WWE Elimination Chamber Recap and Reactions: WrestleMania gets RKO-ed

The WWE rolled into Chicago tonight for Elimination Chamber, serving as the final main roster premium live event before WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas. Two huge title matches, two #1 contenders matches inside the Chamber, and the reveal of the contents of the mystery crate were on the card. As always, for a play-by-play of the night’s events, check out Claire Elizabeth’s live coverage here. Now onto the recap!

Rhea Stamps Her WrestleMania Ticket

Once Liv Morgan chose her WrestleMania path last week, setting up a showdown with Stephanie Vaquer, the reward for winning the Women’s Elimination Chamber match became a date with WWE Women’s Champion, Jade Cargill in Las Vegas. To get a birds-eye view of her potential #1 contenders, Jade camped out in a luxury box in the United Center, presumably so the winner could point to her after they point to the WrestleMania sign.

Tiffany Stratton and Kiana James started the match and spent much of the first 5-minute interval feeling each other out, but business really picked up when Asuka joined the fold. The Empress of Tomorrow landed a series of strikes on Tiffy and Kiana and got the Chicago crowd on her side early on. Alexa entered in the fourth spot, followed by Rhea fifth. The pop when Ripley’s pod opened was massive, proving once again that The Eradicator is one of the biggest stars in the company.

The first elimination happened before Raquel could complete the field. Alexa Bliss had Kiana set up for her Sister Abigail DDT, but Asuka sprayed the mist at Alexa, allowing Kiana to pin Little Miss Bliss with a schoolgirl. It wasn’t long after that Raquel Rodriguez entered and put her stamp on the match. Big Mami Cool hit a huge running powerslam on Kiana that took her all the way through one of the pods and through the plexiglass on the far side. Raquel then lifted Asuka and hit a Tejana Bomb, dropping the former 4-time World Champion onto Kiana! Raquel stacked both women for the cover, and just like that we were down to 3!

Raquel was still in control when she hung Rhea up from the chains of the chamber by her leg. As Rodriguez went to work on Tiffany in the corner, Rhea freed herself, then climbed to the top of one the pods and took Raquel down with a cannonball, activating the SmashPass for DoorDash customers around the country. This allowed Tiffany to recover, hit the Prettiest Moonsault Ever, and eliminate Raquel Rodriguez!

Down to the two odds on favorites, Tiffany and Rhea, Stratton went for another P.M.E. but Rhea got up and shoved her off the top rope and into the plexiglass on the front of a pod. Ripley quickly brought Tiffany into the ring and hit a Rip Tide for the win, stamping her ticket to WrestleMania and a showdown with Jade Cargill.

Reaction: Decent way to kick off the show. The match itself was a pretty typical Chamber match with no real major spots to take note of. Still, starting off the night with one of the biggest stars in the business picking up the win was a good call.

After losing the Women’s Tag Team Titles last night, it became pretty obvious it was to free Rhea Ripley up to compete for the WWE Women’s Title. Jade Cargill’s title reign has been under a ton of scrutiny, and WWE needed Rhea to be her opponent at WrestleMania for Jade’s match to be seen as one of the premiere ones. While I wish Rhea wouldn’t have eaten the pinfall on Smackdown before winning tonight, this seems like the right call and if anyone can get a ‘Mania worthy match out of Jade, it would be Rhea.

As far as the rest of the women, Raquel got in some decent offense and continues to shine in her powerhouse role. Kiana got some decent shine with some early spots, including scoring a pinfall over a former Women’s Champion in Alexa Bliss. Bliss, on the other hand, was a surprising early exit for me, as I thought she would make a bit deeper of a run. I would imagine that we could see several of these women in a multi-team match for tag team gold in Vegas, though I’m not sure what Tiffany’s path to ‘Mania looks like now.

AJ Lee Makes Becky Tap…Again

After returning at the end of last summer, this would be AJ Lee’s first singles match since March of 2015. Becky started the mind games early, sitting on the middle rope like AJ does and controlling the offense early on. Lynch would dominate most of the proceedings early, with AJ repeatedly providing glimpses of a comeback, only to have them snuffed out by Big Time Becks.

Shenanigans started when Becky removed one of the turnbuckle covers. As referee Jessika Carr tried to tie the pad back on, she would get sandwiched into it as Becky tried to roll up AJ. Moments later, Carr would take another shot when AJ ducked a kick from Becky that would land on the side of the ref’s head. With Carr down, AJ would lock in the Black Widow and force Becky to tap but the match continued, and it seemed like Becky was going to find a way to steal one and retain her title.

Just a few minutes later though, Becky would miss a running knee strike on the still exposed turnbuckle, which allowed AJ to lock the Black Widow back in. Becky tapped again, Jess saw this one, and we have a new Women’s Intercontinental Champion!

