Tonight is last PPV before WrestleMania, The Elimination Chamber. The Elimination Chamber is probably WWE's strongest stipulation match, and this is traditionally the most bought B-PPV show of the year, I believe even beating Survivor Series some years. Unfortunately, as has been the case so often recently, tonight's show just doesn't feel all that important. Neither Chamber match has been built especially well, and the most promoted match of the show has been John Cena and Kane in an Ambulance Match which will undoubtedly go down as the worst feud of 2012. Only four matches have been announced for tonight's show, so we are likely to get one or two additional matches. John Laurinaitis has also promised a "huge" announcement tonight that will be a game changer. How many times have we heard claims like this? I don't have my hopes set too high for this one. Lastly, Christian is teasing on Twitter that he will be on tonight's show. They've even posted it on WWE.com, so we'll see what type of role he has. Perhaps someone will get injured before a Chamber match and Christian will take their place. Let's get to the card.
Beth Phoenix (c) vs Tamina Snuka - WWE Divas Championship Match
I expected Tamina to just be the Diva of the Month that WWE was deciding to push, but she actually got a pretty good reaction this past week on Raw. Fans are buying into the Snuka Splash. Still, Tamina really hasn't had a televised match that has lasted more than 60 seconds, so tonight will be her first test in a match that will go about five minutes. Despite Tamina getting some cheers, I would be surprised if he won the title tonight. Everything seems to be pointing to a Beth vs Kharma program, most likely with a match at WrestleMania. My prediction is Tamina misses the Snuka Splash, Beth hits the Glam Slam for the win, and then after the match, Kharma comes out to have a staredown with Beth. If that doesn't happen tonight, it should definitely happen tomorrow.
Prediction: Beth Phoenix - Retains Divas Title
John Cena vs Kane - Ambulance Match
HAS CENA FINALLY EMBRACED THE HATE?!?!? I hate this program more than anything I've seen in a long time. I hate John Cena. I hate Kane. I hate Zack Ryder. I hate Eve. Everything has been so damn goofy. Ryder has been beat down worse than the fools from Jack***. If there was any sense of reality in WWE, Ryder would have had his career ended four weeks ago, let alone the continual beatdowns he's had week after week since then from Kane. Then this past Monday, Cena saves Eve, Eve makes out with Cena, Ryder sees this and is heartbroken, Eve puts Ryder in the friendzone, Ryder's crippled !*# comes out to the ring to confront Cena, Ryder slaps Cena in the face, and what is Cena's response to his supposed crippled best friend slapping him because Cena stole the woman he loves? TO ATTACK THIS CRIPPLED, HEARTBROKEN MAN. This is your top babyface in the company. Don't tell me this was meant to be a heel turn, because it wasn't. It was just absolutely stupid writing on WWE's part. Anyway, Ryder limped away with his broken neck after taking a bump from Cena, gets in his wheelchair, and then Kane comes out and throws Ryder off the stage. Cena and Eve come to Ryder's aid to a mixed reaction.
The sad thing about this is WWE is booking this as a serious angle, but it is coming across as the biggest comedy, goofy story ever. No one takes this seriously. Everyone was laughing at Raw. Everyone is laughing at Ryder getting thrown around like a crash test dummy. The only positive is this program will finally end tonight. It has to, right? After all these weeks, I still have no idea why Kane cares about Cena embracing the hate. Again, worst program of the year.
This is am Ambulance Match, which means it's a no holds barred match that only ends when you throw your opponent into the back of an ambulance and shut the door. Why not make it a Last Man Standing Match? An Ambulance Match seems so goofy, but if it wasn't this match, they couldn't have had Eve jumping out the back of the ambulance on Monday to swap spit with Cena. Anyway, it's going to be your typical brawl around the arena match. Again, if there was any sense of reality, Ryder would be gone for months, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a full body cast somehow get involved in this match. Cena has to win to move on to his program with The Rock at WrestleMania which will begin tomorrow night.
Prediction: John Cena
Daniel Bryan (c) vs Wade Barrett vs Cody Rhodes vs The Great Khali vs The Big Show vs Santino Marella - Smackdown Elimination Chamber Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
This has to go down as the weakest star power Chamber match ever aside from the ECW December to Dismember debacle. The Great Khali replaced Mark Henry due to Henry's groin and knee injuries, and Santino won a battle royal this past Friday on Smackdown to earn his spot in the match replacing Randy Orton who suffered a concussion this past Monday on Raw. The scary thing about Orton is that this is the 6th or 7th concussion that he's suffered which is getting into really dangerous territory.
With the reports of Christian being at tonight's show, the thought is he will replace someone in this match, most likely either Khali or Santino. I would hope it's Khali, because he has no business being in this match, or any match for that matter. Of course Santino won't win this match, but I think it would be a huge mistake to take him out after seeing the huge reaction he got on Smackdown this week. But of course, WWE often makes huge mistakes.
