This might be the most anticipated non-“Big Four” pay-per-view in a long, long time because the main event might be the most anticipated non-“Big Four” match in a long, long time.
There are so many possibilities tonight, and not just with the Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn match. Each match on tonight’s card has different potential outcomes that could change the landscape of WrestleMania, as well as the landscape of WWE, in general, moving forward.
I don’t want to waste any more time, so I only have one thing to ask you.
Are you ready?
Because I’m ready.
So… if you’re ready, and if I’m ready… then there’s one final thing to say.
LESS DEW EET!!!
Liv Morgan vs Asuka vs Natalya vs Carmella vs Raquel Rodriguez vs Nikki Cross – Women’s Elimination Chamber for a shot at the Raw Women’s Title at WrestleMania
Pros: – Ring gear. Asuka continues to look incredible with her throwbacks to her days as Kana. Liv Morgan usually has really good ring gear choices for pay-per-views, and this is no different. Carmella choosing to wrestle with a top that is literally nothing but a bra is an interesting choice, but she looks great, so she’ll be forgiven by a lot of people.
– Sunset Flip Powerbomb. Liv Morgan just hit a b-e-a-u-tiful Sunset Flip Powerbomb on Raquel Rodriguez, jumping from the top of the pod to perform the move. That looked incredible.
– The right woman won. Asuka has a lot of momentum right now, and holy moly, a match between her and Bianca Belair is going to be fun.
Cons: – Natalya. I initially thought Natalya was going to get a huge crowd reaction due to her being from Canada. Unfortunately, I forgot that Natalya is a complete charisma vacuum and that the WWE Universe has continued to show they don’t care much about her, no matter how many times WWE tries to push her. Asuka definitely got a bigger pop during the match entrances. Welp.
– Missing an elimination. As we’re shown a replay of Raquel Rodriguez slamming Nikki Cross through the side of one of the pods, we miss Raquel pinning Nikki to eliminate her from the match. On commentary, Michael Cole didn’t even know what happened, catching the very tail end of the pin, and saying that Nikki kicked out before correcting himself. Once again, a wrestling commentator looks like a moron because he’s watching the monitor instead of looking up at the action that is happening literal feet in front of his eyes.
Match Rating: 3.5 Stars. We got the usual crowd-favorite spots of pods breaking and people diving from the tops of pods. That’s always a good thing. The crowd was invested. I do wish there was more meat on the bones, so to speak. Outside of the big spots, there were some stretches where not much was going on, but I won’t penalize the match too, too much for that. Still a pretty good opening match.
Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley
Pros: – The “Brock Pop.” No matter where in the world WWE is performing, crowds go absolutely insane when the opening riff of his entrance music hits. It helps that fans know shit is about to go down when Brock shows up.
– Big, meaty men slapping meat. You knew it wouldn’t be a technical classic with these two involved. Everything has been as high-impact as physically possible.
Cons: – The ending. WWE has been promoting this match as the “rubber match” in this series, with both Lesnar and Lashley winning one match against the other. What do we get? Brock kicking Lashley in the little Bobbies while in the Hurt Lock and getting himself disqualified. That’s really disappointing. Don’t get me wrong… I’m fine with seeing these two square off again with some sort of wild stipulation at WrestleMania, but I’m just not a fan of big pay-per-view matches ending via disqualification or count-out. Brock also attacked the Referee on multiple occasions after the match, and as we’ve seen in the past, that usually signals a storyline suspension is coming, so we’ll see if he’s even available to perform at WrestleMania. I’d be surprised if he wasn’t, but the point remains.
Match Rating: 2.5 Stars. There wasn’t a ton to the match, so I can’t give it a really high rating. A bunch of big moves for a few minutes, and then the disqualification. I’ll just throw the “average” rating in there and hope that we get more from the inevitable fourth match between the two men.
Edge & Beth Phoenix vs Finn Balor & Rhea Ripley – Mixed Tag Team Match
Pros: – Beth’s Luna Vachon tribute. In a great touch, Beth Phoenix has her face painted up like Montreal’s own Luna Vachon. On commentary, it is said that the face paint is a tribute to Bull Nakano, but we all know what the real story is.
– Dom’s heel heat. Week in and week out, nobody gets a reaction like he does. He hops on the ring apron, and the boos rain down. Seconds later, a LOUD “fuck you, Dominik” chant breaks out. He is doing exactly what he is supposed to be doing. Personally, I’m surprised Dom was even able to travel to Canada with his criminal history.
