ELIMINATION CHAMBER is usually a highlight on the road to Wrestlemania — but this was more of a detour.
The Raw chamber match kicked proceedings off, pitting WWE champion CM Punk against Chris Jericho, The Miz, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler.
The bout was slightly clunky to begin with, but all participants worked hard and took some daring bumps in a strong 32-minute opener.
R-Truth was the first man eliminated, pinned by CM Punk after a Randy Savage tribute elbow.
When Jericho entered, the focus was largely on him and he was responsible for taking out Ziggler with a Codebreaker then Kofi with a Lion Tamer.
As he roughed up Kofi post-fall, he threw him through the door. Upon turning back to the ring, he was kicked by Punk, and took a dive to the outside via a cameraman.
The story was that he was too hurt to continue. Punk pinned Miz to close the match. Not all will be satisfied by the outcome, but it was smart booking.
Punk was able to look strong and retain, while Jericho played the heel role brilliant before losing in a fashion for which he has a legit gripe. They are dead set for a Wrestlemania match.
The Smackdown chamber match also started slowly. The opening 15 minutes was rather pedestrian, as Big Show, Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett cautiously got things underway.
When Santino Marella entered the crowd began to stir, and after Great Khali entered and was eliminated mercifully quickly, business noticeably picked up.
In a very cool spot, Big Show broke into Daniel Bryan's yet-to-open pod via the chain-link roof, and set upon the champ. When Bryan escaped though, all participants ganged up on Show, and he was out.
As Rhodes mocked for his departure, he was rolled up by Santino for a shock pin. Things would take a wilder turn as Marella would pin Barrett too following punishment by Bryan.
Many suspected Santino wouldn't even make the match, but now he was in the final two.
And then the penny dropped.
The crowd were so massively behind Santino that it made the crowd's anger towards Bryan after his victory all the more vocal.
They hated the champ for puncturing Marella's dream.
Post-match, Sheamus took Bryan out with a Celtic Cross, effectively declaring his intention to wrestle the American Dragon at Wrestlemania — a match which, ironically, was bumped from the show last year.
But apart from the two Chamber bouts, the action was weak.
Beth Phoenix beat Tamina Snuka in a perfectly acceptable short match, but neither had any heat and the match passed the crowd by.
In a match added during the show, Jack Swagger quickly saw off Justin Gabriel.
Sadly the biggest let down was the night's main event of John Cena v Kane. It was simply formulaic and oh-so-typical of a Cena match.
Cena won, forcing Kane into an ambulance per the stipulation of the match, but it lacked any kind of wow factor and reinforced how tired Cena's act feels to anyone whose age can be written in double figures.
Combined with more video packages for John's upcoming bout with The Rock, the message for Wrestlemania is clear.
Feel free to enjoy the undercard — and yes, the world and WWE titles are undercard — but Cena is still the be-all and end all.
How WWE make you feel about him and Rock over the next six weeks is going to make or break the Wrestlemania buy rate.
No pressure then!
We give WWE Elimination Chamber a rating of 6 out of 10.
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Originally Posted by Rors