Reaction: I would grade this match on a bit of a curve. It was most definitely not a 5-star classic, but with it being AJ’s first singles match in almost 11 years, it was a solid showing. Becky proved again why she’s one of the best in the business and AJ played the underdog role pretty well. I predicted that AJ would win this one, and after three straight wins over Becky Lynch, having her do it with some controversy is the only way I think you could logically sell a rematch in Vegas.

CM Punk’s Homefield Advantage

In one of the coolest moments of the night, the WWE put a true Chicago flair on this event between Finn Balor and CM Punk’s entrances for their World Title match. With Finn waiting in the ring, Sirius played in the United Center, bringing back memories of Michael Jordan and the great Bulls championship teams from the 90’s, and giving this wrestling fan goosebumps. After an introduction from iconic Bulls announcer, Ray Clay, Cult of Personality triggered a hometown hero’s welcome for the Best in the World, who was decked out in Chicago Blackhawks themed ring gear.

With his dream match with Roman Reigns looming in just 50 nights, Punk couldn’t pass up an opportunity to show everyone how much a fighting champion he is by defending his gold in Chicago. Finn Balor, on the other hand, was looking to ruin the Second City Saint’s homecoming by returning the favor from their title match in Dublin a few weeks back.

The match was solid as you would expect from two pros like Punk and Balor, with Finn inflicting a fair amount of damage on the midsection of the champ. A Coup de Grace on Punk came close to giving us a new champion, and Punk’s kick-out seemed to wake up the Chicago crowd. Punk would awesomely reverse a 1916 into a GTS, but Balor’s momentum sent him under the bottom rope and to the floor. Balor would recover, hitting a shotgun dropkick on Punk, sending him through the barricade and into the timekeeper area. Back in the ring, Punk would evade another Coup de Grace attempt and lock in a Sharpshooter. After more back and forth, Punk would hit another GTS and retain his championship. After the match, after Punk raised his one to the sky, sending a message to the Tribal Chief, Balor would shake Punk’s hand, perhaps signaling the end of the road for their rivalry. As Cole and Barrett talked up the Punk/Reigns match now being officially official, AJ would come down and join her husband to celebrate their wins.

Reaction: Just another standard, solid match between two of the best bell-to-bell wrestlers in the company. There was never any doubt that Punk was going to retain here, so a lot of the intrigue for me sat with what would happen with Finn Balor. Part of me thought we would see Judgment Day getting involved against Finn’s wishes and inadvertently costing him the match. In hindsight, keeping the focus on Punk and letting him win clean in Chicago was probably the right call. With the OTC scheduled to be around on Monday, Punk’s road to ‘Mania can now officially begin, and the biggest question for me is, what’s next for Finn Balor?

The Very Nice, Very Evil Crate

The Cageside universe has been throwing around some creative and crazy possibilities this week for what was going to be revealed in the mysterious crate that’s been popping up backstage on Raw and Smackdown for the last few weeks. When Cagesider GM05 noticed that the AEW roster page was modified earlier today, the writing was on the wall that a WWE debut tonight would be happening tonight, and that’s exactly what happened.

Pearce and Aldis opened the crate only to reveal a wooden coffin, making our guy Geno Mrosko’s prediction of a box inside a box seeming like the winner. Then, the coffin would open and about a dozen women in vampire costumes ran out before Danhausen would appear-hausen. (Did I do that right?)

Reaction: This was a big nothing burger for me. I get the appeal for merch sales and comedy segments, but it’s going to take some work for me to care about Danhausen. WWE only featuring the crate in the background and never making a huge deal out of it kept my expectations to a reasonable level, so at least I didn’t get my hopes up too high.

Amid the Chaos, The Viper Strikes

A date with Drew McIntyre, and perhaps 3, 4, or 5 other people hung in the balance for the men’s Elimination Chamber match. Trick Williams made a superstar entrance, hopping off of a rotating light-up turntable as the Chicago faithful gave him orders to “Whoop That”. LA Knight and Randy Orton would hold their own sing-alongs on their way to the ring before YouTube douchebag Logan Paul made his entrance flanked by what’s left of The Vision. The Young OG, Je’Von Williams Evans would be out next and climbed on top of several pods before our regular reminder that wrestling has more than one royal family.

The first interval served as a showcase for Je’Von Evans and some “F*** you, Logan!” chants before Cody Rhodes took control. Trick Williams would enter the match next and briefly rekindle his NXT rivalry with Je’Von, rocking Evans with a vicious slap as Cody regrouped. Trick would hit a double Book End and continue to look like a star, taking the time to trash talk the crowd in the front few rows in the process. Logan Paul would enter the match fourth to a chorus of boos, and was immediately triple teamed by Je’Von, Trick, and Cody, much to the delight of the audience. LA Knight entered fifth and immediately bee-lined for The Maverick. (You guys, I’m starting to think that people might really enjoy punching Logan Paul.)