– The crowd. They’ve been loud for everything. They love their Canadian hero, Edge, and his wife gets the love, as well. I’ve already mentioned the heat that Dominik is getting, but Finn and Rhea are getting a ton of heat, too.
Cons: – A botched count. Balor has Edge pinned, and the Ref stops his count at two, a full second before Beth broke the count up. Whether the count was early or Beth was late doesn’t matter, because that looked really bad.
Match Rating: 3.25 Stars. If you’re talking about pure in-ring quality, this was nothing special. It wasn’t bad, but there were some sloppy moments. It was never designed to be an all-time classic, though. It was a fun match that got the crowd involved in everything from bell-to-bell. Now, let’s go ahead and get a one-on-one match between Beth and Rhea at some point. As the saying goes, Beth still has it. That could be a lot of fun.
Austin Theory vs Seth Rollins vs Bronson Reed vs Damian Priest vs Montez Ford vs Johnny Gargano – Men’s Elimination Chamber for the United States Title
Pros: – Montez Ford’s ring gear. He looks like a legitimate singles star right now, and not just wearing something with that city’s sporting colors. I’m sure this is only going to lead to more speculation about a Street Profits split.
– The crowd. Even before the match starts, the fans are LOUD as they “sing” along with Seth Rollins’ entrance music. All of this is really making me look forward to the mayhem that we’re going to witness in the main event.
– Bronson Reed. As soon as the buzzer went off and his pod was opened, he has been on an absolute roll. He looks like a million bucks throwing his opponents around and squashing them like bugs.
– Pacing. Non-stop action from the opening bell so far, and that has led to multiple “this is awesome” chants. All six men have had a chance to look like complete studs.
– Montez Ford. He gets a “holy shit” chant from the crowd after he climbs to the ceiling of the Chamber and Spider-Man drops down onto his opponents. That was a star-making spot.
– “Holy Shit” moments. Every time you blink, there’s another highlight reel spot that will be replayed for years to come.
– Montez Ford again. Even though he didn’t win the match, he looked fantastic tonight, and he answered whatever questions there might have been about whether or not he can be a singles star at some point. He absolutely, positively can be. Now it’s just a matter of seeing when that will be.
– Logan Paul. As the Chamber door is open to allow the medical staff to escort Montez Ford to the back, Logan Paul enters the structure and hits Rollins with a Buckshot Lariat followed by a Stomp of his own. Looks like we have another big-time WrestleMania match set up.
Cons: – Nothing.
Match Rating: 4.5 Stars. Years from now, we could be looking back at this match as the moment when Montez Ford, Bronson Reed, and Johnny Gargano became major players in WWE. On top of that, we got great performances out of everyone else involved, and even got a WrestleMania match put together. No complaints here. That was a blast from start to finish.
Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn – Undisputed WWE Universal Title Match
Pros: – The crowd. This is as loud and as animated a crowd as WWE has seen in a LONG time. They were not shy at all about telling Roman how much they hated him during his entrance, but my goodness, the pop they gave to Sami Zayn was something special. I legitimately have goosebumps as I type this while listening to the fans “sing” Sami’s entrance music. This is everything.
– Building the antici… pation. The bell to start the match happened three minutes ago, and we haven’t even seen Sami and Roman lay a finger on each other yet. The crowd just keeps chanting and yelling. This is already a crowd reaction that is going to be remembered for years and years. It turns out that they took 4:14 of official match time before they locked up. Wow.
– Roman Reigns. He is a God-tier shit talker. The man just threw Sami to the outside and talked shit to Sami’s wife right to her face. He even made what I assume to be Sami’s daughter cry while doing so. If it isn’t his daughter, it’s definitely someone in his family, because the child is sitting in Sami’s wife’s lap right now.
Cons: – My heart palpitations. I’m literally sitting on the edge of my seat as I watch the match. This is motherfucking CINEMA.
Match Rating: 5 Stars, and no, I don’t give a fuck if anybody has a problem with that. That match was everything it needed to be, from the moment Roman’s entrance began all the way to the moment the show went off the air. That was one of the best examples of high drama that you’ll ever see in pro wrestling, and was a real sign of why we all love this fucking sport in the first place. Fuck your tribal battles. When wrestling is done right… and this was done RIGHT… there is nothing like it in the world.