While not officially announced, Sheamus will be challenging the winner of this match for the World Title at WrestleMania. Because there are so many other big matches on the WrestleMania card (Rock/Cena, Taker/HHH, Show/Shaq (most likely), and Punk/Jericho), Sheamus's title shot will fall at least fifth on the card despite WWE repeatedly beating us over the head that he will be headlining WrestleMania. But because of this, we don't necessarily need a big name match for Sheamus. Of course, there really aren't any huge names in this match that are going to make any difference in the buyrate, but it does leave the chance for multiple winners in this match. We can immediately rule out Santino and Khali. There has been talk that the negotiations between WWE and Shaq have hit a snag, so that leaves the chance that Show could win this match. Cody just seems to be in a state of limbo, and I don't think he's been pushed at main event level, so I would be surprised to see him become the World Champion. I think Wade Barrett has a good shot of winning tonight. He's already been in a program with Sheamus. He's also had the big angle where he put Orton out of action earlier this year. And Barrett has really stepped up his game recently and is coming across as a main eventer. I put him as the clear second choice to win this match. However, I think it makes most sense for Daniel Bryan to win and retain the title. Bryan has been gold as champion, far exceeding my own expectations as a heel, and really impressing WWE with both his mic and in-ring work. Plus, if you really want to get Sheamus over as a big babyface going into Mania, he can be the one to finally try and defeat the sneaky heel Daniel Bryan.
Prediction: Daniel Bryan - Retains World Heavyweight Title
CM Punk (c) vs Kofi Kingston vs Dolph Ziggler vs Chris Jericho vs The Miz vs R-Truth - Raw Elimination Chamber Match for the WWE Championship
There is only one way to build towards the most dangerous match in WWE... A VERBAL DEBATE!!! Yes, this past Monday on Raw, the show opened with six podiums in the ring which each of the competitors standing there as Jerry Lawler lead them through a set of questions. Each man had to recite terribly scripted lines, including CM Punk who threw out lines like "WWE Universe" which just a few weeks ago he was going on and on about how he wasn't a WWE yes man. I guess he's back to the stage of being best buddies with HHH. Anyway, the segment dragged and dragged on. Each man threw lame insults at the others. The Miz insulted Jericho for not winning Dancing with the Stars. Each guy was only supposed to have 45 seconds to speak, but everyone went on longer than that. However, The Miz was the only one who was buzzed to stop speaking. Miz headlined WrestleMania last year, and this year, I would be surprised if he's even on the card due to already being in the doghouse, and then not catching Truth on his dive leading to him getting injured. After the debate was finished, the six men had matches against each other on Raw. Punk beat The Miz. Jericho beat Kofi. Truth beat Ziggler. Instead of letting each of these men have matches against talent not in the Chamber to actually try and build them up, the six guys had short matches where it made half the guys in the match look like losers.
What I just spoke about is a problem that WWE has had for years, and it's such an easy problem to fix. For whatever reason, leading to PPVs, WWE always has guys who are facing each other on the PPV have matches against each other on Raw and Smackdown leading to the show. This means that someone has to lose, thus making them look weak going into the PPV. I don't know why it is such a difficult concept for WWE to grasp that if the competitors for a PPV match were booked strong going into the PPV, more people would be interested in the match, leading to better buyrates. This past Monday should have been booked like this...
Punk beats Jack Swagger (where has Swagger been since winning the US Title?)
Kofi beats Drew McIntyre
Ziggler beats Ted Dibiase
Jericho beats Justin Gabriel
Miz beats Alex Riley
Truth beats Jinder Mahal
Now, EVERYONE LOOKS STRONG GOING INTO THE CHAMBER. It's so easy, and thus so frustrating that WWE can't do it correctly.
There are only two choices to win this match. Either CM Punk retains, or Jericho wins the title. I would have Jericho win the title, because it's a much more compelling storyline of Punk, the face, chasing the WWE Title and the title of "Best in the World", rather than Jericho failing at Chamber, then still claiming he's the Best in the World and trying to win the title to prove it as a heel. Jericho earned the right to enter the Chamber match last by winning a Six Pack Challenge two weeks ago on Raw. This means that Jericho can come in late in the match and essentially steal a victory. However, this all makes too much sense so WWE will probably swerve us tonight and do something else just to spite the Internet fans.
Prediction: Chris Jericho - New WWE Champion
Elimination Chamber matches are almost always good, though the Smackdown match is certainly not the strongest on paper. The other two matches aren't all that promising. We will probably get a tag match and maybe one other, perhaps with Swagger, but any added match won't get all that much time. As long as the Kane/Cena match doesn't kill the crowd (and hopefully doesn't go on last), it should be a pretty good show.
WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER PPV PREDICTION CONTEST
Contest will close at 8pm et.
SPELL YOUR NT BOARD NAME CORRECTLY.
Along with posting the results of this contest next week, I will also post the first set of cumulative results which will include the Royal Rumble (this is why you must spell your board name correctly, so I can link the scores together).
As this is a B PPV, there are 500 possible points. Good luck to everyone!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RFHFBRB
