicked off with the Raw cage match for the WWE Title, here as per the stipulation form last week’s TV show Chris Jericho would be the final man to enter the fray (thus being the freshest participant) .His opponents were Champion Cm Punk, Kofi Kingston, The Miz, R Ttruth and Dolph Ziggler. Kingston and Punk starting things off, the match began to heat up nicely as the in-ring numbers swelled. All the guys on hand worked hard here, picking up 2 counts and ramping up the tension where they could. Jericho made an impact in this one, eliminating Ziggler and Kingston before he took a nasty knock to the floor from Punk. Thus leaving Y2J unable to continue the bout.

The finish came as final two Miz and Punk traded near-falls, the champ nailing a good looking GTS to retain his belt.

Next up Beth Phoenix defended her Divas Title against Tamina Snuka. The daughter of WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka tried her best here, but she was no match for the over-powering strength of the reigning champ. Phoenix won with a decent looking Glam Slam out of the corner.

Before the Smackdown Elimination Chamber match former World Champion Christian made his return in a reasonable stoyline spot alongside Teddy Long, John Laurinaitis and Alberto Del Rio.

The Chamber scrap for the World Heavyweight Title then saw a mixed bag of competitors enter the steel structure. They were World Champion Daniel Bryan, Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes, The Great Khali, Wade Barrett, The Big Show and shock entrant Santino Marella.

The match worked reasonably well considering Khali was involved, Marella fast became the fan favourite and although true talent like Rhodes and Bryan shone through it soon became apparent that comedy character Santino was the man many wanted to win this encounter.

This result seemed a possibility as the pins began to occur, with Bryan and Marella left as the last two men standing. It wasn’t to be however as Bryan locked in the La bell lock for the tap out win to keep his gold.

Post-match Sheamus attacked Bryan to set-up their future feud.

The United States Title encounter between Champion Jack Swagger and Justin Gabriel was an ok affair, both men gelling well and taking opportunities to showcase their talent when available. Swagger overcame this challenge relatively easily though, using the ankle lock on a weakened Gabriel to hang on to his strap.

The main event saw John Cena take Kane on in a match perfectly suited to the ‘Big Red Machine’ an Ambulance Match. This was a reasonable if not overly exciting way to round things off though. His one featured everything from outside the ring fighting and weapons shots to the now customary trip through the Spanish announcers table. Both men attempted their finishers and Cena eventually succeeded, this move was marred slightly as Kane’s landing was hidden from our view.

Cena was then able to pull his prone opponent into the back of the waiting ambulance to take the win.

Elimination Chamber was an OK event, we didn’t see any title changes and some of the roster seemed to be thrown into the matches to make up numbers. The chamber matches may be losing their fan appeal, or perhaps it was simply their place on the card that lacked that vital spark a cage match usually brings with it. The often mentioned lack of blood or overtly violent behaviour also diminishes a cage matches drawing power.

Roll on WrestleMania.

By Phil Allely