Just before the Viper was unleashed into the Chamber for a record 10th time, Evans, Paul, and Knight found themselves on top of one of the pods. Evans and Knight would throw Paul off onto Trick and Cody below before LA dropped Je’Von with a BFT on top of the pod. Orton would enter and hit a flurry of vintage Randy Orton powerslams and draping DDTs before Knight thwarted an RKO attempt. With the other five men down, Evans awoke and hit a frog splash on Trick from way up top before Logan Paul bounced him on his skull with a Paulverizer for the match’s first elimination.

Logan would record a second elimination on LA Knight just a few minutes later after nailing a low blow on the Megastar. Knight had just botched his pop-up elbow drop from the top rope before reversing a Book End and hitting a BFT on Trick. Before Knight could take advantage, Paul flexed his own kavorka and nailed LA in his burning loins. Shortly after, Logan would steal some glory from Cody and score a third elimination. After Cody hit a Cross Rhodes on Trick, Logan pushed him out of the way and took the pinfall on Williams for himself.

Down to Logan, Cody, and Orton, this is where business started to pick up. Yet another masked man began climbing the outside of the Chamber but was cut off at the pass by security and officials. As they escorted the invader out of the arena, Adam Pearce unmasked him and like last night, revealed a nobody. With all the referees on the outside having left to get the masked decoy to the back, there was nobody around to close the door to the Chamber. This allowed another masked man to climb into the Chamber with no resistance. A stomp to Logan allowed Cody to pin and finally eliminate him. With Cody, Paul Heyman, and the entire WWE Universe looking on, the masked man Scooby Doo’ed himself to be Seth Rollins! The Visionary scampered off through the crowd as Paul Heyman screamed in anguish.

This left us with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton and it seemed like we were heading for another Drew and Cody showdown. At this point, the Chamber door was still open, and as many may have expected, this allowed Drew to waltz right in and nail Cody in the back of the head with the WWE Title belt. As Drew and Cody exchanged blows, Orton came to his former Legacy protege’s aid, nailing Drew with an RKO. Cody would follow up with a Cross Rhodes for good measure, and just when it seemed like the two long time friends were finally going to face off one-on-one……

RKO OUTTA NOWHERE for the win!

Reaction: There’s lots to unpack here.

First, Seth Rollins’ unmasking was a great moment, but I’m not a huge fan of Logan Paul getting three eliminations only to be eliminated in such a fluky way. I wish they would’ve found a way to do a similar spot earlier on, maybe after the first elimination, which would’ve given the two other guys more time to shine in the Chamber. I get the idea of Seth striking while Logan was a on a roll, but the fire of Seth’s beef with The Vision didn’t need any extra fuel. Expectedly, Heyman’s reactions at ringside when Seth pulled his mask off were priceless. It’s clear that Rollins will be taking on The Vision in some way in Vegas. Time will tell if it will be against a returning Bron Breakker, Logan Paul, or maybe a tag team match of some sort, but Seth being back is undoubtedly a good thing for WWE as we head into WrestleMania.

Before I talk a bit about Cody and Randy, it’s worth mentioning the Je’Von Evans and Trick Williams both showed why they belong on the main roster. Their personalities and in-ring styles could not be more different, but their respective showings tonight again proved that the WWE has several great young stars on their hands.

And lastly, Randy Orton. Props to WWE for ending the night on a bit of a curveball that had me jumping off of m the couch. It’s clear Drew and Cody aren’t done, so there is still a strong likelihood that Cody ends up in the WWE Title match in 7 weeks, but Randy winning tonight was a pleasant surprise. With a multi-man match probably heading our way, this could also be a great opportunity for Randy to win his 15th World Title at WrestleMania. Drew’s title reign still has a lot of tread on its tires, but a feud with Orton would be a great way to shift Cody out of the title picture for a bit.

In the weeks leading up to Elimination Chamber, it seemed like we were heading for a very predictable evening on the last major show before WrestleMania 42. For much of the night, that was pretty much what we got. Both women’s matches were passable, Finn and Punk was solid, and the men’s Chamber provided us with a few memorable moments. The main purpose of tonight was to set a lot of the wheels in motion for April 18-19 in Vegas and based on that success criteria, Elimination Chamber accomplished its goal.

So what do you think Cagesiders? Did you enjoy Elimination Chamber tonight? Did it get you pumped for WrestleMania 42 in less than two months? Sound off in the comments below!