Oh we are halfway there. Halfway to the biggest wrestling event of the year, the Grandest Stage of Them All, the Showcase of Immortals, WrestleMania. As the last pit stop before the grand show, Elimination Chamber serves as one last test for the WWE superstars along their journey to WrestleMania. Champions will defend their titles in the unforgiving Elimination Chamber construct against five very hungry challengers and other superstars will fight to the bitter end in matches that could end their Road to WrestleMania. Elimination Chamber ultimately sets up the final leg of the long taxing Road to WrestleMania.
This year the Road to WrestleMania has gotten off to a slow start. Rather than the fever pace that fans loved about last year’s build to the grand show, WWE seems to be slowly building to WrestleMania. While there has been build for WrestleMania, there has not been much for Elimination Chamber. Thrown just a mere three weeks after the Royal Rumble, this year Elimination Chamber feels more like a three hour Raw than the PPV before WrestleMania.
Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Big Show vs. Great Khali vs. Santino Marella vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Wade Barrett in the Smackdown Elimination Chamber Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
With Randy Orton out of the picture, no one should stand in the way of Daniel Bryan retain the World Heavyweight Championship. While most of the match was built around Big Show, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton, nothing has been given to Wade Barrett and Cody Rhodes. In the last month, WWE Creative has done more to bury Barrett and Rhodes than push like months before. Also Great Khali adds absolutely nothing to this match while Santino’s only purpose in the match will be making one of the heels (Bryan, Barrett or Rhodes) look like a considerable threat to the other competitor’s as WWE has not done that in the last few weeks. Honestly my hopes are not high for this Elimination Chamber match, but hopefully WWE put together an entertaining match worthy of being in Satan’s Structure.
Prediction: Daniel Bryan retains
Beth Phoenix (c) vs. Tamina for the Diva’s Championship
After demolishing the Divas of Doom and making a joke of Natalya, WWE has finally decided to push Beth Phoenix as the dominant Diva she should have been pushed as from the start. Considering that she has dominated all the models in the Diva division, Beth Phoenix needs a worthy adversary to battle to solidify her dominance of the Divas. Step up Tamina, who has been on a roll as of late. While Tamina will be more of a stepping stone for Beth Phoenix to launch the Diva’s Champion to a collision with Kharma at WrestleMania, this match could be the best women’s match in years if and only if these women are given enough time to actually wrestle in that ring.
Prediction: Beth Phoenix retains
John Cena vs. Kane in an Ambulance Match
What started as an interesting yet a little cheesy storyline to keep John Cena busy until WrestleMania has now devolved into nothing more than how Creative can ruin Zack Ryder’s life this week. It was interesting leading up to Royal Rumble, but it is getting incredibly old revisiting it for the umpteenth time. It is nice to the return of the Ambulance Match (it has been a long time), but personally I could care less about this feud. Expect this match to be an overbooked mess which ends with Cena rising above the hate to beat Kane.
Prediction: John Cena wins
CM Punk (c) vs. R-Truth vs. Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Chris Jericho in the Raw Elimination Chamber for the WWE Championship
Now we finally come to best built match on this card. This Elimination Chamber match is filled to the brim with excellent wrestling talent, so expect this one to be a thriller to the very end. The main focus is set on CM Punk and Chris Jericho as their feud is just in the early stages. It is not hard to see WWE going with Jericho winning the WWE Title at Elimination Chamber to have Punk chasing after the title leading into WrestleMania. It would be a very interesting twist in this budding feud. Personally I feel it is too early to take the title off of CM Punk so I could see him getting a fluke win over Jericho in order to set up their match at WrestleMania. The Raw Elimination Chamber has enough raw talent to easily be Match of the Night. If there is one match to watch at this year’s Elimination Chamber event, it is this one.
Prediction: CM Punk retains
If you have not noticed by now, this writer is not looking forward to Elimination Chamber. While the WWE has to watch out to make the matches outside of the Elimination Chambers worthwhile, they also have to build the PPV itself. Elimination Chamber feels more like a stepping stone on the Road to WrestleMania instead of a monumental stop along this long and hectic journey. Ultimately we will have to wait and see until later tonight to see if the WWE can actually pull it off on all this poor build. At the moment, WWE Elimination Chamber 2012 does not feel worthy of being the PPV before WrestleMania.
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